This is America! in Hamodia

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 01 2005 Posts: 16879

For starters I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series!!!!.... It's unbelievable and so true to how things were in NY at the turn of the century. I am baffled at the transformation of this frum ehrliche man into a monster who is fighting his children for shemiras shabbos! How sad.

I can't stop feeling awful for poor Charna and her struggles. There's just one thing that really puzzles me. Was it really THAT difficult to find a shomer shabbos chosson in those days??? I mean, R' Yaakov yosef Herman was here already, he managed to marry into a shomer shabbos family, so did all his siblings, and all of his future mechutonim lived in the US by then - there were already several yeshivos (RJJ, RIETS, Eitz Chaim etc). all charna had to do was daven on Shabbos in one of the shomer shabbos minyanim and hook up with some families. I know that shomer shabbos boys were a rarity in those days, but there *were* yeshivos already! There *were* bochurim to be had! Was the problem that she had no dowry to speak of because her father took it all? I"m debating writing a letter to Hamodia, but I don't seem to get around to it, and they publish their letters a month later.

What do you think? and of this serial in general?

Platinum Member Joined: May 22 2005 Posts: 13795

I don't know. There weren't so many people that were willing to give up their job week after week which is often what being shomer shabbos meant in those days. Also, women I think were more able to take in home work (like the "piece work" that the character and her mother took in) or create their own parnasah taking in laundry, sewing, cooking, leaving far more shomer shabbos women than men.

Posted: Tue, May 03 2011, 1:08 am Post subject: re: This is America! in Hamodia

Rav Herman had a hard time finding a Shomer Shabbos kallah for himself! Read that chapter again.
Lieutenant Berman also writes that mixed marriages (religious/irreligious)were common due to lack of religious Jews.
My great-grandfather was not a rich man, but offered a child of his $1000 (a lot in those days!) to marry a frumme Yid.
Love the series.
Makes us realize how we cannot judge people then by our standards now. We have no idea what choices we'd make in that situation.
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Moderator Joined: Dec 18 2008 Posts: 3611

First thing I turn to.
As a child I knew two elderly sisters - wonderful, easygoing, kind, giving and caring people - who had never married because they were only willing to marry someone shomer Shabbos.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 12 2009 Posts: 13155

This was earlier in the 1900s than when the Herman children came of age.
And I like how she referenced the Triangle factory without it being too cliched.
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Active Poster Joined: Feb 27 2011 Posts: 63

Posted: Tue, May 03 2011, 4:00 pm Post subject: re: This is America! in Hamodia

Honestly?
Even in places with LOTS of choice, frum people marry girls/boys from non frum homes if THEY are frum.
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Platinum Member Joined: Mar 12 2009 Posts: 13155

Active Poster Joined: Jun 07 2005 Posts: 52

I too LOVE this story. The writing style is very inviting and warm. Each week when I read it I stand in awe of my Great Grandparents who lived during that time period and were zocheh to raise a frum and erlich family. When I mentioned the story to my Grandfather who BORN in America he said that Yes it was a very very difficult time for Yiddishkiet...... We who are only 2 or 3 generations removed can not really fathom the mindset of the time period...
Kudos to the author!!

Posted: Tue, May 03 2011, 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: This is America! in Hamodia

Active Poster Joined: Aug 25 2010 Posts: 66

I have nothing to add, but Yup, its my first thing I turn to, too! I'm also liking the next serial beside it...Of course I forget the name now, but its pretty new but pretty interesting. In general I find Hamodia's serial stories enjoyable and people are reading it for enjoyment, not for scandals like some other mags.
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Platinum Member Joined: Aug 01 2005 Posts: 16879

Yes, I'm also enjoying Windows of (I forget which Windows it's this time). I love the fictional Rusvyaner Rebbe, and the idyllic version of Williamsburg Shia Moseson has conjured. I wish I lived in that alternate-universe of Williamsburg and was a chossid of the fictional Rebbe. I wonder whom he is 'parodying' with that alternative Rav - is it maybe R' Yoel Roth? who knows.

Platinum Member Joined: May 22 2005 Posts: 13795

That's what it sounds like to me.

Silver Member Joined: Nov 16 2010 Posts: 538

Henye Meyer is super talented. Exiles of crocodile island was a masterpiece.

Diamond Member Joined: Dec 27 2005 Posts: 2795

I love love This Is America. I think, in literary content, this is an unbelievable work of art. I thought nothing could come close to it but I'm beginning to like the new Windows story a lot and I'm amazed that it's going into daring territory like fathers not having custody over daughters........

Silver Member Joined: Oct 09 2010 Posts: 693

I love history - and this serial is history written in an excellent way
all the facts without being boring

Posted: Wed, May 04 2011, 8:45 pm Post subject: re: This is America! in Hamodia

Its amazing when you seen how many pple sacrificed everything to be shomer shabbos. My great grandfather came to the US and settled in NY. Every week he went to look for a new job, as he couldn't go back after missing Shabbos. Eventually he moved to CT and started his own business peddling fruits and vegetables.
When his first wife past away, he returned to Russia in order to marry a frum girl (my great grandmother). It's sad that my grandfather chose not to follow this path after all his father did to remain frum.
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Platinum Member Joined: Mar 12 2009 Posts: 13155

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 01 2005 Posts: 16879

OMG!!!!... I am literally speechless with this week's installment. TEARS IN MY EYES!!!..... and I got my explanation how Tcharna was so removed from the frum community of the Lower East Side: Her father didnt belong to a shul, sadly, so she had no connection. She *could* have joined a shul herself or kept up more with Muhme Perel Golubchik who was obviously part of the community, but I guess they were so busy just working and keeping their head above water... plus, she had no nadan, so it woudl be mpossible to marry a talmid chacham with no nadan. But wow, the installment knocked my socks off!!!!!
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Diamond Member Joined: Feb 15 2007 Posts: 3232