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News From The Tenement

Show off your knowledge of New York’s biggest borough! Join us on August 22 at Lolita Bar for a zesty trivia game and Brooklyn tid-bits courtesy of Walking Brooklyn author Adrienne Onofri.

E-mail bookclub(at)tenement.org if you want to register a team

7pm at Lolita Bar (266 Broome)
For just $35, student members get free admission to the Museum's tours.

InsidersNY Messenger BagCarry your books in style with InsidersNY Messenger Bag


Make the past fun with History by the Meter, a carpenter's rule with 2000 years of history.

On September 10th, celebrate the publication of Amy Bloom’s stunning new novel, Away. Set among the Yiddish theaters and tenements of the Lower East Side, Away tells the story of one woman’s journey to find her missing daughter and a place to call home.

6pm at 108 Orchard. RSVP to bookclub(at)tenement.org
Today’s immigration debates often focus on the ways newcomers enter the United States.
This month, we explore the different ways 97 Orchard Street’s residents entered the country.
Italy to New York to Canada to New York
Unlike many who immigrated in the early 20th century, Italian-born Rosaria Baldizzi did not enter through Ellis Island. Beginning in 1921, quotas severely restricted immigration from eastern and southern Europe, closing the door to many would-be immigrants like Rosaria.

Rosaria Baldizzi She chose to come anyway. According to family lore, Rosaria immigrated to the United States without official documentation in 1924. In New York, she joined her husband, Adolpho, who had arrived the year before. Rosaria and Adolfo didn’t stay long: they went to Canada and then re-entered the United States "legally.” Though it’s not clear if Rosaria herself became a Canadian resident, many Europeans gained legal status in Canada to get around the quotas.

  A Child’s Journey Through Ellis Island
Eight-year old Max Mason embarked from Russia before the passage of immigration quotas. Max recalled his safe arrival in New York, “On May 10, 1921, mother and her three children, including myself, were huddling around a heap of bundles and worn-out luggage bags at Ellis Island…We had come off the ‘Krownland,’ a Red Star Line Ship that had brought us from Antwerp, and an Immigration agent had led us upstairs to a spot where we were told to ‘stay'.”

After undergoing standard questioning and medical inspection, Max and his family waited to be picked up by his father and uncle, who had arrived almost eight years earlier. Max remembered, “And we waited at our appointed spot, and soon it was our turn. ‘There they are!’ exclaimed two men, pointing to mom and us…”





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