EXPLORATIONS - Lower East Side Tenement Museum Recreates Lif

EXPLORATIONS - Lower East Side Tenement¹ Museum Recreates Life in New York City for Immigrants³ 100 Years Ago
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Wednesday, July 13, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Gwen Outen.

VOICE TWO:

 
 
And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live.

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VOICE ONE:

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller museums in New York City. It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard⁴ Street. It was built in eighteen sixty-three. It was one of the first tenements⁵ in New York City.

The word "tenement" comes from a Latin⁶ word meaning "to hold." A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived.

The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the eighteen hundreds, the word "tenement" simply meant a building in which many families lived.

Later, many immigrant² families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead.

VOICE TWO:

History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month's rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms.

The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower. There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease⁷.

Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting⁸ in the building in the eighteen nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four. Then they refused to make any more improvements⁹. They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five.

In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal¹⁰ government declared the building a protected National Historic¹¹ Place.

VOICE ONE:

Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments. They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there. These include kitchen devices¹², medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth. They also learned¹³ the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they spoke¹⁴ with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children.

Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building's history. These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. First we climb several flights of worn stairs. It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway.

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VOICE TWO:

Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz (GUM-perts) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies.

On October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the

 
Natalie Gumpertz 
building and never returned. He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school.

The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her workspace. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing.

VOICE ONE:

The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family. They came from Italy and were Catholic¹⁵. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight. They became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish¹⁶ holy day and no work was permitted.

Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days. Here is a recording¹⁷ of her. She tells how she felt each week after when she saw Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning¹⁸ for her to come and turn on the lights:

JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI: "It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision¹⁹ of her in that window. It has never left my memory."

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VOICE TWO:

Now we visit the apartment that belonged to the Rogarshevsky family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis²⁰. We can see some of the things used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen.

On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham's funeral. They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death.

Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz. What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment? She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent.

VOICE ONE:

Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family. They were Jews from Poland. Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen-nineties. They lived there for more than ten years. During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children. Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room.

We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting²¹ the birth of her third child. We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day. We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City.

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VOICE TWO:

Still another apartment is an example of living history. We can visit it on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino (Con-FEE-no) family in nineteen sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey. They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries.

An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us. She tells about Victoria's experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song:

VICTORIA CONFINO: "Oh, it's a very mixed up language. It's like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it's a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together."

VOICE ONE:

Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues. For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America?

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates²² with other international historic places around the world. These places are part of the International Coalition²³ of Historic Site Museums of Conscience²⁴.

They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina. Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

1 tenement   

n.公寓；房屋

参考例句：

• They live in a tenement.他们住在廉价公寓里。
• She felt very smug in a tenement yard like this.就是在个这样的杂院里，她觉得很得意。

2 immigrant   

adj.(从国外)移来的，移民的；n.移民，侨民

参考例句：

• Life in the USA was very hard for almost every new immigrant.美国的生活几乎对每一个新移民都很艰难。
• I'd like to obtain some information about applying for an immigrant visa.我想取一些申请移民签证的资料。

3 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 orchard   

n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场

参考例句：

• My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
• Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。

5 tenements   

n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Here were crumbling tenements, squalid courtyards and stinking alleys. 随处可见破烂的住房、肮脏的庭院和臭气熏天的小胡同。 来自辞典例句
• The tenements are in a poor section of the city. 共同住宅是在城中较贫苦的区域里。 来自辞典例句

6 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

7 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

8 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

9 improvements   

增加或修改( improvement的名词复数 )； 改进； 改善； 改良

参考例句：

• improvements in efficiency at the factory 工厂效率的提高
• They've spent a lot of money on home improvements. 他们花了很多钱装修家居。

10 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

11 historic   

adj.历史上著名的，具有历史意义的

参考例句：

• This is a historic occasion.这是具有重大历史意义的时刻。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

12 devices   

n.设备；装置( device的名词复数 )；花招；（为实现某种目的的）计划；手段

参考例句：

• electrical labour-saving devices around the home 节省劳力的各种家用电器
• modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers 诸如洗衣机和洗碗机之类的现代化省力设备

13 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

16 Jewish   

adj.犹太人的，犹太民族的

参考例句：

• The coin bears a Jewish symbol.硬币上有犹太标记。
• They were two Jewish kids;I was friendly with both of them.他们是两个犹太小孩；我同他们都很要好。

17 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

18 motioning   

vt.打手势（motion的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Crossing a forest, he saw a lion motioning him to stop. 穿过一片森林的时候，他看到一只狮子向他示意，让他停下来。 来自互联网
• The next man hurriedly motioning with his hand, said: "no, no. " 旁边那人连忙一边摆手，一边说：“不，不。” 来自互联网

19 vision   

n.视觉，先见之明，光景，视力，眼力，幻想，影像；vt.幻想

参考例句：

• The wall cuts across our line of vision.那面墙挡住了我们的视线。
• Much reading has impaired his vision.大量读书损害了他的视力。

20 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

21 awaiting   

v.等候( await的现在分词 )；等待；期待；将发生在

参考例句：

• He is in custody awaiting trial . 他已被拘留候审。
• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence. 等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 cooperates   

合作，配合，协助( cooperate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• We anticipated hand in hand cooperates with you, altogether creates magnificently. 我们期待与您携手合作，共创辉煌。
• The hope cooperates hand in hand with you, realizes altogether wins! 希望与您携手合作，实现共赢！

23 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

24 conscience   

n.良心，道德心

参考例句：

• Guilt had been eating into his conscience for some months. 几个月来内疚一直折磨着他的良心。
• He was pricked by his conscience. 他受到良心的谴责。