Religion then appeared to him not only distinct from
life, but antagonistic to it, and since it was life, a free, full,
undisturbed life he sought in coming here, he felt compelled to divorce
himself from all the religious ties that had hitherto encompassed him.
Thus it is that the immigrant Jewish youth, even those faithful and
loyal to the institutions of old and who desired to conduct their lives
in accordance with the precepts of their religion, became estranged from
Judaism and suffered themselves to be swept along by the tide. Thus the
immigrant Jew in America has frequently become callous and indifferent,
and sometimes cynical and antagonistic to everything pertaining to
Judaism." While they are thus lost to Judaism they are not won to
Christianity, but they ought to be. The older people become reconciled
with difficulty to this irreligious attitude and "the old Jewess still
curses Columbus for his great transgression in discovering America,
where her children have lost their religion."
[Sidenote: Ambitious for Wealth and Education]
The Russian Jews usually come in great poverty, but do not stay poor
very long. In New York's East Side many tenements in Jewish quarters are
owned by persons who formerly lived in crowded corners of others like
them; and from this population comes many a Broadway merchant, and
professional men in plenty.
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