For the poor and the unemployed in Europe, the USA represented a new paradise where they could

make their
fortune. Everybody could try their luck in this golden land of opportunity. America has always attracted
immigrants from all over the world: Ireland, China, Germany, Italy, Russia, Greece… Since the middle of the
19th century, people have come to America to find political or religious freedom and a better life.

An Immigrant’s Life
By Bob Berlin

“My grandfather, night he slept at the back of the

Isaac Berlin, left his native shop on potato bags. He worked
town in Russia in 1890. He long hours for very little money.
was the first of six brothers to Because he wanted to
leave home. He was going to learn English, he bought
America, the land of Shakespeare’s Complete Works,
abundance, because he lived which he recited at night without
in terrible poverty, and also understanding a word. He once
because there was religious told me that the music of the
persecution. After all, he was verse sounded like Russian to
the son of a rabbi. him. Grandpa married my
With only the grandma, who was a hat maker,
money for his ticket and his in 1906. They lived in a two-room
food, he took a train to apartment without any heating,
Hamburg. Then he travelled so in winter they were often cold.
by sea to Liverpool, where he However, they were very happy.
boarded a transatlantic liner In 1912 they both took American
bound for New York. nationality.
At last, after twenty days, they sailed into New When my father was born the following year,
York Harbour. Grandpa was only just seventeen. He cried Grandpa and Grandma felt really American. They loved
with joy when he saw the Statue of Liberty, but before he New York and Grandpa was fascinated by the great bridges
was allowed into America, he was taken to Ellis Island, the and skyscrapers that were being built. He said to my
immigration station. It was a morbid place filled with five father: “I want you to become an architect and build
thousand other immigrants like Grandpa. For three days skyscrapers that reach for the sky. So you must study hard
the officials checked his papers, gave him medical and go to the university.”
inspections and asked him questions. Grandpa did not And that’s just what my father did, but he did not
speak any English, so an interpreter was called to help the become an architect. He became a university professor
immigration officer. instead, and he specialized in Shakespeare.
Once it was all over, he got on a ferry to In the end it was I who became an architect, and who
Manhattan. There a Jewish charity took him to the Lower fulfilled Grandpa’s wish.”
East Side, where he earned his living as a sales boy. At