190-586: Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin ; Yiddish : ישראל ביילין ; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and songwriter. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook . Berlin received numerous honors including an Academy Award , a Grammy Award , and a Tony Award . He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald R. Ford in 1977. Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite stated he "helped write
380-434: A "hospital building", both made of fireproof materials, should be part of each nomination. Furthermore, the buildings had to be able to host a daily average of 1,000 and maximum of 4,000 immigrants. Several prominent architectural firms filed proposals, and by December, it was announced that Edward Lippincott Tilton and William A. Boring had won the competition. Tilton and Boring's plan called for four new structures:
570-450: A Simple Melody " became the first of his famous "double" songs in which two different melodies and lyrics are counterpointed against one another. Variety called Watch Your Step the "first syncopated musical", where the "sets and the girls were gorgeous". Berlin was then 26, and the success of the show was riding on his name alone. Variety said the show was a "terrific hit" from its opening night. It compared Berlin's newfound status as
760-556: A U.S. congressional committee drew a map of possible locations for the First System of fortifications to protect major American urban centers such as New York Harbor. A small part of Ellis Island from "the soil from high to low waters mark around Ellis's Island" was owned by the city. On April 21, 1794, the city deeded that land to the state for public defense purposes. The following year, the state allotted $ 100,000 for fortifications on Bedloe's, Ellis, and Governors Islands , as well as
950-482: A barracks for the 11th Regiment , as well as a jail for British prisoners of war. Immediately after the end of the War of 1812, Fort Gibson was largely used as a recruiting depot. The fort went into decline due to under-utilization, and it was being jointly administered by the U.S. Army and Navy by the mid-1830s. Around this time, in 1834, the extant portions of Ellis Island was declared to be an exclave of New York within
1140-511: A circular stone 14-gun battery , a mortar battery (possibly of six mortars), magazine , and barracks . The fort was initially called Crown Fort, but by the end of the War of 1812 the battery was named Fort Gibson, in honor of Colonel James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, who was killed in the war during the Siege of Fort Erie . The fort was not used in combat during the war, and instead served as
1330-534: A collection of narrative poems on themes from the Hebrew Bible and the Haggadah . The advent of the printing press in the 16th century enabled the large-scale production of works, at a cheaper cost, some of which have survived. One particularly popular work was Elia Levita 's Bovo-Bukh ( בָּבָֿא-בּוך ), composed around 1507–08 and printed several times, beginning in 1541 (under the title Bovo d'Antona ). Levita,
1520-562: A composer with that of the Times building: "That youthful marvel of syncopated melody is proving things in Watch Your Step , firstly that he is not alone a rag composer, and that he is one of the greatest lyric writers America has ever produced." Whitcomb also points out the irony that Russia, the country Berlin's family was forced to leave, flung itself into "the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania". For example, Prince Felix Yusupov ,
1710-476: A cover of this song on his 1992 release The Future (Leonard Cohen album) . Written after his first daughter's birth, he distilled his feelings about being married and a father for the first time: "Blue days, all of them gone; nothing but blue skies, from now on." The song was introduced by Belle Baker in Betsy , a Ziegfeld production. It became a hit recording for Ben Selvin and one of several Berlin hits in 1927. It
1900-420: A glass canopy. Though the canopy was added in the 1980s, it evokes the design of an earlier glass canopy on the site that existed from 1902 to 1932. A 200 by 100 ft (61 by 30 m) registry room, with a 56 ft (17 m) ceiling, is located on the central section of the second floor. The room was used for primary inspections. Initially, there were handrails within the registry room that separated
2090-491: A great kid", and raved about him so much that Von Tilzer hired Berlin. In 1908, when he was 20, Berlin took a new job at a saloon named Jimmy Kelly's in the Union Square neighborhood. There, he was able to collaborate with other young songwriters, such as Edgar Leslie , Ted Snyder , Al Piantadosi , and George A. Whiting . In 1909, the year of the premiere of Israel Zangwill 's The Melting Pot , he got another big break as
SECTION 10
#17328445907742280-489: A hit twice (for Vincent Lopez and George Olsen ) in its first incarnation. There were four more hit versions in 1944–45. In 1959, Sammy Turner took the song to no. 2 on the R&;B chart. It became Patsy Cline 's postmortem anthem and hit no. 18 on the country chart in 1980, 17 years after her death, and a tribute musical called "Always... Patsy Cline", played a two-year Nashville run that ended in 1995. Leonard Cohen included
2470-431: A hospital, detention building, laundry building, and utility plant that were all made of wood. Some of the former stone magazine structures were reused for utilities and offices. Additionally, a ferry slip with breakwater was built to the south of Ellis Island. Following further expansion, the island measured 11 acres (4.5 ha) by the end of 1892. The station opened on January 1, 1892, and its first immigrant
2660-419: A large main building, a powerhouse, and a new baggage/dormitory and kitchen building on the north side of Ellis Island; a hospital on the south side; and a ferry dock with covered walkways at the head of the ferry basin, on the west side of the island. The plan roughly corresponds to what was ultimately built. The northern half of Ellis Island is composed of the former island 1. Only the areas associated with
2850-485: A lesser extent, the United Kingdom. This has resulted in some difficulty in communication between Yiddish speakers from Israel and those from other countries. There is significant phonological variation among the various Yiddish dialects . The description that follows is of a modern Standard Yiddish that was devised during the early 20th century and is frequently encountered in pedagogical contexts. Uvular As in
3040-566: A main building in the French Renaissance style, as well as the kitchen/laundry building, powerhouse, and the main hospital building . The plan also included the creation of a new island called island 2, upon which the hospital would be built, south of the existing island (now Ellis Island's north side). A construction contract was awarded to the R. H. Hood Company in August 1898, with the expectation that construction would be completed within
3230-401: A museum in 1990. The 27.5-acre (11.1 ha) island was expanded by land reclamation between the late 1890s and the 1930s and, at one point, consisted of three islands numbered 1, 2, and 3. Jurisdictional disputes between the states of New Jersey and New York persisted until the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court ruling New Jersey v. New York . The Supreme Court ruled that, while most of the island
3420-592: A museum on September 10, 1990. Further improvements were made after the north side's renovation was completed. The Wall of Honor, a monument to raise money for the restoration, was completed in 1990 and reconstructed starting in 1993. A research facility with online database, the American Family Immigration History Center, was opened in April 2001. Subsequently, the ferry building was restored for $ 6.4 million and reopened in 2007. The north side
3610-491: A new psychopathic ward debuted in November of the same year. Also constructed was an administration building adjacent to the hospital. Immigration commissioner William Williams made substantial changes to Ellis Island's operations, and during his tenure from 1902 to 1905 and 1909–1913, Ellis Island processed its peak number of immigrants. Williams also made changes to the island's appearance, adding plants and grading paths upon
3800-541: A partnership with Sam Harris to build the Music Box Theater . He maintained an interest in the theater throughout his life, and even in his last years was known to call the Shubert Organization , his partner, to check on the receipts. In its early years, the theater was a showcase for revues by Berlin. As theater owner, producer and composer, he looked after every detail of his shows, from the costumes and sets to
3990-447: A public execution site for pirates, with executions occurring at one tree in particular, the "Gibbet Tree". However, there is scant evidence that this was common practice. Little Oyster Island was acquired by Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant from Wrexham , Wales, in 1774; the island was ultimately named for him. He unsuccessfully attempted to sell the island nine years later. Ellis died in 1794, and as per his will,
SECTION 20
#17328445907744180-416: A ragtime revue, Watch Your Step , which starred the couple and showcased their talents on stage. That musical revue became Berlin's first complete score with songs that "radiated musical and lyrical sophistication". Berlin's songs signified modernism , and they signified the cultural struggle between Victorian gentility and the "purveyors of liberation, indulgence, and leisure", says Furia. The song " Play
4370-466: A recent Oxford undergraduate of Russian noble lineage and heir to the largest estate in Russia, was described by his dance partner as "wriggling around the ballroom like a demented worm, screaming for 'more ragtime and more champagne ' ". My ambition is to reach the heart of the average American, not the highbrow nor the lowbrow but that vast intermediate crew which is the real soul of the country. The highbrow
4560-406: A ship departing for China and became so entranced that he did not see a swinging crane, which knocked him into the river. When he was fished out after going down for the third time, he was still holding in his clenched fist the five pennies he earned that day. His mother took a job as a midwife , and three of his sisters worked wrapping cigars, common for immigrant girls. His older brother worked in
4750-622: A single of the song in 1963, 31 years later. Furia notes that when Vallée first introduced the song on his radio show, the "song not only became an overnight hit, it saved Vallée's marriage: The Vallées had planned to get a divorce, but after Vallée sang Berlin's romantic lyrics on the air, "both he and his wife dissolved in tears" and decided to stay together. Yiddish language Yiddish ( ייִדיש , יידיש or אידיש , yidish or idish , pronounced [ˈ(j)ɪdɪʃ] , lit. ' Jewish ' ; ייִדיש-טײַטש , historically also Yidish-Taytsh , lit. ' Judeo-German ' )
4940-416: A single records room. The first floor's east wing also contained a railroad waiting room and medical offices, though much of the wing was later converted to record rooms. A railroad ticket office annex was added to the north side of the first floor in 1905–1906. The south elevation of the first floor contains the current immigration museum's main entrance, approached by a slightly sloped passageway covered by
5130-495: A single year". On April 1, 1917, after President Woodrow Wilson declared that America would enter World War I , Berlin felt that Tin Pan Alley should do its duty and support the war with inspirational songs. Berlin wrote the song "For Your Country and My Country", stating that "we must speak with the sword not the pen to show our appreciation to America for opening up her heart and welcoming every immigrant group." He also co-wrote
5320-436: A song aimed at ending ethnic conflict, "Let's All Be Americans Now". At the grand finale... Sergeant Berlin led the entire 300-person cast off the stage, marching them down the theater's aisles, singing 'We're on Our Way to France,' all to tumultuous applause. The cast carried off their little producer like he was victor ludorum ... Tin Pan Alley had joined hands with real life — biographer Ian Whitcomb . In 1917, Berlin
5510-634: A songwriter in Tin Pan Alley and on Broadway . In 1911, Emma Carus introduced his first world-famous hit, " Alexander's Ragtime Band ", followed by a performance from Berlin himself at the Friars' Frolic of 1911 with Clifford Hess as his accompanist. He became an instant celebrity, and the featured performer later that year at Oscar Hammerstein 's vaudeville house, where he introduced dozens of other songs. The New York Telegraph described how two hundred of his street friends came to see "their boy" onstage: "All
5700-425: A songwriting star. From its first and subsequent releases, the song was near the top of the charts as others sang it: Bessie Smith , in 1927, and Louis Armstrong , in 1937; No. 1 by Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell; Johnny Mercer in 1945; Al Jolson , in 1947 and Nellie Lutcher in 1948. Add Ray Charles 's big-band version in 1959, and "Alexander" had a dozen hit versions in just under a half century. Initially
5890-480: A staff lyricist with the Ted Snyder Company . Installed as a staff lyricist with a leading Tin Pan Alley music publishing house, Berlin quickly established himself as one of that frantic industry's top writers of words to other composer's melodies. By 1910 he was already in demand and even appeared in a Shubert Broadway revue performing his own songs. It was purely by chance that Berlin started composing music to
Irving Berlin - Misplaced Pages Continue
6080-476: A sweatshop assembling shirts. Each evening, when the family came home from their day's work, Bergreen writes, "they would deposit the coins they had earned that day into Lena's outspread apron." Music historian Philip Furia writes that when "Izzy" began to sell newspapers in the Bowery , he was exposed to the music and sounds coming from saloons and restaurants that lined the crowded streets. Young Berlin sang some of
6270-604: A three-room tenement at 330 Cherry Street . His father, unable to find comparable work as a cantor in New York, took a job at a kosher meat market and gave Hebrew lessons on the side to support his family. He died a few years later when Irving was thirteen years old. With only a few years of schooling, eight-year-old Irving began helping to support his family. He became a newspaper boy, hawking The Evening Journal. One day while delivering newspapers, according to Berlin's biographer and friend, Alexander Woollcott , he stopped to look at
6460-430: A treatment center for wounded American soldiers. Immigration inspections were conducted aboard ships or at docks. During the war, immigration processing at Ellis Island declined by 97%, from 878,000 immigrants per year in 1914 to 26,000 per year in 1919. Ellis Island's immigration station was reopened in 1920, and processing had rebounded to 560,000 immigrants per year by 1921. There were still ample complaints about
6650-801: A year, but the project encountered delays because of various obstacles and disagreements between the federal government and the Hood Company. A separate contract to build the 3.33-acre (1.35 ha) island 2 had to be approved by the War Department because it was in New Jersey's waters; that contract was completed in December 1898. The construction costs ultimately totaled $ 1.5 million. The new immigration station opened on December 17, 1900, without ceremony. On that day, 2,251 immigrants were processed. Almost immediately, additional projects commenced to improve
6840-657: Is American music." Berlin was born Israel Beilin on May 11, 1888, in the Russian Empire . Although his family came from the shtetl of Tolochin ( Yiddish : טאָלאָטשין ; today Talachyn, Талачын , in Belarus ), Berlin later learned that he was probably born in Tyumen , Siberia, where his father, an itinerant cantor , had taken his family. He was one of eight children of Moses (1848–1901) and Lena Lipkin Beilin (1850–1922). From Tyumen,
7030-626: Is Avroham ben Schemuel Pikartei, who published a paraphrase on the Book of Job in 1557. Women in the Ashkenazi community were traditionally not literate in Hebrew but did read and write Yiddish. A body of literature therefore developed for which women were a primary audience. This included secular works, such as the Bovo-Bukh , and religious writing specifically for women, such as the צאנה וראינה Tseno Ureno and
7220-475: Is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews . It originated in 9th century Central Europe , and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew (notably Mishnaic ) and to some extent Aramaic . Most varieties of Yiddish include elements of Slavic languages and the vocabulary contains traces of Romance languages . Yiddish has traditionally been written using
7410-627: Is a federally owned island in New York Harbor , situated within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York . Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965 and
7600-604: Is a cost for the ferry service. A concession was granted in 2007 to Statue Cruises to operate the transportation and ticketing facilities, replacing Circle Line , which had operated the service since 1953. The ferries travel from Liberty State Park in Jersey City and the Battery in Lower Manhattan . Save Ellis Isand offers guided public tours of the south side as part of the "Hard Hat Tour". A bridge to Liberty State Park
7790-539: Is accessible to the public only by ferry . The north side of the island is a national museum of immigration, while the south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital , is open to the public through guided tours. The name derives from Samuel Ellis, a Welshman who bought the island in 1774. In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson and later became a naval magazine . The first inspection station opened in 1892 and
Irving Berlin - Misplaced Pages Continue
7980-480: Is also used in the adjectival sense, synonymously with "Ashkenazi Jewish", to designate attributes of Yiddishkeit ("Ashkenazi culture"; for example, Yiddish cooking and "Yiddish music" – klezmer ). Hebrew Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic Other Jewish diaspora languages Jewish folklore Jewish poetry By the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture had formed in Central Europe. By
8170-545: Is commemorated through the Ellis Island Medal of Honor , and it has received several federal, state, and municipal landmark designations. Ellis Island is in Upper New York Bay , east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island . While most of the island is in Jersey City, New Jersey , a small section is an exclave of New York City . The island has a land area of 27.5 acres (11.1 ha), much of which
8360-478: Is from land reclamation . The natural island and contiguous areas comprise 4.68 acres (1.89 ha) within New York, and are located on the northern portion of the present-day island. The artificial land is part of New Jersey. The island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States since 1808 and operated by the National Park Service since 1965. Initially, much of
8550-580: Is in New Jersey, a portion of the northern end is an exclave of New York. The northern half of Ellis Island comprises the former Island 1 and includes the main building, several ancillary structures, and the Wall of Honor. The hospital structures on the island's southern half occupy the former sites of islands 2 and 3, and there is a ferry building between Ellis Island's northern and southern halves. Historically, immigrants were subjected to medical and primary inspections, and they could be detained or deported. The island
8740-542: Is likely to be superficial, overtrained, supersensitive. The lowbrow is warped, subnormal. My public is the real people. — Irving Berlin Some of the songs Berlin created came out of his own sadness. For instance, in 1912 he married Dorothy Goetz , the sister of songwriter E. Ray Goetz . She died six months later of typhoid fever contracted during their honeymoon in Havana . The song he wrote to express his grief, "When I Lost You",
8930-493: Is printed in Hebrew script.) According to a study by the German media association Internationale Medienhilfe (IMH), more than 40 printed Yiddish newspapers and magazines were published worldwide in 2024, and the trend is rising. The Western Yiddish dialect—sometimes pejoratively labeled Mauscheldeutsch , i. e. "Moses German" —declined in the 18th century, as the Age of Enlightenment and
9120-506: Is pronounced [haɡˈdɔmɜ] . The vowel phonemes of Standard Yiddish are: In addition, the sonorants /l/ and /n/ can function as syllable nuclei : [m] and [ŋ] appear as syllable nuclei as well, but only as allophones of /n/ , after bilabial consonants and dorsal consonants , respectively. The syllabic sonorants are always unstressed. Stressed vowels in the Yiddish dialects may be understood by considering their common origins in
9310-588: Is reflected in some Ashkenazi personal names (e.g., Kalonymos and Yiddish Todres ). Hebrew, on the other hand, was regarded as a holy language reserved for ritual and spiritual purposes and not for common use. The established view is that, as with other Jewish languages , Jews speaking distinct languages learned new co-territorial vernaculars, which they then Judaized. In the case of Yiddish, this scenario sees it as emerging when speakers of Zarphatic (Judeo-French) and other Judeo-Romance languages began to acquire varieties of Middle High German , and from these groups
9500-493: Is uncertain). An additional distinctive semicursive typeface was, and still is, used for rabbinical commentary on religious texts when Hebrew and Yiddish appear on the same page. This is commonly termed Rashi script , from the name of the most renowned early author, whose commentary is usually printed using this script. (Rashi is also the typeface normally used when the Sephardic counterpart to Yiddish, Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino ,
9690-554: The Haskalah led to a view of Yiddish as a corrupt dialect. The 19th century Prussian-Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz , for example, wrote that "the language of the Jews [in Poland] ... degenerat[ed] into a ridiculous jargon, a mixture of German, Polish, and Talmudical elements, an unpleasant stammering, rendered still more repulsive by forced attempts at wit." A Maskil (one who takes part in
SECTION 50
#17328445907749880-554: The Central Railroad of New Jersey . It eventually obliterated the oyster beds, engulfed one of the Oyster Islands, and brought the shoreline much closer to the others. The current island is shaped like a "C", with two landmasses of equal size on the northeastern and southwestern sides, separated by what was formerly a ferry pier. It was originally three separate islands. The current north side, formerly called island 1, contains
10070-650: The Haskalah ) would write about and promote acclimatization to the outside world. Jewish children began attending secular schools where the primary language spoken and taught was German, not Yiddish. Yiddish grates on our ears and distorts. This jargon is incapable in fact of expressing sublime thoughts. It is our obligation to cast off these old rags, a heritage of the dark Middle Ages. – Osip Aronovich Rabinovich , in an article titled "Russia – Our Native Land: Just as We Breathe Its Air, We Must Speak Its Language" in
10260-587: The Hebrew alphabet . Prior to World War II , there were 11–13 million speakers. Eighty-five percent of the approximately six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, leading to a massive decline in the use of the language. Assimilation following World War II and aliyah (immigration to Israel) further decreased the use of Yiddish among survivors after adapting to Hebrew in Israel. However,
10450-620: The High Holy Days ) and בֵּיתֿ הַכְּנֶסֶתֿ , 'synagogue' (read in Yiddish as beis hakneses ) – had been included. The niqqud appears as though it might have been added by a second scribe, in which case it may need to be dated separately and may not be indicative of the pronunciation of the rhyme at the time of its initial annotation. Over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, songs and poems in Yiddish, and macaronic pieces in Hebrew and German, began to appear. These were collected in
10640-568: The Middle High German diphthong ei and long vowel î to /aɪ/ , Yiddish has maintained the distinction between them; and likewise, the Standard German /ɔʏ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthong öu and the long vowel iu , which in Yiddish have merged with their unrounded counterparts ei and î , respectively. Lastly, the Standard German /aʊ/ corresponds to both the MHG diphthong ou and
10830-525: The Odessan journal Рассвет (dawn), 1861. Owing to both assimilation to German and the revival of Hebrew , Western Yiddish survived only as a language of "intimate family circles or of closely knit trade groups". In eastern Europe, the response to these forces took the opposite direction, with Yiddish becoming the cohesive force in a secular culture (see the Yiddishist movement ). Notable Yiddish writers of
11020-480: The Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact (Russian, Belarusian , Polish , and Ukrainian ), but unlike German, voiceless stops have little to no aspiration ; unlike many such languages, voiced stops are not devoiced in final position. Moreover, Yiddish has regressive voicing assimilation , so that, for example, זאָגט /zɔɡt/ ('says') is pronounced [zɔkt] and הקדמה /hakˈdɔmɜ/ ('foreword')
11210-554: The high medieval period , their area of settlement, centered on the Rhineland ( Mainz ) and the Palatinate (notably Worms and Speyer ), came to be known as Ashkenaz , originally a term used of Scythia , and later of various areas of Eastern Europe and Anatolia. In the medieval Hebrew of Rashi (d. 1105), Ashkenaz becomes a term for Germany, and אשכּנזי Ashkenazi for the Jews settling in this area. Ashkenaz bordered on
11400-431: The תחנות Tkhines . One of the best-known early woman authors was Glückel of Hameln , whose memoirs are still in print. The segmentation of the Yiddish readership, between women who read מאַמע־לשון mame-loshn but not לשון־קדש loshn-koydesh , and men who read both, was significant enough that distinctive typefaces were used for each. The name commonly given to the semicursive form used exclusively for Yiddish
11590-483: The 1920s, the second ferry basin between islands 2 and 3 was infilled to create the great lawn, forming the current south side of Ellis Island. As part of the project, a concrete and granite seawall was built to connect the tip of these landmasses. The circumstances which led to an exclave of New York being located within New Jersey began in the colonial era, after the British takeover of New Netherland in 1664. A clause in
SECTION 60
#173284459077411780-629: The 1925 founding of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, YIVO . In Vilnius , there was debate over which language should take primacy, Hebrew or Yiddish. Yiddish changed significantly during the 20th century. Michael Wex writes, "As increasing numbers of Yiddish speakers moved from the Slavic-speaking East to Western Europe and the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were so quick to jettison Slavic vocabulary that
11970-491: The 1946 film Blue Skies . The song was written in 1928 with a separate set of lyrics and was introduced by Harry Richman in a 1930 film of the same name. In 1939, Clark Gable sang it in the movie Idiot's Delight . In 1974 it was featured in the movie Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks , and was a no. 4 hit for synth-pop artist Taco in 1982. In 2012 it was used for a flash mob wedding event in Moscow. This waltz-time song
12160-580: The Ashkenazi community took shape. Exactly what German substrate underlies the earliest form of Yiddish is disputed. The Jewish community in the Rhineland would have encountered the Middle High German dialects from which the Rhenish German dialects of the modern period would emerge. Jewish communities of the high medieval period would have been speaking their own versions of these German dialects, mixed with linguistic elements that they themselves brought into
12350-521: The Pelham's resident pianist Mike Nicholson, in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights. The sheet music to the published song presented his name as "I. Berlin". Berlin continued writing and playing music at Pelham Cafe and developing an early style. He liked the words to other people's songs but sometimes the rhythms were "kind of boggy," and he might change them. One night he delivered some hits composed by his friend George M. Cohan , another kid who
12540-548: The Proto-Yiddish sound system. Yiddish linguistic scholarship uses a system developed by Max Weinreich in 1960 to indicate the descendent diaphonemes of the Proto-Yiddish stressed vowels. Each Proto-Yiddish vowel is given a unique two-digit identifier, and its reflexes use it as a subscript, for example Southeastern o 11 is the vowel /o/, descended from Proto-Yiddish */a/. The first digit indicates Proto-Yiddish quality (1-=*[a], 2-=*[e], 3-=*[i], 4-=*[o], 5-=*[u]), and
12730-548: The Ritz ", " Cheek to Cheek ", " White Christmas ", " Happy Holiday ", " Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) ", and " There's No Business Like Show Business ". His Broadway musical This Is the Army (1942) was adapted into the 1943 film of the same name . Berlin's songs have reached the top of the US charts 25 times and have been extensively re-recorded by numerous singers. Berlin died in 1989 at
12920-476: The Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Centennial Commission, led by Chrysler Corporation chair Lee Iacocca with former President Gerald Ford as honorary chairman, to raise the funds needed to complete the work. The plan for Ellis Island was to cost $ 128 million, and by the time work commenced in 1984, about $ 40 million had been raised. Through its fundraising arm, the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.,
13110-592: The Treasury's Supervising Architect , James Knox Taylor , opened an architecture competition to rebuild the immigration station. The competition was the second to be conducted under the Tarsney Act of 1893, which had permitted private architects to design federal buildings, rather than government architects in the Supervising Architect's office. The contest rules specified that a "main building with annexes" and
13300-482: The U.S. Because of the resulting decline in patient counts, the hospital closed in 1930. Edward Corsi, who himself was an immigrant, became Ellis Island commissioner in 1931 and commenced an improvement program for the island. The initial improvements were utilitarian, focusing on such aspects as sewage, incineration, and power generation. In 1933, a federal committee led by the Secretary of Labor , Frances Perkins ,
13490-575: The United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, escaping discrimination, poverty and brutal pogroms . Other such families included those of George and Ira Gershwin , Al Jolson , Sophie Tucker , L. Wolfe Gilbert , Jack Yellen , Louis B. Mayer (of MGM ), and the Warner brothers . After their arrival in New York City, the Baline family lived briefly in a basement flat on Monroe Street, and then moved to
13680-528: The Upper New York Bay's western shore consisted of large tidal flats with vast oyster beds , which were a major source of food for the Lenape . Ellis Island was one of three "Oyster Islands," the other two being Liberty Island and the now-subsumed Black Tom Island . In the late 19th century, the federal government began expanding the island by land reclamation to accommodate its immigration station, and
13870-556: The age of 101 . Composer Douglas Moore sets Berlin apart from all other contemporary songwriters, and includes him instead with Stephen Foster , Walt Whitman , and Carl Sandburg , as a "great American minstrel"—someone who has "caught and immortalized in his songs what we say, what we think about, and what we believe." Composer George Gershwin called him "the greatest songwriter that has ever lived", and composer Jerome Kern concluded that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music—he
14060-519: The age of thirteen, Berlin had few survival skills and realized that formal employment was out of the question. His only ability was acquired from his father's vocation as a singer, and he joined with several other youngsters who went to saloons on the Bowery and sang to customers. Itinerant young singers like them were common on the Lower East Side. Berlin would sing a few of the popular ballads he heard on
14250-580: The area inhabited by another distinctive Jewish cultural group, the Sephardi Jews , who ranged into southern France . Ashkenazi culture later spread into Eastern Europe with large-scale population migrations. Nothing is known with certainty about the vernacular of the earliest Jews in Germany, but several theories have been put forward. As noted above, the first language of the Ashkenazim may have been Aramaic ,
14440-451: The artificial portions of the island were part of New Jersey, since they were outside New York's border. In 1956, after the closure of the U.S. immigration station two years prior, the Mayor of Jersey City Bernard J. Berry commandeered a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and led a contingent of New Jersey officials on an expedition to claim the island. Jurisdictional disputes reemerged in the 1980s with
14630-516: The bitter-sweetness of the 1920s, it was Berlin who gave eloquence to their heartbreak by way of ' What'll I Do ' and 'Remember' and 'All Alone'". This ballad of love and longing was a hit record for Paul Whiteman and had several other successful recordings in 1924. Twenty-four years later, the song went to no. 22 for Nat King Cole and no. 23 for Frank Sinatra . Written when he fell in love with Ellin Mackay , who later became his wife. The song became
14820-511: The boundary line at the middle of the Hudson River and New York Harbor; however, New York was guaranteed "exclusive jurisdiction of and over all the waters of Hudson River lying west of Manhattan and to the south of the mouth of Spuytenduyvil Creek ; and of and over the lands covered by the said waters, to the low-water mark on the New Jersey shore." This was later confirmed in other cases by the U.S. Supreme Court . New Jersey contended that
15010-584: The building was under construction, the Barge Office at the Battery was used for immigrant processing. During construction, most of the old Battery Gibson buildings were demolished, and Ellis Island's land size was almost doubled to 6 acres (2.4 ha). The main structure was a two-story structure of Georgia Pine , which was described in Harper's Weekly as "a latterday watering place hotel" measuring 400 by 150 ft (122 by 46 m). Its outbuildings included
15200-400: The casting and musical arrangements. According to Berlin biographer David Leopold, the theater, located at 239 West 45th St., was the only Broadway house built to accommodate the works of a songwriter. It was the home of Berlin's Music Box Revue from 1921 to 1925 and As Thousands Cheer in 1933 and today includes an exhibition devoted to Berlin in the lobby. By 1926, Berlin had written
15390-444: The changes included a three-story exhibition space and a new "discovery center". The NPS also announced plans to spend $ 17.7 million on renovating the museum buildings. Save Ellis Island, a nonprofit organization based in New Jersey, concurrently advocated for the preservation of the hospital buildings on the island's southern end. By 2023, Save Ellis Island had raised $ 70 million toward the buildings' renovation. The current complex
15580-400: The colonial land grant outlined the territory that the proprietors of New Jersey would receive as being "westward of Long Island, and Manhitas Island and bounded on the east part by the main sea, and part by Hudson's river." As early as 1804, attempts were made to resolve the status of the state line. The government of New York City claimed the right to regulate trade on all waters. This
15770-409: The complex suffered moderate damage; though all immigrants were evacuated safely, the main building's roof collapsed, and windows were broken. The main building's roof was replaced with a Guastavino-tiled arched ceiling by 1918. The immigration station was temporarily closed during World War I in 1917–1919, during which the facilities were used as a jail for suspected enemy combatants, and later as
15960-427: The construction of Castle Garden (now Castle Clinton ) along the Battery on Manhattan island. Batteries and magazines were built on Ellis Island in preparation for a war. A jetty was added to the northwestern extremity of the island, possibly from soil excavated from an inlet at the northeastern corner; the inlet was infilled by 1813. Though the military threat never materialized, further preparations were made in
16150-419: The decade". Composer George Gershwin , foreseeing its influence, said it was "the first real American musical work", adding, "Berlin had shown us the way; it was now easier to attain our ideal." Berlin was "flabbergasted" by the sudden international popularity of the song, and wondered why it became a sudden hit. He decided it was partly because the lyrics, "silly though it was, was fundamentally right ... [and]
16340-548: The earliest named Yiddish author, may also have written פּאַריז און װיענע Pariz un Viene ( Paris and Vienna ). Another Yiddish retelling of a chivalric romance, װידװילט Vidvilt (often referred to as "Widuwilt" by Germanizing scholars), presumably also dates from the 15th century, although the manuscripts are from the 16th. It is also known as Kinig Artus Hof , an adaptation of the Middle High German romance Wigalois by Wirnt von Grafenberg . Another significant writer
16530-532: The early 1910s. A greenhouse was built in 1910, and the contagious-diseases ward on island 3 opened the following June. In addition, the incinerator was replaced in 1911, and a recreation center operated by the American Red Cross was also built on island 2 by 1915. These facilities generally followed the design set by Tilton and Boring. When the Black Tom explosion occurred on Black Tom Island in 1916,
16720-464: The edges. However, Wright died before presenting the project. Other attempts at redeveloping the site, including a college, a retirement home , an alcoholics' rehabilitation center, and a world trade center were all unsuccessful. In 1963, the Jersey City Council voted to rezone the island's area within New Jersey for high-rise residential, monument/museum, or recreational use, though
16910-528: The end of the high medieval period. It is first recorded in 1272, with the oldest surviving literary document in Yiddish, a blessing found in the Worms machzor (a Hebrew prayer book). This brief rhyme is decoratively embedded in an otherwise purely Hebrew text. Nonetheless, it indicates that the Yiddish of that day was a more or less regular Middle High German written in the Hebrew alphabet into which Hebrew words – מַחֲזוֹר , makhazor (prayerbook for
17100-535: The expansions continued until 1934. The National Park Service cites the fill as having been acquired from the ballast of ships, as well as material excavated from the first line of the New York City Subway ; however, The New York Times writes that there is no evidence of subway fill being transported to the island. It also may have come from the railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and
17290-445: The extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin. Western Yiddish is divided into Southwestern (Swiss–Alsatian–Southern German), Midwestern (Central German), and Northwestern (Netherlandic–Northern German) dialects. Yiddish is used in a number of Haredi Jewish communities worldwide; it is the first language of the home, school, and in many social settings among many Haredi Jews, and is used in most Hasidic yeshivas . The term "Yiddish"
17480-531: The family returned to Tolochin, and from there, they travelled to Antwerp and left the old continent aboard the SS Rhynland from the Red Star Line . On September 14, 1893, the family arrived at Ellis Island in New York City. When they arrived, Israel was put in a pen with his brother and five sisters until immigration officials declared them fit to be allowed into the city. After the family's naturalization ,
17670-447: The federal government ordered the magazine at Ellis Island be torn down to make way for the U.S.'s first federal immigration station at the site. The Department of the Treasury , which was in charge of constructing federal buildings in the U.S., officially took control of the island that May 24. Congress initially allotted $ 75,000 (equivalent to $ 2,543,000 in 2023) to construct the station and later doubled that appropriation. While
17860-574: The federal government regarded Castle Clinton as having "varied charges of mismanagement, abuse of immigrants, and evasion of the laws", and as such, wanted it to be completely replaced. The federal government assumed control of immigration in early 1890 and commissioned a study to determine the best place for the new immigration station in New York Harbor. Among members of the United States Congress , there were disputes about whether to build
18050-451: The flood of immigrants that arrived, and as early as 1903, immigrants had to remain in their transatlantic boats for several days due to inspection backlogs. Several wooden buildings were erected by 1903, including waiting rooms and a 700-bed barracks, and by 1904, over a million dollars' worth of improvements were proposed. The hospital was expanded from 125 to 250 beds in February 1907, and
18240-632: The fort until 1860, when it abandoned the weapons at Battery Gibson. The artillery magazine was expanded in 1861, during the American Civil War , and part of the parapet was removed. At the end of the Civil War, the fort declined again, this time to an extent that the weaponry was rendered unusable. Through the 1870s, the Navy built additional buildings for its artillery magazine on Ellis Island, eventually constructing 11 buildings in total. Complaints about
18430-426: The group eventually raised more than $ 350 million in donations for the renovations of both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Initial restoration plans included renovating the main building, baggage and dormitory building, and the hospital, as well as possibly adding a bandshell, restaurant, and exhibits. Two firms, Notter Finegold & Alexander and Beyer Blinder Belle , designed the renovation. In advance of
18620-525: The heart of the average American," who he saw as the "real soul of the country". He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him famous before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 20 original Broadway shows and 15 original Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards . Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including " Alexander's Ragtime Band ", " Blue Skies ", " Easter Parade ", " Puttin' on
18810-568: The inadequate condition of Ellis Island's facilities. However, despite a request for $ 5.6 million in appropriations in 1921, aid was slow to materialize, and initial improvement work was restricted to smaller projects such as the infilling of the basin between islands 2 and 3. Other improvements included rearranging features such as staircases to improve pedestrian flow. These projects were supported by president Calvin Coolidge , who in 1924 requested that Congress approve $ 300,000 in appropriations for
19000-423: The island back to the city of New York or auctioning it to a private buyer. In 1959, real estate developer Sol Atlas unsuccessfully bid for the island, with plans to turn it into a $ 55 million resort with a hotel, marina, music shell, tennis courts, swimming pools, and skating rinks. The same year, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the $ 100 million "Key Project", which included housing, hotels, and large domes along
19190-566: The island to John A. Berry in 1806. The remaining portion of the island was acquired by condemnation the next year, and it was ceded to the United States on June 30, 1808, for $ 10,000. Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Williams , placed in charge of New York Harbor defenses in the early 1800s, proposed several new fortifications around the harbor as part of the Second System of fortifications. The new fortifications included increased firepower and improved weaponry. The War Department established
19380-541: The island to hunt for fish and oysters, as well as to build transient hunting and fishing communities there. It is unlikely that the Native Americans established permanent settlements on Kioshk, since the island would have been submerged at high tide. In 1630, the Dutch bought Kioshk as a gift for Michael Reyniersz Pauw , who had helped found New Netherland . When the Dutch settled the area as part of New Netherland ,
19570-633: The island were ultimately terminated in 1973. In the 1970s, the NPS started restoring the island by repairing seawalls, eliminating weeds, and building a new ferry dock. Simultaneously, Peter Sammartino launched the Restore Ellis Island Committee to raise awareness and money for repairs. The north side of the island, comprising the main building and surrounding structures, was rehabilitated and partially reopened for public tours in May 1976. The plant
19760-609: The island's magazines started to form, and by the 1870s, The New York Sun was publishing "alarming reports" about the magazines. The guns were ordered removed in 1881, and the island passed under the complete control of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance. The Army had unsuccessfully attempted to use Ellis Island "for the convalescence for immigrants" as early as 1847. Across New York Harbor, Castle Clinton had been used as an immigration station since 1855, processing more than eight million immigrants during that time. The individual states had their own varying immigration laws until 1875, but
19950-846: The island. The allocations were not received until the late 1920s. With the passing of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the number of immigrants being allowed into the United States declined greatly, ending the era of mass immigration. Following the Immigration Act of 1924 , strict immigration quotas were enacted, and Ellis Island was downgraded from a primary inspection center to an immigrant-detention center, hosting only those that were to be detained or deported (see § Mass detentions and deportations ). Final inspections were now instead conducted on board ships in New York Harbor. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 further decreased immigration, as people were now discouraged from immigrating to
20140-524: The island. The ferryboat Ellis Island , which had operated since 1904, stopped operating two weeks later. After the immigration station closed, the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned, and the General Services Administration (GSA) took over the island in March 1955. The GSA wanted to sell off the island as "surplus property" and contemplated several options, including selling
20330-431: The language's origins, with points of contention being the characterization of its Germanic base, the source of its Hebrew/Aramaic adstrata , and the means and location of this fusion. Some theorists argue that the fusion occurred with a Bavarian dialect base. The two main candidates for the germinal matrix of Yiddish, the Rhineland and Bavaria, are not necessarily incompatible. There may have been parallel developments in
20520-574: The late 15th century by Menahem ben Naphtali Oldendorf. During the same period, a tradition seems to have emerged of the Jewish community's adapting its own versions of German secular literature. The earliest Yiddish epic poem of this sort is the Dukus Horant , which survives in the famous Cambridge Codex T.-S.10.K.22. This 14th-century manuscript was discovered in the Cairo Geniza in 1896, and also contains
20710-515: The late 1790s, when the Quasi War sparked fears of war with France; these new preparations were supervised by Ebenezer Stevens . The military conflict also failed to occur, and by 1805, the fort had become rundown. Stevens, who observed that the Ellis family still owned most of the island, suggested selling off the land to the federal government. Samuel Ryerson, one of Samuel Ellis's grandsons, deeded
20900-412: The late 1930s. As part of the project, the surgeon's house and recreation center were demolished, and Edward Laning commissioned some murals for the island's buildings. Other improvements included the demolition of the greenhouse, the completion of the infilling of the basin between islands 2 and 3, and various landscaping activities such as the installation of walkways and plants. However, because of
21090-421: The late 1960s, the abandoned buildings were deteriorating severely. Johnson's plan was never implemented due to public opposition and a lack of funds. Another master plan was proposed in 1968, which called for the rehabilitation of the island's northern side and the demolition of all buildings, including the hospital, on the southern side. The Jersey City Jobs Corpsmen started rehabilitating part of Ellis Island
21280-659: The late 19th and early 20th centuries are Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, writing as Mendele Mocher Sforim ; Sholem Rabinovitsh, widely known as Sholem Aleichem , whose stories about טבֿיה דער מילכיקער ( Tevye der milkhiker , " Tevye the Dairyman") inspired the Broadway musical and film Fiddler on the Roof ; and Isaac Leib Peretz . In the early 20th century, especially after the Socialist October Revolution in Russia, Yiddish
21470-522: The limitations of its origins. There were few Yiddish words for animals and birds. It had virtually no military vocabulary. Such voids were filled by borrowing from German , Polish and Russian . Yiddish was particularly good at borrowing: from Arabic , from Hebrew , from Aramaic and from anything with which it intersected. On the other hand, it contributed to English – American . [sic] Its chief virtue lay in its internal subtlety, particularly in its characterization of human types and emotions. It
21660-422: The little writer could do was to finger the buttons on his coat while tears ran down his cheeks—in a vaudeville house!" Richard Corliss , in a Time profile of Berlin, described "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as a march, not a rag , "its savviest musicality comprised quotes from a bugle call and " Swanee River ". The tune revived the ragtime fervor that Scott Joplin had begun a decade earlier, and made Berlin
21850-512: The long vowel û , but in Yiddish, they have not merged. Although Standard Yiddish does not distinguish between those two diphthongs and renders both as /ɔɪ/ , the distinction becomes apparent when the two diphthongs undergo Germanic umlaut , such as in forming plurals: The vowel length distinctions of German do not exist in the Northeastern (Lithuanian) varieties of Yiddish, which form the phonetic basis for Standard Yiddish. In those varieties,
22040-423: The main hospital was expanded in 1909. Alterations were made to the registry building and dormitories as well, but even this was insufficient to accommodate the high volume of immigrants. In 1911, Williams alleged that Congress had allocated too little for improvements to Ellis Island, even though the improvement budget that year was $ 868,000. Additional improvements and routine maintenance work were completed in
22230-481: The main structure, including an entrance canopy, baggage conveyor, and railroad ticket office. The kitchen/laundry and powerhouse started construction in May 1900 and were completed by the end of 1901. A ferry house was also built between islands 1 and 2 c. 1901 . The hospital, originally slated to be opened in 1899, was not completed until November 1901, mainly due to various funding delays and construction disputes. The facilities proved barely able to handle
22420-415: The maintenance, preservation, or improvement of any of the historic properties, and each state has jurisdiction over its respective land areas. Jersey City and New York City then gave separate tax lot numbers to their respective claims. Two ferry slips are located on the northern side of the basin that bisects Ellis Island. No charge is made for entrance to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, but there
22610-534: The melody ... started the heels and shoulders of all America and a good section of Europe to rocking." In 1913, Berlin was featured in the London revue Hello Ragtime, where he introduced " That International Rag ", a song he had written for the occasion. Furia writes that the international success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" gave ragtime "new life and sparked a national dance craze". Two dancers who expressed that craze were Vernon and Irene Castle . In 1914, Berlin wrote
22800-524: The mid-1890s, and Ellis Island was expanded to 14 acres (5.7 ha) by 1896. The last improvements, which entailed the installation of underwater telephone and telegraph cables to Governors Island, were completed in early June 1897. On June 15, 1897, the wooden structures on Ellis Island were razed in a fire of unknown origin. While there were no casualties, the wooden buildings had completely burned down after two hours, and all immigration records from 1855 had been destroyed. Over five years of operation,
22990-479: The mid-1950s. In Weinreich's view, this Old Yiddish substrate later bifurcated into two distinct versions of the language, Western and Eastern Yiddish. They retained the Semitic vocabulary and constructions needed for religious purposes and created a Judeo-German form of speech, sometimes not accepted as a fully autonomous language. Yiddish was a rich, living language, the chattering tongue of an urban population. It had
23180-586: The most frequently used designation in the literature until the 18th century. In the late 19th and into the 20th century, the language was more commonly called "Jewish", especially in non-Jewish contexts, but "Yiddish" is again the most common designation today. Modern Yiddish has two major forms : Eastern and Western. Eastern Yiddish is far more common today. It includes Southeastern (Ukrainian–Romanian), Mideastern (Polish–Galician–Eastern Hungarian) and Northeastern (Lithuanian–Belarusian) dialects. Eastern Yiddish differs from Western both by its far greater size and by
23370-521: The most prominent Yiddish writers of the time—the founders of modern Yiddish literature, who were still living in Slavic-speaking countries—revised the printed editions of their oeuvres to eliminate obsolete and 'unnecessary' Slavisms." The vocabulary used in Israel absorbed many Modern Hebrew words, and there was a similar but smaller increase in the English component of Yiddish in the United States and, to
23560-496: The name "Beilin" was changed to "Baline". According to biographer Laurence Bergreen , as an adult Berlin admitted to no memories of his first five years in Russia except for one: "he was lying on a blanket by the side of a road, watching his house burn to the ground. By daylight the house was in ashes." As an adult, Berlin said he was unaware of being raised in abject poverty since he knew no other life. The Berlins were one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish families who emigrated to
23750-549: The new zoning ordinance banned " Coney Island "-style amusement parks. In June 1964, the National Park Service published a report that proposed making Ellis Island part of a national monument . This idea was approved by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall in October 1964. Ellis Island was added to the Statue of Liberty National Monument on May 11, 1965, and that August, President Lyndon B. Johnson approved
23940-414: The northern and southern walls, filled-in with grilles of metal-and-glass. The southern elevation retains its original double-height arches, while the lower sections of the arches on the northern elevations were modified to make way for the railroad ticket office. On all four sides of the room, above the level of the third floor, is a clerestory of semicircular windows. The east wing of the second floor
24130-456: The number of Yiddish-speakers is increasing in Hasidic communities. In 2014, YIVO stated that "most people who speak Yiddish in their daily lives are Hasidim and other Haredim ", whose population was estimated at the time to be between 500,000 and 1 million. A 2021 estimate from Rutgers University was that there were 250,000 American speakers, 250,000 Israeli speakers, and 100,000 in the rest of
24320-401: The once-barren landscape of Ellis Island. Under Williams's supervision, a 4.75-acre (1.92 ha) third island was built to accommodate a proposed contagious-diseases ward, separated from existing facilities by 200 ft (61 m) of water. Island 3, as it was called, was located to the south of island 2 and separated from that island by a now-infilled ferry basin. The government bought
24510-448: The original island and the fill around it. The current south side was composed of island 2, created in 1899, and island 3, created in 1906. Two eastward-facing ferry docks separated the three numbered landmasses. The fill was retained with a system of wood piles and cribbing, and later encased with more than 7,700 linear feet of concrete and granite sea wall. It was placed atop either wood piles, cribbing, or submerged bags of concrete. In
24700-407: The original island, are territory of New York. This caused some initial confusion, as some buildings straddled the interstate border. The ruling had no effect on the status of Liberty Island . Although the island remained under federal ownership after the lawsuit, New Jersey and New York agreed to share jurisdiction over the land itself. Neither state took any fiscal or physical responsibility for
24890-470: The original island, including much of the main building, are in New York; the remaining area is in New Jersey. The present three-story main structure was designed in French Renaissance style. It is made of a steel frame , with a facade of red brick in Flemish bond ornamented with limestone trim. The structure is located 8 ft (2.4 m) above the mean waterline to prevent flooding. The building
25080-435: The ownership of Ellis Island passed to his daughter Catherine Westervelt's unborn son, who was also named Samuel. When the junior Samuel died shortly after birth, ownership passed to the senior Samuel's other two daughters, Elizabeth Ryerson and Rachel Cooder. Ellis Island was also used by the military for almost 80 years. By the mid-1790s, as a result of the United States' increased military tensions with Britain and France,
25270-521: The primary inspection into several queues, but c. 1911 these were replaced with benches. A staircase from the first floor formerly rose into the middle of the registry room, but this was also removed around 1911. When the room's roof collapsed during the Black Tom explosion of 1916, the current Guastavino-tiled arched ceiling was installed, and the asphalt floor was replaced with red Ludowici tile. There are three large arched openings each on
25460-451: The redevelopment of the island as a museum and park. The initial master plan for the redevelopment of Ellis Island, designed by Philip Johnson , called for the construction of the Wall, a large "stadium"-shaped monument to replace the structures on the island's northwest side, while preserving the main building and hospital. However, no appropriations were immediately made, other than a $ 250,000 allocation for emergency repairs in 1967. By
25650-659: The region, including many Hebrew and Aramaic words, but there is also Romance. In Max Weinreich 's model, Jewish speakers of Old French or Old Italian who were literate in either liturgical Hebrew or Aramaic , or both, migrated through Southern Europe to settle in the Rhine Valley in an area known as Lotharingia (later known in Yiddish as Loter ) extending over parts of Germany and France. There, they encountered and were influenced by Jewish speakers of High German languages and several other German dialects. Both Weinreich and Solomon Birnbaum developed this model further in
25840-585: The renovation of Ellis Island, and then again in the 1990s with the proposed redevelopment of the south side. New Jersey sued in 1997. The lawsuit was escalated to the Supreme Court, which ruled in New Jersey v. New York . 523 U.S. 767 (1998) The border was redrawn using geographic information science data: It was decided that 22.80 acres (9.23 ha) of the land fill area are territory of New Jersey and that 4.68 acres (1.89 ha), including
26030-401: The renovation, public tours ceased in 1984, and work started the following year. As part of the restoration, the powerhouse was renovated, while the incinerator, greenhouse, and water towers were removed. The kitchen/laundry and baggage/dormitory buildings were restored to their original condition while the main building was restored to its 1918–1924 appearance. The main building opened as
26220-466: The same year, in accordance with this plan. This was soon halted indefinitely because of a lack of funding. In 1970, a squatters ' club called the National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization (NEGRO) started refurbishing buildings as part of a plan to turn the island into an addiction rehabilitation center, but were evicted after less than two weeks. NEGRO's permit to renovate
26410-610: The scores to two editions of the Ziegfeld Follies and four annual editions of his Music Box Revue . These shows spanned the years of 1921–1926, premiering songs such as "Say It With Music", "Everybody Step", and "Pack Up Your Things and Go to the Devil". Life magazine called Berlin the "Lullaby Kid", noting that "couples at country-club dances grew misty-eyed when the band went into 'Always', because they were positive that Berlin had written it just for them. When they quarreled and parted in
26600-415: The second refers to quantity or diphthongization (−1=short, −2=long, −3=short but lengthened early in the history of Yiddish, −4=diphthong, −5=special length occurring only in Proto-Yiddish vowel 25). Vowels 23, 33, 43 and 53 have the same reflexes as 22, 32, 42 and 52 in all Yiddish dialects, but they developed distinct values in Middle High German ; Katz (1987) argues that they should be collapsed with
26790-453: The song was not recognized as a hit, however; Broadway producer Jesse Lasky was uncertain about using it, although he did include it in his "Follies" show. It was performed as an instrumental but did not impress audiences, and was soon dropped from the show's score. Berlin regarded it as a failure. He then wrote lyrics to the score, played it again in another Broadway review, and this time Variety news weekly called it "the musical sensation of
26980-446: The songs he heard while selling papers, and people would toss him some coins. He confessed to his mother one evening that his newest ambition in life was to become a singing waiter in a saloon. From this he stepped up to work as a song plugger and singing waiter in cafes and restaurants in the downtown areas of New York City. His first lyric, written with a café pianist, earned him a royalty of thirty-seven cents. However, before Berlin
27170-514: The songs were for the new dances then appearing, such as the grizzly bear , chicken walk , or foxtrot . After a Hawaiian dance craze began, he wrote "That Hula-Hula", and then did a string of Southern songs, such as "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam". During this period, he was creating a few new songs every week, including songs aimed at the various immigrant cultures arriving from Europe. On one occasion, Berlin, whose face
27360-440: The station had processed 1.5 million immigrants. Following the fire, passenger arrivals were again processed at the Barge Office, which was soon unable to handle the large volume of immigrants. Within three days of the fire, the federal government made plans to build a new, fireproof immigration station. Legislation to rebuild the station was approved on June 30, 1897, and appropriations were made in mid-July. By September,
27550-438: The station on Ellis, Governors, or Liberty Islands. Initially, Liberty Island was selected as the site for the immigration station, but due to opposition for immigration stations on both Liberty and Governors Islands, the committee eventually decided to build the station on Ellis Island. Since Castle Clinton's lease was about to expire, Congress approved a bill to build an immigration station on Ellis Island. On April 11, 1890,
27740-584: The steep decline in immigration, the immigration building went underused for several years, and it started to deteriorate. With the start of World War II in 1939, Ellis Island was again utilized by the military, this time being used as a United States Coast Guard base. As during World War I, the facilities were used to detain enemy soldiers in addition to immigrants, and the hospital was used for treating injured American soldiers. So many combatants were detained at Ellis Island that administrative offices were moved to mainland Manhattan in 1943, and Ellis Island
27930-473: The story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives". Born in Imperial Russia , Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights, and became known as the composer of numerous international hits, starting with 1911's " Alexander's Ragtime Band ". He also
28120-551: The street, hoping people would pitch him a few pennies. From these seamy surroundings, he became streetwise, with real and lasting education. Music was his only source of income, and he picked up the language and culture of the ghetto lifestyle. Berlin learned what kind of songs appealed to audiences, writes Bergreen: "well-known tunes expressing simple sentiments were the most reliable." He soon began plugging songs at Tony Pastor 's Music Hall in Union Square and, in 1906, when he
28310-551: The three islands in Upper New York Bay—Liberty, Black Tom, and Ellis Islands—were given the name Oyster Islands, alluding to the large oyster population nearby. The present-day Ellis Island was thus called "Little Oyster Island", a name that persisted through at least the early 1700s. Little Oyster Island was then sold to Captain William Dyre c. 1674 , then to Thomas Lloyd on April 23, 1686. The island
28500-619: The two regions, seeding the Western and Eastern dialects of Modern Yiddish. Dovid Katz proposes that Yiddish emerged from contact between speakers of High German and Aramaic-speaking Jews from the Middle East. The lines of development proposed by the different theories do not necessarily rule out the others (at least not entirely); an article in The Forward argues that "in the end, a new 'standard theory' of Yiddish's origins will probably be based on
28690-420: The underwater area for island 3 from New Jersey in 1904, and a contract was awarded in April 1905. The islands were all connected via a cribwalk on their western sides (later covered with wood canopy), giving Ellis Island an overall "E"-shape. Upon the completion of island 3 in 1906, Ellis Island covered 20.25 acres (8.19 ha). A baggage and dormitory building was completed c. 1908–1909 , and
28880-617: The vernacular of the Jews in Roman-era Judea and ancient and early medieval Mesopotamia . The widespread use of Aramaic among the large non-Jewish Syrian trading population of the Roman provinces, including those in Europe, would have reinforced the use of Aramaic among Jews engaged in trade. In Roman times, many of the Jews living in Rome and Southern Italy appear to have been Greek -speakers, and this
29070-410: The vogue for "ragtime", but later inspired a major motion picture. 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' is a public menace....Hysteria is the form of insanity that an abnormal love for ragtime seems to produce. It is as much a mental disease as acute mania—it has the same symptoms. When there is nothing done to check this form it produces idiocy. — Dr. Ludwig Gruener German newspaper story Berlin rose as
29260-685: The vowel qualities in most long/short vowel pairs diverged and so the phonemic distinction has remained. There are consonantal differences between German and Yiddish. Yiddish deaffricates the Middle High German voiceless labiodental affricate /pf/ to /f/ initially (as in פֿונט funt , but this pronunciation is also quasi-standard throughout northern and central Germany); /pf/ surfaces as an unshifted /p/ medially or finally (as in עפּל /ɛpl/ and קאָפּ /kɔp/ ). Additionally, final voiced stops appear in Standard Yiddish but not Northern Standard German. Ellis Island Ellis Island
29450-489: The waters of New Jersey. The era of joint administration was short-lived: the Army took over the fort's administration in 1841, demoted the fort to an artillery battery, and stopped garrisoning the fort, leaving a small Navy guard outside the magazine. By 1854, Battery Gibson contained an 11-gun battery, three naval magazines, a short railroad line, and several auxiliary structures such as a cookhouse , gun carriage house, and officers' quarters. The Army continued to maintain
29640-485: The west side of the Hudson River estuary," and when the glaciers melted, the water of the Upper New York Bay surrounded the mass. The native Mohegan name for the island was "Kioshk", meaning "Gull Island", in reference to Ellis Island's former large population of seagulls . Kioshk was composed mostly of marshy, brackish lowlands that disappeared underwater at high tide . The Native American tribes who lived nearby are presumed to have been hunter-gatherers who used
29830-449: The words of his songs. A lyric he had submitted to a publisher was thought to be complete with music. Not wishing to lose the sale, Berlin quickly wrote a melody. It was accepted and published. The success of this first effort opened the door to his career as a composer of music as well as lyrics. In 1910, Berlin wrote a hit that solidly established him as one of Tin Pan Alley's leading composers. Alexander's Ragtime Band not only popularized
30020-608: The work of Weinreich and his challengers alike." Paul Wexler proposed a model in 1991 that took Yiddish, by which he means primarily eastern Yiddish, not to be genetically grounded in a Germanic language at all, but rather as " Judeo-Sorbian " (a proposed West Slavic language ) that had been relexified by High German. In more recent work, Wexler has argued that Eastern Yiddish is unrelated genetically to Western Yiddish. Wexler's model has been met with little academic support, and strong critical challenges, especially among historical linguists. Yiddish orthography developed towards
30210-586: The world (for a total of 600,000). The earliest surviving references date from the 12th century and call the language לשון־אַשכּנז ( loshn-ashknaz , "language of Ashkenaz") or טײַטש ( taytsh ), a variant of tiutsch , the contemporary name for Middle High German . Colloquially, the language is sometimes called מאַמע־לשון ( mame-loshn , lit. "mother tongue"), distinguishing it from לשון־קודש ( loshn koydesh , "holy tongue"), meaning Hebrew and Aramaic. The term "Yiddish", short for Yidish Taitsh ("Jewish German"), did not become
30400-461: The −2 series, leaving only 13 in the −3 series. In vocabulary of Germanic origin, the differences between Standard German and Yiddish pronunciation are mainly in the vowels and diphthongs . All varieties of Yiddish lack the German front rounded vowels /œ, øː/ and /ʏ, yː/ , having merged them with /ɛ, e:/ and /ɪ, i:/ , respectively. Diphthongs have also undergone divergent developments in German and Yiddish. Where Standard German has merged
30590-493: Was Annie Moore , a 17-year-old girl from Cork , Ireland, who was traveling with her two brothers to meet their parents in the U.S. On the first day, almost 700 immigrants passed over the docks. Over the next year, over 400,000 immigrants were processed at the station. The processing procedure included a series of medical and mental inspection lines , and through this process, some 1% of potential immigrants were deported. Additional building improvements took place throughout
30780-513: Was ווײַבערטײַטש ( vaybertaytsh , 'women's taytsh ' , shown in the heading and fourth column in the Shemot Devarim ), with square Hebrew letters (shown in the third column) being reserved for text in that language and Aramaic. This distinction was retained in general typographic practice through to the early 19th century, with Yiddish books being set in vaybertaytsh (also termed מעשייט mesheyt or מאַשקעט mashket —the construction
30970-660: Was 18, got a job as a singing waiter at the Pelham Cafe in Chinatown . Besides serving drinks, he sang made-up " blue " parodies of hit songs to the delight of customers. Biographer Charles Hamm writes that in Berlin's free time after hours, he taught himself to play the piano. Never having had lessons, after the bar closed for the night, young Berlin would sit at a piano in the back and begin improvising tunes. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy", written in collaboration with
31160-520: Was a hit for Rudy Vallée in 1929, and in 1937, updated to a four-quarter-time swing arrangement, was a top hit for Tommy Dorsey . It was on the charts at no. 13 in 1953 for The Four Tunes and at no. 15 for the Bachelors in 1965, 36 years after its first appearance. Rudy Vallée performed it on his radio show, and the song was a hit for George Olsen , Connee Boswell (she was still known as Connie), and Ozzie Nelson 's band. Aretha Franklin produced
31350-508: Was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway . For much of his career, Berlin could not read sheet music, and was such a limited piano player that he could only play in the key of F-sharp; he used his custom piano equipped with a transposing lever when he needed to play in keys other than F-sharp. He was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his stated aim being to "reach
31540-400: Was announced in mid-1954, when the federal government announced that it would construct a replacement facility on Manhattan. Ellis Island closed on November 12, 1954, with the departure of its last detainee, Norwegian merchant seaman Arne Pettersen , who had been arrested for overstaying his shore leave. At the time, it was estimated that the government would save $ 900,000 a year from closing
31730-419: Was built in 1986 for transporting materials and personnel during the island's late-1980s restoration. Originally slated to be torn down in 1992, it remained after construction was complete. It is not open to the public. The city of New York and the island's private ferry operator have opposed proposals to use it or replace it with a pedestrian bridge, and a 1995 proposal for a new pedestrian bridge to New Jersey
31920-495: Was contested in Gibbons v. Ogden , which decided that the regulation of interstate commerce fell under the authority of the federal government, thus influencing competition in the newly developing steam ferry service in New York Harbor . In 1830, New Jersey planned to bring suit to clarify the border, but the case was never heard. The matter was resolved with a compact between the states, ratified by U.S. Congress in 1834. This set
32110-476: Was designed by Edward Lippincott Tilton and William A. Boring , who performed the commission under the direction of the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury , James Knox Taylor . Boring was responsible for the majority of the buildings. Tilton and Boring's plan, submitted in 1898, called for structures to be located on both the northern and southern portions of Ellis Island. The plan stipulated
32300-589: Was destroyed by fire in 1897. The second station opened in 1900 and housed facilities for medical quarantines and processing immigrants. After 1924, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center for migrants. During both World War I and World War II , its facilities were also used by the US military to detain prisoners of war . After the immigration station's closure, the buildings languished for several years until they were partially reopened in 1976. The main building and adjacent structures were completely renovated into
32490-482: Was drafted into the United States Army , and his induction became headline news, with one paper headline reading, "Army Takes Berlin!" But the Army wanted Berlin, now aged 30, to do what he knew best: write songs. While stationed with the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton , he then composed an all-soldier musical revue titled Yip Yip Yaphank , written as a patriotic tribute to the United States Army . The show
32680-470: Was emerging as a major Eastern European language. Its rich literature was more widely published than ever, Yiddish theatre and Yiddish cinema were booming, and for a time it achieved the status of one of the official languages of the short-lived Galician Soviet Socialist Republic . Educational autonomy for Jews in several countries (notably Poland ) after World War I led to an increase in formal Yiddish-language education, more uniform orthography, and to
32870-473: Was established to determine what operations and facilities needed improvement. The committee's report, released in 1934, suggested the construction of a new class-segregated immigration building, recreation center, ferry house, verandas, and doctors/nurses' quarters, as well as the installation of a new seawall around the island. These works were undertaken using Public Works Administration funding and Works Progress Administration labor, and were completed by
33060-598: Was fourteen his meager income was still adding less than his sisters' to the family's budget, which made him feel worthless. He then decided to leave home and join the city's ragged army of other young immigrants. He lived in the Bowery, taking up residence in one of the lodging houses that sheltered the thousands of other homeless boys in the Lower East Side . Bergreen describes them as being uncharitable living quarters, " Dickensian in their meanness, filth, and insensitivity to ordinary human beings." Having left school around
33250-448: Was getting known on Broadway with his own songs. When Berlin ended with Cohan's "Yankee Doodle Boy", notes Whitcomb, "everybody in the joint applauded the feisty little fellow." Max Winslow (c. 1883–1942), a staff member at music publisher Harry Von Tilzer Company, noticed Berlin's singing on many occasions and became so taken with his talent that he tried to get him a job with his firm. Von Tilzer said that Max claimed to have "discovered
33440-499: Was highly acclaimed; at the 1900 Paris Exposition , it received a gold medal, and other architectural publications such as the Architectural Record lauded the design. The first floor contained detention rooms, social service offices, and waiting rooms on its west wing, a use that remained relatively unchanged. The central space was initially a baggage room until 1907, but was subsequently subdivided and later re-combined into
33630-444: Was his first ballad. It was an immediate popular hit and sold more than a million copies. He began to realize that ragtime was not a good musical style for serious romantic expression, and over the next few years adapted his style by writing more love songs. In 1915 he wrote the hit "I Love a Piano", a comical and erotic ragtime love song. By 1918 he had written hundreds of songs, mostly topical, which enjoyed brief popularity. Many of
33820-405: Was initially composed of a three-story center section with two-story east and west wings, though the third stories of each wing were completed in the early 1910s. Atop the corners of the building's central section are four towers capped by cupolas of copper cladding. Some 160 rooms were included within the original design to separate the different functions of the building. Namely, the first floor
34010-409: Was initially designed to handle baggage, detention, offices, storage and waiting rooms; the second floor, primary inspection; and the third floor, dormitories. However, in practice, these spaces generally served multiple functions throughout the immigration station's operating history. At opening, it was estimated that the main building could inspect 5,000 immigrants per day. The main building's design
34200-408: Was left unrepaired to show the visitors the extent of the deterioration. The NPS limited visits to 130 visitors per boat, or less than 75,000 visitors a year. Initially, only parts of three buildings were open to visitors. Further repairs were stymied by a lack of funding, and by 1982, the NPS was turning to private sources for funds. In May 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of
34390-435: Was performed by Al Jolson in the first feature sound film, The Jazz Singer , that same year. In 1946, it returned to the top 10 on the charts with Count Basie and Benny Goodman . In 1978, Willie Nelson made the song a no. 1 country hit, 52 years after it was written. An instant standard with one of Berlin's most "intricately syncopated choruses", this song is associated with Fred Astaire , who sang and danced to it in
34580-421: Was still not known, was on a train trip and decided to entertain the fellow passengers with some music. They asked him how he knew so many hit songs, and Berlin modestly replied, "I wrote them." An important song that Berlin wrote during his transition from writing ragtime to lyrical ballads was " A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody ", which became one of Berlin's "first big guns", says historian Alec Wilder . The song
34770-450: Was taken to Broadway where it also included a number of hits, including " Mandy " and " Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning ", which Berlin performed himself. The shows earned $ 150,000 for a camp service center. One song he wrote for the show but decided not to use, he would introduce 20 years later: "God Bless America". Berlin returned to Tin Pan Alley after the war and in 1921 created
34960-569: Was temporarily closed after being damaged in Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, though the island and part of the museum reopened exactly a year later, after major renovations. In March 2020, the island was closed temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic ; it reopened in August 2020, initially with strict capacity limits. A $ 100 million renovation of the Ellis Island museum began in early 2024;
35150-498: Was the language of street wisdom, of the clever underdog, of pathos, resignation and suffering, all of which it palliated by humor, intense irony and superstition. Isaac Bashevis Singer , its greatest practitioner, pointed out that it is the only language never spoken by men in power. – Paul Johnson , A History of the Jews (1988) Later linguistic research has refined the Weinreich model or provided alternative approaches to
35340-411: Was then sold several more times, including to Enoch and Mary Story. During colonial times, Little Oyster Island became a popular spot for hosting oyster roasts, picnics, and clambakes because of its rich oyster beds. Evidence of recreational uses on the island was visible by the mid-18th century with the addition of commercial buildings to the northeast shore. By the 1760s, Little Oyster Island became
35530-490: Was used for administrative offices, while the west wing housed the special inquiry and deportation divisions, as well as dormitories. On the third floor is a balcony surrounding the entire registry room. There were also dormitories for 600 people on the third floor. Between 1914 and 1918, several rooms were added to the third floor. These rooms included offices as well as an assembly room that were later converted to detention. The remnants of Fort Gibson still exist outside
35720-480: Was used solely for detainment. By 1947, shortly after the end of World War II, there were proposals to close Ellis Island due to the massive expenses needed for the upkeep of a relatively small detention center. The hospital was closed in 1950–1951 by the United States Public Health Service , and by the early 1950s, there were only 30 to 40 detainees left on the island. The island's closure
35910-527: Was voted down in the United States House of Representatives . The bridge is not strong enough to be classified as a permanent bridge, and any action to convert it into a pedestrian passageway would require renovations. The present-day Ellis Island was created by retreating glaciers at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation about 15,000 years ago. The island was described as a "hummock along a plain fronting
36100-453: Was written for Ziegfeld 's Follies of 1919 and became the musical's lead song. Its popularity was so great that it later became the theme for all of Ziegfeld's revues, and the theme song in the 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld . Wilder puts it on the same level as Jerome Kern 's "pure melodies", and in comparison with Berlin's earlier music, says it is "extraordinary that such a development in style and sophistication should have taken place in
#773226