Jews Without Money

Each year, the doctors, undertakers, pharmacists, and charity workers make a great deal of money in the poor neighborhoods. The squalid living conditions mean that many people get sick and need healthcare or burial. Doctors are adored in the community, treated with the kind of reverence that was only afforded to rabbis in Europe. Dr. Axelrod is one of the local doctors and, while the family has money, he treats Herman’s injuries. The two men grew up together in Romania, and the doctor chastises Herman for not following in his successful footsteps, given that they had the same opportunities. Even when Herman’s legs begin to heal, he still suffers from the nauseating effects of being poisoned by the lead-based paint. He tries to work but immediately returns home, feeling sick again and traumatized by his memories of the fall.

The family runs out of money and can no longer afford Dr. Axelrod’s services. Instead, they turn to the younger, cheaper, less respected Dr. Solow. The young doctor is considered strange and eccentric in the community. He prescribes cures such as joining labor unions or sleeping with the bedroom window open. However, Mike’s family quickly grows to love Dr. Solow, and he spends many hours sitting and talking with the family. One night in winter, Aunt Lena returns to live in the apartment. She is on strike from her job and has fallen on hard times. Lena and Herman argue over the role of labor unions; she advocates for unions, and he believes that they are bad. Mike is impressed by his aunt’s eloquent arguments and her commitment to the union. One evening, Solow unexpectedly proposes to Lena. To everyone’s surprise, she declines his offer and admits that she is in love with another man. The man is one of the strike leaders and is currently in jail. The proposal is quickly forgotten, and the subject matter turns back to politics.

That winter, the economy falters, and the poor neighborhoods of the East Side become even poorer. Hundreds of people are evicted, many more go hungry, and people and animals freeze to death. A local grocery store owner named Mrs. Rosenbaum cannot help but allow people to buy food on credit. Eventually, her store is taken from her due to unpaid bills. Herman still struggles with his illness and becomes even more depressed. Even though he worries that the family will be evicted, Katie assures him that she will work hard enough that they always have somewhere to live. She plays the role of housewife and then works long hours in a multicultural cafeteria. Even though Herman’s “masculine pride” is harmed by seeing his wife work, Katie is proud of herself.

The tenement building in which Mike’s family lives is dilapidated, and things are always falling apart. No one has enough money to move, so the neighbors complain to one another. When another pipe bursts in the middle of winter, Katie hatches a plan. She convinces the other tenants to take part in a rent strike. Despite their initial enthusiasm, few people take part. Only Katie refuses to pay the landlord, who threatens to have her family evicted. She stands up to the man, playing on his superstitions, and she triumphs; the plumbing is fixed, and she pays the rent. Later, Dr. Solow explains the landlord’s tragic backstory, but, after a temporary feeling of sympathy for the man, Katie continues to stand up to him. The landlord also runs a pawnshop, and when the family is particularly poor, Katie bullies him into paying more for a diamond ring that he initially wanted to give her.

Winter is one of the most expensive times of year to be poor. Mike and his gang of young Jewish friends build a fort out of old building materials and junk. When Mike is beaten up by an Irish boy, the entire gang gets revenge on his behalf. They call themselves the Young Avengers. One day, Mike sees the squalid conditions in which one of the gang members lives. He feels “shaken to the soul” by the family’s poverty (265). No matter how hard the family works, he realizes, they can never escape the crushing poverty that makes their lives so miserable. One of the family’s daughters shows a rebellious streak. She runs away from home and is eventually seen working for Louis One Eye as a prostitute. Her name is never mentioned in the house again. However, the Young Avengers stand up for her. They kill all of Louis One Eye’s prized pigeons. In spite of the revenge, the girl is never truly welcomed back into the family.

The local livery stables are one of the busiest parts of the neighborhood. Irish and Jewish people both work there, and they spend a lot of time together drinking and talking about the various ways in which they are oppressed in America. The stables are next to the tenement building in which Mike lives. In the summer, the smell is unbearable, and many flies breed in the unclean stables. At the age of seven, Mike occasionally accompanies the funeral coach drivers on their jobs. He studies the poor people’s funerals with interest as the bodies are taken across New York and does not know whether he should be sad or stoic as he sees the dead people lowered into the graves. When he returns home, Mike brags to the other children about what he has seen.

With Mike’s mother working so often, his sister, Esther, takes over the majority of the housework. She cooks, cleans, and watches over her father and the newborn baby boy. Mike sees Esther as a dreamy girl who believes in all of the fairy tales she reads voraciously; he despises her “weakness.” One day, he spitefully steals one of her books to make her cry. Another time, he beats her for embarrassing him in front of his friends. After one shift selling newspapers on a cold winter day, Mike returns home to find his sister missing. Hours later, a crowd of people knock at the door. They carry Esther’s bloody body into the apartment, and Mike sees the deep wounds cut into her face. Someone explains that she was run over by a coach while out collecting firewood. The coach driver appears, and Herman shouts at him, calling him a “murderer.” Esther dies that night. The funeral preparations begin the next day as Mike struggles to come to terms with the reality of his sister’s death. The family sits shiva for a week, supported by their neighbors with food and sympathy. One day, a lawyer arrives and explains that he is a friend of Baruch Goldfarb. He offers to sue the coach company, tempting the family by claiming that they might win $1,000. Herman is intrigued, but Katie refuses to take the “blood money.” She chases the lawyer out of the house.