Children (most times adolescents, although sometimes younger) left their families to seek their fortune in America. America became famous (and notorious to the pious) as the 'goldeneh medinah' 5 where it was literally believed that the streets were paved with gold (and where one lost one's religion). Russian emigration created the first massive influx of Jews to America. Once there, Jewish life as implicated in the lyrics took on a different turn, and became almost obsolete.

The Shtetl Way of life; Cheder; and Jewish scholarship.

Restricted from turning outward, the Jews turned inwards and focus sharpened on Jewish scholarliness exclusively for the males. It was the elite who became a Talmid Chocham 6, and the Jewish housewife, often, supported her spouse so that he could continue to learn 7. Jewish scholarship defined the yichus (i.e., pedigree) (or lack of it) of the family, and Jewish orthodoxy was heavily bent on...
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