New Poem in Mid-Atlantic Review
This one shows the layers of exploitation in immigrant labor
When my grandfather died, I received a tiny notebook in which he had recorded a few moments from the earliest years of his time in the U.S. The notes started when he landed at Ellis Island in November 1935 after barely escaping the Nazis and included lists of his workplaces and jobs: A. Horowitz 150 West 30th Street Mai 1936. Rheinstein Miller & Prizer 146 W 29 St, März 1940.
From these scant data points, I tried to reimagine his life in the U.S. as he moved from fur shop owner in Berlin to a lowly fur cutter in Manhattan. I was able to easily find pictures of the first building he would have worked in upon his arrival, and it had many unique features that captured my imagination, including an ornately scrolled Art Deco entrance and tiny fox heads that stuck out from the building like gargoyles. As I researched further, I learned that the building had been built by a man named Alex Bernstein, a Polish Jewish immigrant who had constructed the building in 1925 as a space for other furriers to rent.
Bernstein of course both provided opportunity for other more recent immigrants and profited from their work in the form of rental payments. When we talk about immigrants “climbing the ladder of opportunity” in America, it sometimes means stepping on those who came here a little later than they did.
The Mid-Atlantic Review has included my poem in its new issue reflecting on U.S. History during this, our country’s 250th anniversary. I hope you will enjoy it.
