Source: Fol Riṿer a mol un haynṭ ; zikhroynes̀ fun mayne iberlebenungen in yener shṭoṭ in di yorn 1909 un 1910 un ayndruḳn fun a bazukh 45 yor shpeṭer | Yiddish Book Center

The author of this book came to America with the great stream of emigrants from Russia in 1906. Having neither a trade nor a command of the local language, he found it very difficult to adapt to the new circumstances and the new country. The knowledge he brought with him from home, four languages and bookkeeping, did not help him at all. So he had to work in New York for very low wages in the [so-called] “light” industries.

One of the “light” industries of those years was the manufacture of leather goods, such as wallets, ladies' handbags, belts, and other leather items. However, “slek” [unemployment] very often prevailed in these “paket-buks” [purse] factories. If you had worked in one of these small factories for five or six weeks, the factory would close and the laid-off workers would have to look for new jobs.

This search for a new job on “every Monday and Thursday”, where often nothing could be found, became tiresome for him and he moved to the “country”, to the provinces.

In the small towns in the country, however, the situation was no better than in New York - everywhere it was just slek, slek, slek and slek again.

Instead of looking for a new job in the same small town, he moved to a second and a third, and so for three years, from 1906 to 1909, he wandered through 25 small towns in the states of Massachusetts, Road Island, Maine, and New Hamstedt. He supported himself by working, peddling, waiting tables in restaurants, and doing whatever work came his way until he reached Fall River, where he stayed for just under two years.

During his years of wandering, the writer was influenced by socialist ideas he heard from speakers or read in socialist literature, especially the world-famous work “In Hundert Yor Arum”^[1] by the great American writer Edward Bellamy.

But he was even more influenced by the biographies

[Page XII]

of the Russian “narodnovoltses” - the sons and daughters of rich and cultured families, who in the 70s and 80s of the 19th century went “vnarod”, away to the people, to the poor, oppressed peasants of Russia, to teach them the rules of hygienic life, to teach them to read and write, and to show them the way to fight against their oppressors, the aristocrats and the tsarist clique.

The author of this book followed the example of these heroic “narodniks” during his years of traveling through the cities. He took “green” workers, Jewish and non-Jewish, to doctors; he watched over them all night as they lay sick in their beds; he went with them to look for work in non-Jewish factories where the managers spoke only English. He taught them to write Yiddish so that they could write letters to their relatives in the old country, and he taught them to read English characters so that they could read a sign on a streetcar, over a shop, or over a street and not get lost. And he helped the helpless immigrant youth in any way he could.

He continued this humanitarian work for the benefit of the unfortunate immigrants when he came to Fall River, even when he himself was in great need. During the few years he spent in the city, he had a good insight into the social life of the ordinary Jewish people, which was concentrated in and around the delicacy store, where Jewish newspapers were also sold. Every Sunday morning on summer nights, workers, peddlers, and small shopkeepers would gather near the store to talk about the problems of the world (“politics”, as they called it). The author reproduces these overheard conversations in full detail in this book.

The brilliant and praiseworthy work of the cultural committee of the Workers' Circle, which serves the sacred purpose of spreading light and enlightenment among the immigrant and Americanized Jews of the city, occupies an important place in this book. He describes what the city looked like after a devastating fire, and reports on the new industries, the old,

[Page XIII]

lost Jewish quarter, and the “new Jewish ghetto” in the mountains. He writes about meetings and conversations with the few remaining friends and close neighbors.

The book also contains the interesting history of the town, beginning in 1657, and the two greatest events in 1892 and 1904 - events that became known all over the world.

We are absolutely certain that this work will be of great interest not only to the Jews of Fall River and the New England states in America, but also to Jewish readers in other countries.
The L. Hindes Book Committee
Max Haid, chairman
Harry Levenson, secretary

1. Looking Backward: 2000-1897, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_Backward Return

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