This book tells the story of Orthodox Jewish women finding their voices in New York in the early 1900’s. The subtitle is “Immigrant Housewives and the Riots that shook New York City”. In the spring of 1902, the price of kosher beef had risen 50% in a few short weeks. It had gone from 12 cents a pound to 18 cents a pound. That doesn’t sound like much to us today, but 18 cents would be $5.25 in 2020 dollars. And these families were living hand to mouth already. Every penny was important to them, as was their faith. There was no way they would be willing to purchase less expensive, non-kosher meat.
Many, if not most of these women were recent immigrants. While many had been accustomed to repressive societies in their home countries (why do you think they left?), they knew they had more rights in America. Plus, since they were the ones cooking the meals and purchasing the ingredients, they were the ones who were directly impacted by the price increases. Also, the men were usually working long hours, and didn’t have the time or energy to take part in the protests, for the most part. Few of the women worked outside the home, so the home and feeding their families was their focus.
The root of the problem was the Meat Trust. The women protesting and striking could not have any impact on the trust, even when the strikes spread to other cities. However, the attention these women brought to the issue caused Congress and courts to act. Of course, the book by Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”, didn’t help the meat industry either. The women at first focused on their local butchers, but realized that they were not the real problem. The women followed the strategies of other unions, and in turn, influenced future meat strikes, as well as rent strikes, when similar tactics and strategies were used.
If this was your family, how would you research them? This author seems to have used a lot of newspaper research. However, he also lists a number of books about various aspects of this work. Both sources are great for anyone researching a specific place and/or time period. For newspapers, Chronicling America, the free site through the Library of Congress should be your first stop, but there are several paid newspaper sites as well. For books, start with WorldCat or Google books to find anything written about the people or places you want to learn about.