From Haven to Home
In 1654, 23 Jewish individuals came on a boat o New York. They traveled in hope to make a stronger community in America. Jewish people came to America because they believe that education is important, and all success is from learning through educations and others mistakes.
The Jews started to build synagogues. They thought even if they were not born in America, they still had rights to be able to practice their religion and worship and pray freely. The “Jew Bill” was what allowed them to declare and practice their religion and belief. This bill was passed in Maryland during 1827.
Even though they were freely and proudly living in America, they carried their culture and tradition with them when the immigrated to the United States. Most Jews still follow their culture. Saturdays, they are meant to rest and not work. Saturday is a day for them to attend a temple and they pray. The only language they pray in is Hebrew. They also carried their food religion. They do not eat milk and meat in the same meal. They do not eat pork, or fish without scale like shrimp for example. They believe the reason why this started was because a long time ago before the technology of refrigeration, if you were to eat a rotten shrimp you would get very sick or die. So they thought it was a sin to eat. They only eat kosher meat, which means there is no blood on the animal. When they purchase meat they first boil it in salt water to get rid of the blood. In May of 1902 20,000 Jewish woman in New York broke in kosher butcher shops and threw meat on the streets and set it on fire. They were upset that kosher meat was double regular meat – which was 18 cents as pound. After the boycott was over the price of kosher meat dropped to 14 cents per pound.
Slowly, the Jews started building their community and making a difference. They were able to build their first synagogue in 1854 in Boston, Massachusetts. The first Jewish Cabinet member was in 1960. The first Jew to be a Supreme court judge was in 1916. Bess Myerson became Ms. New York City in 1945. A marriage certificate was issued for the first time in the U.S called a Ketuban for the first time in July of 1977. Benjamin Stegal was the founder of Las Vegas, although he was not a good man – he was a murder. Later on in his life he moved to Las Angeles with his girlfriend and was assassinated in her apartment. A Jewish man was founder of Hotel Del Coronado, which is known world wide. They helped with the development of rock and roll music and Broadway. From 1880 to 1924, many Jews came and established themselves in the US and made Kiddush speaking communities. This language is like a slang language of German. If you know Kiddush you can understand German as well. These Jews came from mainly Russia and Hungary. They were successful in America and often sent money back to their family to what they called their “old country.”
Although they made many accomplishments – it wasn't easy for them to gain their rights and make it that far. They fought in the Civil war. 9,000 Jews fought for the Union, while 3,000 fought for the Confederacy. Jews participated in the Civil Rights Movement, they defended their principle of legal rights and liberty. During World War II (1920 – 1945) People started doing boycotts. They had posters telling people to boycott movies, music and to stop the practice of Nazism.
Jews came to America in hope of a new start, and a new chance and better education for their later generation. They went through many struggles in order to make it as far as they have today.

The photo I chose features a boy getting his fingerprints taken by a man, as he entered to he O'Hare airport. The boy looked scared and sad. The hands holding his seemed huge compared to his small fingers. It made me feel sad, even though I didn't understand what was happening in the picture, which was taken in 1999.

The quote I chose says “When I left my country Vietnam, I didn't know I would probably never come back again. I was just ten years old. I knew my life would begin from this moment.” -Ngoe Nguyen.
I chose this quote because it seemed very eyeopening. This girl had to leave her home country to a place where she had never been to before. I also never thought about what was running through my mom's mind when she left Vietnam for America, knowing she too may never come back. It makes me wonder about how hard it must have been for not only people in Vietnam, but immigrants overall to leave their home and everything they were used to and adjusted to, to come to a completely different country.

The story I chose was by a seventh grader named Roger Yan who attends Challenger middle school. I chose this piece because the first paragraph struck me the most out of all of the stories. His father, Xuan witnessed horrific things like death and suicide. He was Chinese/Vietnamese and came to America from Vietnam. It talked about his struggle he faced in order to just come to America for a better future for himself and his family. He was only six years old when he left Vietnam. I was shocked by what some people have gone through, and how racism was such a big deal at the time – even teachers sometimes teased the students. I didn't know the journey to America could be so hard and rough.

These exhibits made me think of how much our world has changed from how it was hundreds of years ago, and I wonder what it would be like if these historic events never took place. I wonder what the world will be like hundreds of years from now.


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