Fantasy or Reality?

At the dawn of the 20th century, life in America looked very different. The average life expectancy ranged from just 33 to 48 years. Most families earned the equivalent of $3,000 a year in today’s dollars, and about half of all children lived in poverty. Teenagers typically didn’t attend school—they worked long hours in factories or on farms.

When Jewish immigrants arrived in the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s, many believed they would need to abandon their traditions in order to succeed in the “Goldene Medina”—the Golden Land. Assimilation was seen as the price of prosperity. But history has proven otherwise.