Sholem aleykhem tsu imigranṭen
Educational Alliance (New York, N.Y.)
Sholem aleykhem tsu imigranṭen: a ḳurtse erḳlehrung ṿegen dem leben in Ameriḳa (Welcome Immigrants: A Short Explanation About Life in the United States)
New York, 1903
The Educational Alliance, an important social organization located on the Lower East Side, was founded in 1889 by a group of German Jewish philanthropists led by Jacob H. Schiff (1847–1920). Its primary goal was to provide financial means, facilities, and other resources needed for the speedy adaptation and Americanization of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who were fleeing pogroms and anti-Semitism. The wealthy Jewish elite, who were either American-born or came to the country a generation or two earlier, believed that assimilation was pivotal for both American prosperity and overall positive acceptance by the society. They also wanted to make sure that the influx of impoverished newcomers did not jeopardize their hard-won social status and accomplishments in the U.S.
The Educational Alliance offered free English-language courses, access to the Alliance’s library, vocational training, a variety of social and health services, programs for children, and naturalization classes. Publications of the Educational Alliance centered around supporting its activities.
A convenient pocket-size booklet, Sholem aleykhem tsu imigranṭen: a ḳurtse erklehrung vegen dem leben in Amerika (Welcome Immigrants: A Short Explanation About Life in the United States) was intended to provide the newcomers with basic information about their new country and prepare them, in their mother tongue of Yiddish, for the citizenship test. The interior also included folded black-and-white maps of the United States and its natural resources.
On the cover of the booklet is a vibrantly colored American flag with 45 stars—the number of U.S. states at the time. The inscription in Hebrew in the bottom left quotes from a book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) 10:19: “You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers [in the land of Egypt]”.
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