Next Year in America

Next Year in America

This lithograph “A Happy New Year” was created between 1900 and 1920 and published by the Hebrew Publishing Company. It depicts on one side Russian Jews looking over the Atlantic ocean at Americans in the United States. You can tell by the descriptive coat of arms above each group. The American coat of arms is also holding a banner writing “Shelter me in the shadow of your wings.” This shows that the Russian Jews were looking to the United States for shelter as the immigrated away from their homeland. The Russian Jews are all wearing traditional clothing. Also all of the women have their head covered while the men all have facial hair. The American group is dressed all in contemporary clothing and they all look very modern for the early 1900’s. This is a very good comparison between to different lifestyle, one being the modern American and the other being the traditional Jew. The American group is what Jake in Yekl sought after and wanted to become. While the Russian Jewish side is what Gitl and the rest of his family were. With accurately shows what the differences were between the two different cultures.

Unknown

"Next Year in America I" A Century of Immigration, 1820-1924. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/haven-century.html#obj5

Hebrew Publishing Company

Ed Regler