Immigration Story
Most Jewish families grew up in what was called the Pale of Jewish Settlements. The Pale was formed in 1791 by the Russian Czar, Catherine the Great, with the intent of forbidding Jews from living in the Russian land outside the territory – even in the Pale, Jewish people were restricted from living in many of the large cities.
After the first wave of pogroms in the 1880s, nearly all Jewish people had to live in the Pale, because of what was called the Temporary Laws. The Temporary or May Laws were in effect for thirty years (so were not really temporary), and they further limited where Jewish people could live, what and when they can sell, and their political power in the Russian government.
The Glazerman family owned a flower mill and were wheat speculators with a considerable amount of wealth to their name. (Saul, as a child, even had his own horse.) Like many Jewish families in the village, they were middlemen the in trade markets; a situation that allowed for some financial sustainability, but also resulted in further condemnation among Anti-Jewish groups.
A map showing where Pogroms occurred in the Pale of Jewish Settlement.
Pogroms peaked in three separate time periods. In each of those instances, there was an overlap of political struggle and economic strain as shown by the graphs above. Generally, when these two problems overlap there is violence and blame. The Jewish people, commonly the scapegoat in both history and Eastern Europe at the time, and also often the middlemen in economic trade, were the victims of many of these attacks.
One of the rare photos showing the aftermath of a Pogrom.
In the second major wave of Pogroms (1903-1906), where economic shocks in grain price and political turmoil from the loss in the Russo-Japanese War led to violent attacks from peasants, Saul's village was bombarded numerous times by Russian Cossacks. During one of these occasions, Saul was with his older brother, who already had a large family and home. His brother led Saul, as well as his own wife and four kids into the basement of his home. After a few hours, his brother said, "I'm going to see if they are gone, everyone else stay here."
After not returning for a prolonged period, Saul followed his brother to see where he went. Sorrowfully, Saul found his brother dead. In Jewish culture, it was customary to offer widows of a close friend for their hand in marriage. So immediately after finding the deceased body, Saul took his brother's wedding ring and offered the widowed ex-wife to get married. Though he was denied, he still promised to make sure that they were safe. Saul took whatever he could and moved his brother's family away from the violence. Through bribing Russian officials, he got them, and himself, to Romania. There, Saul set up a small little shop where he continued to take care of his brother's family.
Saul had barely any money when he moved with the others, but he used his knowledge of four different languages to become a great salesman, selling whatever he could to make a somewhat manageable living. However, with violent attacks spreading to Romania over the next couple years, he had to save up to send the kids and their mother to America. He eventually sent his brother's family to Pennsylvania with other family members and friends that Saul knew well already there. They then spent the rest of their lives in Pennsylvania. But Saul did not follow them. As a strong Zionist, he was set on moving to what was then Palestine, continuing to work hard until he saved enough to go.
But immigration continued to become more difficult, and Saul soon realized his dream to move Palestine was dimming. So he ended up following the others, moving to America.
After checking on with his brother's family (something he would do many more times) Saul moved to the Boston area, finding other distant family he knew. Saul, like most Jewish immigrants, especially in the Boston area, settled based on where he already had family, expanding an already strong community. There, with the Jewish community he found, Saul's life in America began.