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An Orphan In New York City
An Orphan in New York City is about survival. When immigrant parents died or could no longer financially or emotionally support their children, benevolent Jews came to the rescue. This is the story of life at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum with a thousand brothers and sisters during the Great Depression.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Seymour Siegel is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist. He has received diplomate status in clinical social work, professional psychotherapy, and clinical hypnotherapy. His forty-year career includes twenty years as Executive Director of Jewish and Family Services in Southern New Jersey, co-founding a transitional residency service for individuals with mental illness, and serving on the NJ Board of Marriage Counselor Examiners. He has taught at Rutgers and made presentations to varied groups at varied times. He has appeared on radio and television talk shows and initiated and facilitated a men's group on "The Wounding and Healing of Men." For his own healing, Dr. Siegel has written a book about his decade during the depression years in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Seymour Siegel is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist. He has received diplomate status in clinical social work, professional psychotherapy, and clinical hypnotherapy. His forty-year career includes twenty years as Executive Director of Jewish and Family Services in Southern New Jersey, co-founding a transitional residency service for individuals with mental illness, and serving on the NJ Board of Marriage Counselor Examiners. He has taught at Rutgers and made presentations to varied groups at varied times. He has appeared on radio and television talk shows and initiated and facilitated a men's group on "The Wounding and Healing of Men." For his own healing, Dr. Siegel has written a book about his decade during the depression years in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City.
Dr. Siegel is father of five children, a racquetball competitor, and enjoys theater, classical music, and all forms of exercise.
- GenresNonfiction
520 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2000
6 people want to read
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July 15, 2015
This is not a book I think most of my friends will want to run out and read, but I was captivated by it. It's not a perfect book: I read the ebook and it was riddled with errors. On occasion, the writing can be slightly clunky. But getting past that, Siegel has captured a part of Jewish American history that I think is relatively unknown. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum (HOA) at one time housed thousands of children in New York City. The building took up four city blocks on 136th-138th Avenue and Amsterdam. It was in existence from the mid-1800s till it closed in 1941. Most of the kids who stayed here weren't true orphans; one parent often was dead or had deserted the family and the other was unable to maintain them. I read this book because of interest in my own family history.
Siegel lived in the HOA as a child, and he recounts what life was like. However he supplements his story with the stories of many other children. He interviews a wide range of people--some with incredibly positive experiences and some who had a deplorable existence--and he not only incorporates their anecdotes into the book but he includes in the appendix the full interviews. For some, HOA was a haven where they received music lessons and had trips to the theater and they enjoyed movies in the Warner Gym (built by Jack Warner who supplied them with Warner Bros. films). For others, they were ignored, beaten, and punished brutally. Experiences at HOA were drastically different depending on the time, the child, and the outlook.
Equally interesting to me is seeing what became of these children. So many had difficulties becoming parents themselves--either too harsh or not harsh enough (in their own words) with their children for lack of a role model. Many went into social work. Almost all seemed to become professional people.
As I said, I'm not sure this is a book that will appeal to the average person just looking for something to read. But if Jewish New York, orphans, or the early 1900s interest you, this book is fascinating.
Siegel lived in the HOA as a child, and he recounts what life was like. However he supplements his story with the stories of many other children. He interviews a wide range of people--some with incredibly positive experiences and some who had a deplorable existence--and he not only incorporates their anecdotes into the book but he includes in the appendix the full interviews. For some, HOA was a haven where they received music lessons and had trips to the theater and they enjoyed movies in the Warner Gym (built by Jack Warner who supplied them with Warner Bros. films). For others, they were ignored, beaten, and punished brutally. Experiences at HOA were drastically different depending on the time, the child, and the outlook.
Equally interesting to me is seeing what became of these children. So many had difficulties becoming parents themselves--either too harsh or not harsh enough (in their own words) with their children for lack of a role model. Many went into social work. Almost all seemed to become professional people.
As I said, I'm not sure this is a book that will appeal to the average person just looking for something to read. But if Jewish New York, orphans, or the early 1900s interest you, this book is fascinating.
Displaying 1 of 1 review