During the latter part of the 19th century many Jews of eastern Galicia, including many from our township of Boiberke, sought to better their economic condition by emigrating. Most of them went to the United States, where they knew that able-bodied men willing to work could earn a fairly good living.
There was a valid reason for their eagerness to leave Boiberke. The town was situated in eastern Galicia, a province of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, which had its industries in other provinces, chiefly in Bohemia (now Chechoslovakia) and Upper Austria. Galicia was predominantly an agricultural land, a field where the Jews played a minor role. Although Boiberke was a large district embracing more than 90 villages, it was in many respects backward. It was only four European miles [about 29 kilometers] away from Lemberg (Lwow), then the capital of Galicia. Lemberg at the end of the 19th century already had a population of 160,000 among them more than 45,000 Jews and it was growing fast. Jews of Boiberke who wanted to purchase anything of value could be in Lemberg in one hour by train. This naturally, was detrimental to the economic growth of Boiberke.
That was why many of our townspeople were eager to leave for the New World. A number of craftsmen, including tailors, shoemakers, carpenters and cabinet makers, somehow scraped together passage money, by disposing of some of their belongings and by borrowing from friends and relatives. Arriving in the New World, they found work in New York, mostly in their own trades. They worked hard and long hours, since the trade unions were still in their infancy and could render little assistance. They managed from time to time to send money to their families whom they had left in Boiberke. Eventually they
managed to procure steamship tickets for their families, either through the small private banks which existed in those days, or through peddlers on the instalment [sic] basis. Those families whose children had reached the working age considered themselves the luckiest. An additional few dollars could be added to the earnings of the heads of families. Since the schools were free and there were day schools for the children and night classes for the adults, they acquired the English language, and were happy to make the New World their permanent home.
On the other hand, a number of Boiberker small merchants, and also what we call white collar workers, come to America only to remain a few years, save up some money and return to Boiberke, to open a store, (naturally) in competition with the local storekeepers. Frequently they used up the money they had saved and were compelled again to leave for the New World. This time most of them brought over their families and they too made this their permanent home.
First Boiberker Arrivals
Since there is no record of the first arrivals, I tried to get information by leafing through a pamphlet at the New York Public Library, issued in 1898, by Dr. Michael Singer, who was then the representative in America of Dr. Theodor Herzl. This pamphlet led me to a source on the Lower East Side of New York, where I learned that in March 1898, two fellow Boiberker, Moishe Spitzbard, the son of Kalman, an intellectual of the town, and Abraham Fruchter, son in law of Mordchi Itzik Stein, organized the Yehudah Halevy Zionist society in New York. Spitzbard then held a responsible position in Yarmelowskies Bank on New York's lower East Side, while Fruchter was negotiating at the time for an important post with the Standard oil interests. Since they organized the Yehudah Halevy Zionist Society in 1898, they must have been in the United States for a number of years at that time. I presumed therefore that they were among the very first Boiberker who immigrated to the United States.
Recently I met a schoolmate of mine, with whom I had attended public school in Boiberke, by the name of Mendel or Emil Bromberg (on his mother's side). Speaking of old-time Boiberker in the United States, he advised me that as early as in 1882, his mother's brother, Itche Bromberg, was married to a gi