Great Britain -- Emigration and immigration; Noncitizens -- Great Britain
In considering the nature of Jewish immigration, allusion should
also be made to a species of infamy which, I am credibly informed,
has been carried on for some time past at the London Docks. Many of
the immigrants are young women, Jewesses of considerable personal
attractions. Men-sharks, and female harpies of all descriptions, are on
the look-out for them as soon as they disembark. The young women are
approached, and asked in "Yiddish" whether they are in want of work.
The answer of course is in the affirmative, especially as many of these
young Jewesses arrive in a friendless condition. "Then," comes the
suggestion, "you had better come and stay with me until you get it,"
or "I can put you in the way of obtaining it." Of course this dodge
does not always succeed, for many young Jewesses are by no means so
guileless as they appear to be. But in two cases out of three it does.
The girl, friendless and unprotected, goes off with her interlocutor,
and then the old shameful story is repeated. She stays in the house
until the little she has is more than due for board; her efforts to
earn an honest living are in vain; and when she is destitute, she is
told she must either leave the place, minus even her little baggage,
or earn money at the expense of her virtue. Such a dilemma, in nine
cases out of ten, presents only one means of escape; and the girl goes
to swell the number of the lost and degraded of our great cities. One
of the worst features of this system is, that the decoy is largely
carried on by Englishmen and Englishwomen, and by no means confined to
foreigners alone. Happily, a Jewish Ladies' Rescue Society has been
recently formed, and its efforts have done something to mitigate the
evil. An official from this society goes down to the docks for the
purpose of warning female immigrants, and advising them where to find
employment. But the difficulty still remains, and a very serious one it
is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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