Immigration of Jewish Women to America: Balancing Domestic Responsibilities and Work Duties - Literature review Example

Immigration of Jewish Women to America: Balancing Domestic Responsibilities and Work Duties The Jewish immigration to the United States in the late 19th century witnessed the migration of a huge number of Jewish women to the country, an immigration that surpassed all other immigrations to the United States. These Jewish immigrants aspired to or dreamt of nurturing American families. Both American ideals and Jewish culture molded the status of women in immigrant Jewish communities in America (Hyman para 1). Nowadays the Jewish woman fulfills roles as mother to her children and wife to her husband and an employed individual. Seldom in other cultures and merely with the emergence of a middle-class arose a woman’s self-image rooted in the idea that the greatest obligation of the woman was to be a homemaker, a mother, and a wife (Pressma 68). This paper argues that such images of the Jewish woman, her responses to them, and her other aspirations, provide valuable knowledge of the Jewish identity and efforts to assimilate in or belong to the American society. In the early 20th century, specifically after the advent of the mass immigration of the Jewish people to the U.S., the traditional Jewish community encountered several transformations or adjustments which changed Jewish families and ultimately resulted in the liberation of Jewish women from the limitations of the eastern European culture (Falk para 16). Even though there are only a small number of Jews in the U.S. at the advent of the new millennium who still conform to a way of life similar to the eastern European custom, most Jews in American have abandoned such traditions and have assigned Jewish women a completely distinct societal position. Such newly assigned societal role became possible by means of adapting the Jewish family to the American secular life which also encouraged irreligious norms to the detriment of different religious beliefs (Falk para 16). Jewish Women: Balancing Dual Responsibility As soon as they step foot on the American soil, Jewish men and women worked in partnership to provide for their families. Since Jewish men were more fortunate than other immigrants to have jobs able to sufficiently provide for their families’ needs, only a small number of immigrant Jewish women acquired jobs outside the house compared to other married immigrant women and indigenous American women (Hyman para 5). Most husbands feel fortunate that their wives did not need to get a job outside the home, particularly in factories. As stated by Frieda M., “We were high class with low-class means. We just didn’t let a woman like my mother go to work, even if she wanted to” (Weinberg 105). Still, immigrant families were not able to fully depend on the wage of the father without help. Thus women had to help their husband earn extra income for the family while carrying out household duties. Jewish women accomplished such by looking for home-based jobs, engaging in freelance or part-time work such as house helper (Hyman para 5). They also help their husband manage the business. Besides supporting their husband’s businesses, Jewish women apparently still had complete obligation at home; they performed their twofold roles with remarkable adeptness and finesse. Mary Antin tells the story of how her mother balanced her store and household duties, even stating that “Arlington Street customers were used to waiting while the storekeeper salted the soup or rescued a loaf from the oven” (Baum, Hyman, and Michael para 20). In the most successful Jewish families in America, wives and husbands work in partnership. The more secure the marital relationship is anticipated to be, the more probable each spouse is to agree to suggestions or ideas that improve the household or family conditions, although the idea is not in the limited self-interest of every family member (Chiswick 279). However, this dual responsibility of Jewish women has its unfavorable impact on them. In his work Jews Without Money, Michael Gold observed the impact of multitasking on Mrs. Ashkenazi, a Jewish wife in America (Baum et al. para 20): She was a tiny, gray woman, weighing not more than ninety pounds, and sapped dry as a herring by work. Her eyelids were inflamed with loss of sleep. She slaved from dawn till midnight, cooking and cleaning at home, then working in the umbrella store. At forty she was wrinkled like a woman of seventy. She was always tired, but was a sweet, kindly, uncomplaining soul, who worshipped her family, and revered her impractical husband. Isolation and dual responsibility was a double-edged sword for Jewish women—it offered gains and pains. One of the professed gains is the fulfillment they feel for accomplishing both their domestic task and work responsibilities outside the home. However, there are also pains they had to go through, such as having to forfeit the privilege of learning English and effectively adapting to the American way of life. In spite of the differences they encountered in social mobility and wages because they were women, married immigrant Jewish women enjoyed the liberty that being engaged in the labor force provided. One Jewish woman admitted, “The best part was when I got a job for myself and was able to stand on my own feet” (Hyman para 13). Joan, a Jewish wife and mother, regarded her identity in manifold ways. She associated her success with the growth of her career and the personal development of her children. She refused to identify herself with her husband’s work and lifestyle. She accompanied her husband in social and business activities, yet there were occasions when she had to leave her husband because of fatigue or weariness from juggling both household and work (Pressma 70). Personal accounts written by the children of Jewish mothers in America admired and complimented their unselfishness and their ability to deal with financial difficulties. Such image of the immigrant Jewish mother was illustrated by some scholars, such as Alfred Kazin (Hyman para 8): The kitchen gave a special character to our lives: my mother’s character. All my memories of that kitchen are dominated by the nearness of my mother sitting all day long at her sewing machine… Year by year, as I began to take in her fantastic capacity for labor and her anxious zeal, I realized it was ourselves she kept stitched together. The very important part fulfilled by mothers in terms of the emotional wellbeing of their families was exemplified by oral history interviews and autobiographies (Hyman para 8). American view of domestic or family life since the 19th century demonstrated that the role of women was to build with ease a haven of peace and security from the cruel self-centered business and commercial domain, to where exhausted working husbands could relax and rest at nights. However, this familial principle was severely weakened by the Second World War and the Great Depression, as women took part in the labor market to provide for their families’ needs and fulfill their husband’s duties when they were abroad (Dawson 24). In the 1950s, in the fragile post-war peacetime, this principle was restored, with the familial and domestic domain becoming the greatest representations of America’s aspiration toward peace and safety. It was the duty of the mother and wife to build a wholehearted, expressive, and passionate Jewish home environment for the members of her family (Dawson 24-25). When Jewish women found it hard to cope with their new life in America, they resorted to the companionship and guidance of the community where they belong. Those who were gracious enough in the community helped them tackle the troublesome need to adjust and face cultural barriers. Many Jewish women felt helpless in America, but found courage through the support of the community. One Jewish woman admitted that “It was good to have a friend when the struggles in the beginning were too heavy to bear alone” (Weinberg 107). One Jewish mother said to her child that she regretted migrating to America because she failed to adjust to the hardships in their new homeland and was not able to gain proficiency in English: “If I would ever know what I was going to go through, if papa had spread dollars all across the Atlantic Ocean, I would never have gone to America” (Weinberg 107). But she began accepting her new circumstances because she saw no other options. Conclusions How Jewish women in America dealt with their new circumstances as wife, mother, and employee reveals a great deal about the development of their Jewish identity in another cultural landscape. Jewish families were governed by the rule which viewed women completely from the perspective of a male-centered culture. The status-role of women comprised looking after her family, especially her children and husband. How some Jewish women fulfilled their traditional role as mothers and supporters and helpers of their husband and how others balanced their household obligations and job-related duties demonstrate the adjustment these women have to make in order to successfully assimilate themselves to the American society. Works Cited Baum, Charlotte, Paula Hyman, and Sonya Michael. “The Jewish Woman in America.” N.p., N.d. Web. 11 April 2015. Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky. New York: Courier Corporation, 2013. Print. Chiswick, Barry. “Working and Family Life: The Experiences of Jewish Women in America.” Jewish Population Studies 277-287, 1993. Web. 11 April 2015. Dawson, Emily Kate. “The Jewish Mother Reconsidered: A Portrait of Jewish Motherhood on the West Coast of the U.S. 1949-1960.” Stanford University History Department N.p., May 2004. Web. 11 April 2015. Falk, Gerhard. “American Jewish Women in the Early 20th Century.” Jewish Buffalo on the Web N.p., N.d. Web. 14 April 2015. Hyman, Paula. “Eastern European Immigrants in the United States.” Jewish Women’s Archive N.p., 1 March 2009. Web. 11 April 2015. Pressma, Donna. “The Changing Role of Jewish Women: Implications for Family, Social Work Agency, and Social Work Practice.” Journal of Jewish Communal Services 67-75, September 1981. Web. 11 April 2015. Weinberg, Sydney. The World of our Mothers: The Lives of Jewish Immigrant Women. New York: VNR AG, 1988. Print. Read More