| Essay Non-Fiction posted November 10, 2023 |
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A better life view
Revisiting Zayde's Neighbors
by Mary Vigasin
I am reviving an old post with some corrections.
The current antisemitic atmosphere reminded me not only of this post but of the attitude of my neighbors growing up. In my neighborhood, we viewed the world through a straw.
Everyone was Catholic.
We knew we had Christ’s ear as we spoke in Latin that everyone else was doomed, particularly Protestants and, of course, Jews.
We only knew of one Jew.
A dollar down and a dollar a week salesman who came to the door every Saturday to collect money or sell us more household goods. I do not know his name because, in our neighborhood, he was named “The Jew.”
I doubt anyone called him by his given name.
As an adult, I married a Jew and attended Protestant services with a friend. Suddenly, that straw I was looking through was replaced by a wide-angle lens.
Zayde's story is no different from many Eastern European Jews who came to America in the early 20th century looking for opportunity.
Zayde's neighbors are loud and boisterous.
They want their opinion to be heard.
Zayde came from Lithuania as a young man to escape oppression and begin a new life in America. He outlived two wives, helped raise four children, and retired after years of working 10-hour workdays and injuries from work in the forge shop.
He got to sit back and enjoy being Zayde to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
So, while in appearance, he was a small and quiet man who preferred to go unnoticed as he went on about his life, except for being a striking laborer. He fits in with these rowdy roughnecks who wanted to be heard when they marched, organized strikes, and picketed in the streets.
They, too, like Zayde, came to America to escape the pogroms of Russia or Eastern Europe or needed to escape extreme poverty to find freedom and a better life in the United States.
They found harsh working conditions and low wages, leaving them in dangerous factory conditions.
They are and were socialists, and yes, even a smattering of harmless Communists, as my husband says, "cannot organize a wedding, never mind a revolution."
So, when they buried Zayde today, the old part of the cemetery tells the story of these men.
Even in their graves, these men wanted to have the last word.
These men lie under stones engraved with their protests: "Defender of the working man," "Labor fight," "Support Labor," and "Fair wages."
So, Zayde, while your neighbors still have their voices heard in stone, we thank you and all your neighbors for your contributions.
Rest in Peace, dear Zayde and fellow laborers.
The current antisemitic atmosphere reminded me not only of this post but of the attitude of my neighbors growing up. In my neighborhood, we viewed the world through a straw.
Everyone was Catholic.
We knew we had Christ’s ear as we spoke in Latin that everyone else was doomed, particularly Protestants and, of course, Jews.
We only knew of one Jew.
A dollar down and a dollar a week salesman who came to the door every Saturday to collect money or sell us more household goods. I do not know his name because, in our neighborhood, he was named “The Jew.”
I doubt anyone called him by his given name.
As an adult, I married a Jew and attended Protestant services with a friend. Suddenly, that straw I was looking through was replaced by a wide-angle lens.
Zayde's neighbors are loud and boisterous.
They want their opinion to be heard.
Zayde came from Lithuania as a young man to escape oppression and begin a new life in America. He outlived two wives, helped raise four children, and retired after years of working 10-hour workdays and injuries from work in the forge shop.
He got to sit back and enjoy being Zayde to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
So, while in appearance, he was a small and quiet man who preferred to go unnoticed as he went on about his life, except for being a striking laborer. He fits in with these rowdy roughnecks who wanted to be heard when they marched, organized strikes, and picketed in the streets.
They, too, like Zayde, came to America to escape the pogroms of Russia or Eastern Europe or needed to escape extreme poverty to find freedom and a better life in the United States.
They found harsh working conditions and low wages, leaving them in dangerous factory conditions.
They are and were socialists, and yes, even a smattering of harmless Communists, as my husband says, "cannot organize a wedding, never mind a revolution."
So, when they buried Zayde today, the old part of the cemetery tells the story of these men.
Even in their graves, these men wanted to have the last word.
These men lie under stones engraved with their protests: "Defender of the working man," "Labor fight," "Support Labor," and "Fair wages."
So, Zayde, while your neighbors still have their voices heard in stone, we thank you and all your neighbors for your contributions.
Rest in Peace, dear Zayde and fellow laborers.
 Recognized |
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