Interview with Ruben Melinkov, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Partial Transcript: Ruben is a member of a Jewish club that meets every week.

Partial Transcript: Ruben was born in Russia and came to America in 1892. He worked as a cabinet maker and a carpenter in America. In the mid 1890s, there was a depression and Ruben had to get another job in a factory.

Partial Transcript: When Ruben first came to Milwaukee, the Jewish community did not have a shul. He talks about where the Jewish community would worship before they had a shul and the process of buying a shul on fifth street. The shul that Ruben attended during the time of the interview was converted from a church.

Partial Transcript: Ruben talks about a Milwaukee congregation that went bankrupt.

Partial Transcript: Ruben talks about the chief rabbi of the Milwaukee area.

Partial Transcript: When Ruben first came to Milwaukee, the Jewish community was primarily composed of reformed Jews and there were not many orthodox Jews.

Partial Transcript: Ruben left Russia because of the Pogroms.

Partial Transcript: Ruben paid someone to take him from Russia to Germany by train. From Germany, Ruben traveled to Manchester, England and took a boat to America. The trip by boat took eighteen days and the boat arrived in Boston.

Partial Transcript: Ruben's brother owned a junk shop in Milwaukee. He took a train from Boston to Milwaukee.

Partial Transcript: Ruben talks about the places he lived in Milwaukee.

Partial Transcript: Ruben worked for a furniture company, but not many other Jews worked in trades. He first peddled potatoes with a horse and wagon when he first came to Milwaukee. He then got a job at a furniture factory making cabinets for seventy-five cents an hour.

Partial Transcript: There was a Jewish community center in downtown Milwaukee when Ruben came to the city in 1892. He says the community center helped Jews find jobs.

Partial Transcript: Ruben says he belonged to a labor union, but it was not Jewish. He talks about working at a factory for twenty cents an hour and going on strike for a two cents an hour raise.

Partial Transcript: When Ruben first came to Milwaukee, there was just a tiny Jewish hospital near Fifth and Walnut Street. A few years after he arrived, they started building Mount Sinai Hospital.

Partial Transcript: Ruben lived in Kiev where Jews were discriminated against. Jews were not allowed to attend school in Russia.

Partial Transcript: Ruben says he did not have much of a Jewish education. His mother had sixteen children.

Partial Transcript: Ruben came to America because he was told that he would have the opportunity to become rich in the United States.

Partial Transcript: Ruben had six children. One of his children died at the age of twenty-nine years old. Another one of his children became a doctor and has four daughters. Three of his other children are married, and one was still single at the time of the interview.