Michael Gold grew up in the Lower East Side of New York City and wrote about his own experiences growing up there. It recreates the Jewish immigrant Lower East Side in Manhattan where he lived, and it sheds light on the lives of first- and second-generation Jewish Americans around the turn of the twentieth century.
It is a story of Jewish immigrants who came to America hoping for a better life, but instead found themselves living in poverty, struggling to make ends meet. The book provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of these Jews and their culture, as well as the challenges they faced in trying to assimilate into American society.
Gold transports the reader to the heart of a community’s sights, smells, and sounds. The story presents a mostly negative picture of Jewish immigrant life in America, with an unhappy conclusion that suggests that until the workers’ revolution occurs, the Jews will always be poor. Despite its bleak outlook, the book is ultimately a tribute to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.
Jews Without Money is a novel by Michael Gold. First published in 1930, it is set among the Jewish tenements of New York City’s Lower East Side and is based on Gold’s own childhood experiences growing up in poverty. The novel offers a glimpse into the lives of poor Jews in America at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Gold was born in 1893 in New York City to poor Jewish immigrants from Russia. He grew up in the Lower East Side and attended public schools. After high school, he worked a variety of jobs before becoming a writer. Gold’s experiences growing up among poor Jews in America served as the basis for his novel Jews Without Money.
Jews Without Money is considered an important work of Jewish-American literature. It offers a rare look into the lives of poor Jews in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. The novel provides insight into the struggles and challenges faced by these immigrants as they tried to make a new life in America.
In this essay, I’ll address a few issues that arise in the book and in the materials we’ve read throughout the semester, as well as a brief summary of the book. Mike’s father was once a housepainter, but he became disabled after falling and being poisoned by lead.
The family lives in a tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City. Mike’s father dies when he is young, and his mother must take in sewing to make ends meet. Mike grows up witnessing the poverty and desperation that characterize life in the tenements. He also witnesses the prejudice that Jews face in America.
While Mike is still young, his mother remarries a man named Max Goldstein, who owns a grocery store. Max is a kind man, but he is also very strict with Mike. When Mike is caught stealing money from the store, Max beats him severely. This experience leads Mike to realize that he does not want to end up like his father, struggling to make a living as a housepainter.
Instead, he decides that he wants to be a doctor. Mike is an excellent student, and he eventually earns a scholarship to college. He attends medical school and becomes a successful doctor. However, he always feels like an outsider in the world of medicine. He is constantly reminded of his origins in the tenements of the Lower East Side.
In the meantime, Mike’s mother and stepfather struggle to keep their grocery store afloat. They are constantly harassed by their landlord, who wants to raise their rent. Eventually, they are forced to sell the store and move to Brooklyn. Mike visits them often, but he can never really feel at home in their new surroundings.
Throughout the book, Mike remains deeply connected to his Jewish roots. He realizes that, despite all of his success, he will always be a Jew from the Lower East Side. This realization helps him to understand and empathize with his patients, many of whom are also Jews from humble beginnings.
Mike’s mother is the driving force in their family. Mike and his siblings often find her working long hours in a cafeteria or cleaning various apartments. In addition to taking care of her own husband and children, she also provides for them financially. At one point in the book, we find Mike desperately trying to earn money by selling half-rotten bananas.
When Mike’s father dies, his mother is left to fend for the family on her own. She finds it difficult to make enough money to support her family and often has to resort to borrowing money from loan sharks. Despite her hardships, she instills in her children the importance of education and hard work. Jews Without Money is a gritty and realistic portrayal of what it was like to be a poor Jew in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
On a bitterly snowy winter day, Mike’s younger sister, Esther, goes out into the street to gather wood for the stove where she is hit by a vehicle and killed. A lawyer visits their home and informs them that if the mother and father sign a document he will obtain them $1,000 from Adams Express, the firm that owned the truck.
Without the money, they will get nothing. They sign the paper. The novel is set in the tenement world of New York City’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century and is based on Correa’s own childhood experiences as a Jewish immigrant from Russia. It tells the story of Mike Gold, a poor Jewish boy who grows up in the slums of New York City and becomes a writer.
While Jews are often associated with money, the novel paints a different picture, one of poverty and struggle. The title refers to a Yiddish saying, “There are no rich Jews, only poor Jews.”
The novel offers a glimpse into the lives of immigrants struggling to make ends meet. It is a story of hope, resilience, and the importance of family.