re: #163 Kragar

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Some of mine might have come here illegally — on Mom’s side they got here in the 1880’s (no rules), but Dad’s came in the 1920’s. Not sure of the exact year, but they might have skirted the Jew quota.

They didn’t speak any English, not when they arrived or for decades after. They worked cheap (driving down wages!!), they didn’t assimilate (lived in a Yiddish-speaking neighborhood, bought from Yiddish-speaking merchants, worked for Yiddish-speaking foremen, read Yiddish newspapers and attended Yiddish theater), they certainly didn’t adhere to anyone’s version of Christian culture.

And they were criminals! Prohibition. Sabbath wine, plus all the holidays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, births, deaths, lots of drinking. And no way were they going to register on “the Jew list” to get special exemption from the Volsted Act. They just bought illegally.

And the anchor babies…