ultimate anti-presidential case, exactly what you do not want to do. >> who should make the decisions about those debates? the supreme court said it should make the decisions about those debates. >> beginning this monday night on c-span and c-span.org. >> each week, "american artifacts" visits museums and historic places. next, a visit to philadelphia's national museum of jewish history for a tour of their exhibition, tracing the history of jewish people in america. in the second exhibit, we pick up a story in the 1880's, when the era of mass immigration brought thousands of immigrants from eastern europe every year. >> in the 1880's, we started to

see big waves of immigrants coming to america. they included jews, irish, italian --all kinds of people coming to america at that time. coming to all different ports, not just ellis island, which is sort of the archetype of the arrival story. people were coming to baltimore, philadelphia, boston, and places you would not think of like galveston, texas, and california as well. we have on display a number of the types of documents immigrants would have needed when coming into these ports. everything from passports to visas, luggage tags, health inspection certificates. these are things that people tended to save for a long time afterward and even past down to their children. they carried great meaning for them. jews left europe for many different reasons. one of the most well-known is the anti-semitic violence that happened in europe.

things which were anti-jewish riots, and would break out from time to time? they are strongly remembered even by the great-grandchildren of people who left that time, but they are not the only reason people left. as well, they left for geographic freedom, for economic opportunity, and to avoid military conscription. one of my favorite stories in this area is that of albert hatchwell. he was an algerian jew in 1890. we always think of these jews who came in this time period of being from eastern europe, but hatchwell lets us know that not everyone was coming from eastern

europe. people were coming from all over the place to america. hatchwell's descendents gave us his fez and we have on loan a pair of coffee pots that descended from his family. when people arrived they found welcoming and unwelcoming harbor. not everyone was happy to see all of these immigrants coming to the country, but there were others extending a helping hand in helping these immigrants become acclimated to their surroundings. we had several books on display written for these incoming immigrants to help them figure out what american life was all about, and to help them fit in. the subjects ranged from how to get your citizenship started, how to find employment, how to be socially accepted in some cases. we have a few examples of the

types of things that immigrants brought with them when they came here. it is surprising to see the large objects they brought with them when they did not have a lot of luggage space. you see them traveling with a basket or a satchel, but some managed to drag over entire cooking sets. things that they could much more easily get here when they got themselves established, even secondhand if they did not have enough money, but they chose to bring them within them. a lot of times, people stopped using these things when they got here, but they kept the european things and passed them now to their families. which is nice for us because those families donate them to museums and help us tell stories. ava was 17 years old when she came to america by herself, following a brother who was already here.

ava is the one standing in the middle of that photograph, appearing with her family home in europe. she came to philadelphia, lived with an uncle for a while, and later told her daughter that she had emigrated because she had finished the educational -- the educational opportunities had run out or her, and -- had run out for her, and she wanted to continue going to school. she thought she could only do that here in america. when you talk of the reasons people came here, that is a compelling one for all of us. she brought with her her muffin tin and passed that down to her children, they belonged to her grandmother before she left. this is a table runner that she stitched on the journey. before we opened, we had it reviewed by a textile conservator to make sure we were

displaying it in a way that would best preserve it. one interesting thing that the conservator told me that it was made from a kit that would have been purchased. i like to think about ava thinking about the long ocean voyage and thinking, what will i do on the boat? and going to buy a kit so she could do some embroidery while sitting on the ship to get to america. on this area, we call this our streetscape. it is a typical immigrant, urban neighborhood. we have smaller galleries that go from this area where we talk a different subjects, including the way that people lived, their whole life. a lot of people -- their home life. a lot of people lived in tenants -- tenements. it could be a very crowded situation. this was a different experience. people were living very close to each other, people of other nationalities, and learning

about them in those situations. here, we have some artifacts related to domestic life in the early 20th century. one gallery that surprises visitors is this one, where we explore the farming experience. not all jewish immigrants ended up in urban environments. some took up farming. this afghan and these tools belonged to the rachel's family. she probably moved to a homestead in north dakota where

she lived with her husband for seven years before the family moved to chicago. in this gallery, we learn a little about the types of work the jews were doing at this time in the urban immigrant community. a lot of manufacturing work. the garment industry was a major area that employed a lot of jews in factories. this was a time when the labor union started getting more traction here in america. people began fighting for rights like shorter working hours, and basic safety in their factory settings. this was a sewing machine that belonged to a man who came to america and found work in a factory in south philadelphia where he met his wife. they left together and started a tailor shop. he worked at this sewing machine for 30 years.

here, we learn about the jewish experience in world war i. this uniform was warned by miler silas coen. he was in the force stationed in france. did you know there were more than 300 female marines in world war i? including ava davidson -- eva davidson. they normally had clerical positions. they were looking to open up positions so that more men could go overseas. i believe some of the women were stationed overseas as well. eva davidson was stationed in washington, d.c. in the 1920's, a lot of the immigrants that had been -- a lot of the fears of immigrants that had been boiling during the great migration started to come to a head widget eventually led to the act which would

effectively end immigration by creating a quota. this was the 1920's, which were also a time of rising anti-semitism, largely due to the big immigration surge up to the 1920's. we talk a little bit about henry ford's anti-semitism and the rise of " the protocols of zion" which was a false document purporting to talk about a jewish conspiracy. in the 1930's, there was a cultural splurging in america despite the depression.

a lot of rich artistic activity. we look at the rise of the movies in the 1930's. we look at the wpa. the government program that supported artists during the 1930's, and many others. we also look at the political situation in america. a lot of people were espousing different concepts like socialism, zionism, or different political concepts and trying them out in the interest of making america better. we also explore religion in the 1930's. sh -- this was a synagogue that opened its doors in 1913. by the 1980's, the congregation had slacked off, and they would be closing the doors and moving out of the neighborhood.

they did not need the big synagogue anymore. someone asked us and asked if we would like to go in and see their torah art, which our curators did. they saw a monumental, handcarved, hand-painted torah arc that had been painted by these immigrants 70 years earlier. we salvaged the entire torah arc, part of it is on display here now, including these liens on display in the ceiling. we think a lot of the carving was done by people who were also carving carousel animals. you can kind of see that in the face of the lions. in this area, we look at the american experience of world war ii and the holocaust. jewish leaders were faced with a dilemma. should they boycott germany and hold rallies in the street and make lots of noise about what they knew was happening in

europe? or should they quietly work behind the scenes to come to a diplomatic solution to this rising problem of the nazi riots in europe? one of the reason for this hesitation was that there was domestic anti-semitism. we saw earlier a henry ford publication espousing his violent anti-semitic beliefs. in the 1930's, you had people like father cochran, a catholic priest, who had a radio show and was a national figure who spoke up against jews. very anti-semitic. during this time, there were strict quotas for who could enter america and when. the visa system was very controlled at this time.

this is a steamer trunk from a family that attempted to emigrate in 1939 on the ms st. louis, and luxury ship carrying 937 passengers from germany to cuba. most of the people were jewish and most had visas to enter the united states at a later date. they were going to lay out a time period before that in cuba. when they arrived in havana, they realized that their landing permits were fraudulent. they had been sold to them by a corrupt government official. only a few people were able to get off the boat in cuba. the jewish community scrambled to try to figure out how to give these 930 people refuge in america. there were ultimately unable to do so because the quota system was strict.

the ship had to turn back to europe. joseph joseph, who was on the ship with his wife and their daughter, was part of the passenger committee that the captain of the ship, who was not jewish, organized in order to buoy spirits of the customers as they were headed back to europe. people were terrified what would happen to them when they had to get off the ship again. this particular family made their way to america the following year. they got off the ship and great britain, and came to philadelphia the following year. in 1997, we got a call from an auction house. the auctioneer, barry fossberg, had this steamer trunk put on consignment, and he noticed a sticker that said st. louis.

he knew about the journey of the st. louis, so he called us and asked if we were interested in the trunk. he very generously purchased it from the consignor and donated it to the museum. it is one of our special artifacts here. by 1944, it was widely known that the holocaust was happening in europe. we were immersed in world war ii and the treasury secretary asked several of his aides to write a report on what the government was doing to help aid european jews. his aides wrote a long report after studying the subject. it was very explicit statement on what was happening.

morgenthaler condensed this report and presented it to roosevelt, in several days later the refugee board was instituted to try to get people out of europe and give them refuge in america. more people went to england and other places. one of the phenomena that we saw was a lot of americans, jewish and not, started organizing and trying to figure out ways to get threatened people out of hostile territory to america. one of the compelling stories is that of helga weiss and 29 other children saved by a couple, and the jewish fraternal

organization briss shalom. they were able to obtain 50 visas to help bring unaccompanied children from europe to america. they traveled to europe to interview the families of the people who applied, and one of them was helga weiss, her parents rosa and emile. they had already managed to send their older daughter to palestine, so that she could be safe there. to say we were happy to find a spot for helga on this transport. helga brought with her this teddy bear, pair of pajamas that her mother had made, and this hairbrush.

she strongly remembered the application process. she was only eight years old at the time, but later said that she always remembered having to write everything perfectly, and the amount of pressure that was on her to do everything perfectly on this application, because her parents were frightened that if her handwriting was not perfect, she might not be chosen to go on this trip and we rescued. helga's mother died in the holocaust. her father managed to come to america. she had been living with a foster family during the time, about a year when they were separated, and they meet in detroit where she grew up. a very sweet lady. she trained seeing eye dogs later in life. she used this teddy bear in school presentations that she gave in her community as an the experiencef

of jewish people during the holocaust. in this gallery, we look at the experience of jewish soldiers fighting in the war. both men and women. we have a uniform here from a woman who was in the army auxiliary corp. in 1932.ted her name was cecelia winkler. our second floor explores the postwar period to the present day. it looks at culture during this time period. the cold war. suburbanization and the establishment of the state of israel as well as carrying on traditions. he might have noticed that both of the floors above us started with an immigration story. this starts more with a migration story. in the postwar, a lot of the immigrants are moving out to the suburbs, along with their christian neighbors and everybody else.

the jewish immigrants are more of the dp's from europe. displaced people living in camps in europe. a lot more went to israel, some state in europe, some came to america. the establishing of the state of israel was a momentous occasion for jewish americans in 1948 who were still horrified by what had happened during the holocaust. carried a lot of meeting -- meaning for them a safe refuge, a jewish home. during the 1950's, we experienced the red scare. this was a frightening time for many jewish people, many who had been involved in communism before.

a lot of ideas were percolating about how to improve america, and how to make things work well for everybody. communism was one of those ideas that people had. one of the news stories was that trial of julius and ethel rosenberg, who were a jewish couple. we know now that julia was a -- julius was a spy, and we are not sure of ethel's involvement. they were executed as spies. at the time, people did not really believe they were spies. they thought it was more anti-semitic than anything. certainly, there were to the wayc aspects that americans were reacting to their trial. we hear a lot about the hollywood blacklist, and it was a real thing. this is a book called "red channels." it was written and published in 1950.

it named names. if you open the book, you will see all kinds of famous names from well-known people and it listed everything that they did that was considered un-american. this was the summons for screenwriter alvah bessie to give testimony before the committee. she became what was known as the hollywood 10 which were a group of hollywood people imprisoned. bessie was in jail for a year in contempt of congress. he would never work in hollywood again. in this area, we look at the experience of jewish families who moved out of the urban areas into the new suburbs that were opening up. at the end of world war ii, with the g.i. bill, a lot of people had the opportunity to get an education, start a business, and buy a house in a neighborhood somewhat nicer than the

immigrant neighborhoods they had been in. a lot of people were moving to the suburbs. here we talk about the catskills. very famous in jewish history. we talk about the different leisure activities that people were doing in the 1950's in the postwar period. from going on vacation -- the catskills were and mountain area in upstate new york that became popular with artists in the 19th century, and with vacationers later on looking to get out of the city. a lot of the hotels up there were restricted. they would not accept jews, so jews started to build their own hotels, including this famous classic hotel like the concord.

their clientele were jewish, they would have kosher menus, and offered high holiday services in the fall. one of the results of people moving out ot these -- out to these suburbs is they were not such tightknit jewish communities anymore. a lot of suburbs started to build ways to help their children remain jewish, to support jewish tradition in their children, and meet other jews where they had a lot of christian neighbors. this was a time period where the community centers were established in america and people were making an effort to send their children to jewish

schools, or supplemental jewish schools after school or on the weekend. here, we look at jewish summer camp. along with jewish schools or jewish supplemental schools, a lot of parents sent their kids to jewish summer camp in the summer. including camp sedgewin. during this time period, when people were thinking about how to teach the children, they started thinking about more innovative ways to teach kids. diana foreman, you see her in that picture with her two children decided that one way to teach children about the bible would be to create toys that told the bible stories, so kids could act out the stories. she did a lot of research into costume in the biblical period, and she started making her own dolls. she made hundreds and hundreds

of them and brought them to school and taught kids about the bible. she eventually opened a commercial business, the american bible tall company which sold -- bible doll company which sold dolls to the 1970's and eventually a collection of these bible dolls came to this museum in the 1980's that came directly from diana, which she had made. in the 1960's and the 1970's was the time of the great social fomenting of different ideas. we look at jewish involvement in the civil rights movement. feminism and the jewish nation ship with israel during this time period as well.

the last area of our exhibition, where we have artifacts, is this area where we look at the 1980's. jewish culture in this time period, as well as identity, and what it means to be a jew in the late 20th century. this is a hanukkah menorah from a survivor of the holocaust. he designed this menorah in 2011 when the statue of liberty turned 125 years old. he made a caste of statue of liberty statuettes, and turned it into a menorah. we have it on display here. we actually loaned it out to the white house a couple of years ago. president obama lit it for hanukkah. we wanted to give our visitors a chance to talk that to us and

talk with each other after making their way through this exhibition and learning about the history of the jewish people in america. in this gallery, we project four questions all the time and change them according to current events if something happened. visitors get a chance to fill out this with their opinion, put it on the wall, and see how people are reacting to contemporary events which has a lot to do with historical events. >> this was the second of a two-part look at the national museum of american jewish history. you can watch this and all other american history tv programs at c-span.org/history. >> next come a look at the history of the chicano movement. mario t. garcia from university

of california, santa barbara inke recently about chicanos los angeles in the early 1960's and 1970's. i will conclude this special panel and book presentation with .y own recent publication in the last two years, i have published two books on the chicano movement. one is a volume entitled "the chicano movement: perspectives 20th century." to the the contributions book are the revised papers from the conference. i blessedlude those it from other scholars to provide a more rounded coverage