Out of the Shadow

by Rose Gollup Cohen

Book Overview

In this appealing autobiography, Rose Cohen looks back on her family's journey from Tsarist Russia to New York City's Lower East Side. Her account of their struggles and of her own coming of age in a complex new world vividly illustrates what was, for some, the American experience. First published in 1918, Cohen's narrative conveys a powerful sense of the aspirations and frustrations of an immigrant Jewish family in an alien culture. With uncommon...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801482682
• ISBN13: 9780801482687
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Out of the Shadow book review

Great book, I loved it. Was happy with the seller and the quick delivery. Thank You allot!

A hand-to-mouth existence

Rose Cohen's autobiography is the story of the illegal emigration of an illiterate Jewish Russian family to New York in the 1890s. The family doesn't arrive in the land of `milk and honey' but in a brutal world of `hunger and exploitation'. The father and his child daughter have to work in sweatshops for survival wages: `Fourteen hours a day you sit on a chair, often without a back, close to the other feller hand feeling the heat of her body. Fourteen hours with your back bent. Your eyes close to your work you sit stitching often by gaslight. In the winter your body is numb with cold. In the summer, no sun. The black cloth dust eats into your very pores.' When the two come home, they live with the whole family of seven in two rooms, where the sun never comes in. On top of that, there is the daily anxiety for loosing one's job. This became a reality in the massive and extreme depression of the `memorable years' of 1893-1894. People survived on a loaf of bread per day and could barely (or not) pay the rent with their savings. As a reaction, labor became organized (`Each of you can do nothing.') When there is a sparkle of hope and love (marriage), religion becomes an insurmountable barrier. There is fanaticism on both sides and the `others' speak `wild talk' This moving and sometimes very emotional autobiography is a tale of pure survival in a world without pity and solidarity. It reminds us from where we all come from. Highly recommended.

A Touching Story of Immigrant Experience

I am submitting a note from one of my buyers, which somehow ended up on my seller feedback page but should be included here: This is a beautifully written bittersweet story of immigrant experience from around 1890s to 1910. The writer tells of her painful but hopeful emergence from traditional and restrictive family life to wider experience. There is deep pathos in this story.

Out of the Shadow

Out of the Shadow, by Rose Cohen, is a book about a pious Russian Jewish family that immigrated to America, after leaving Russia, due to strict unbearable laws that were past by the Czar. The father left Russia in pursuit of a better life in America for his family. As he earned somewhat of a living in America, he sends for his eldest daughter, and his sister, to come and help him make more money so that the family doesn't have to stay in Russia for mush longer. As the twelve-year old Rahel, twenty-one year old Masha and tired father work in America, they soon makes enough money to send traveling tickets to Russia for the rest of the family to come to America. They struggle in America to be happy, accepted, healthy, prosperous and become "Americans." Many drastic changes take place in their first years, and continue throughout the book. The family becomes less pious, but don't forget the Jewish religion completely. Losing their piety was a way of fitting in America. They tried to understand the life in America, and saw that it is very different than their lives in Russia. The family of seven (5 kids and the parents) was not really a family anymore because every family member had their own responsibilities. The kids worked so hard and barely spent any time at home, and begged by their mother not to work on the Sabbath. Rahel and her sister worked in sweatshops, and most of the money they earned was not for them, but for the family, and that was the most important thing. With this money they would buy food, and clothing. The mother came with her children to America to live a better life than they had lived in Russia and expected a lot more money, food, clothing, and happiness in America. Instead they survive with barley any food, money and happiness. I feel that all these changes are very hard to live with, or rather get used to because the family had a different view of life in America and are being let down by their expectations. These changes are rather sad, and discouraging, in my opinion because as I had read this book, I really felt their sorrow, and pain. They also had some happy moments, for example when the whole family was finally together (in America), but those happy moments are rare as the reader reads on in the book. The living style that the family had in America was one very different from Russia because in Russia, their home was with more warmth and even though the father went away to America, the house still felt nice and warm. The family itself had each other and everyone took care of everyone. The grandparents were living with the whole family, and the grandma especially had a very warm personality, I noticed as she talked to her grand-children etc. The mother seemed a lot happier too because she seemed like the family is all that she has and she must keep the house alive and happy for everyone, although she too at times was sad. Russia was undergoing many difficulties, and the Czar made the living standards