This depiction by London’s Map House highlights the tumultuous period at the start of the 20th century – the Boer War, the Russian Civil War and the two coming World Wars. From every side, war seemed horribly inevitable from the the glut of proud, strongly nationalistic and impatient empires and the oppression they brought upon the people.
From 1900 to 1910, our families arrived by steamship as immigrants to the United States through Ellis Island in New York within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The island was designated our nation's first Federal immigration station by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890. Previously, the Island was called "Kioshk" (or Gull Island) by local Indian tribes. Due to its rich and abundant oyster beds and plentiful shad runs, the Dutch and English later called it Oyster Island throughout the colonial period.
This picture is our only record of relatives lost in Europe. Here, Rubin Fischbein (back, left corner) is pictured with his family holding pictures of their predecessors. Rubin is the only one of them to have left Europe for the United States. A tailor by trade, he immigrated to New York in 1906 alone to test his ability to succeed there. In 1908, he returned to Russia to gather his wife, young son and young daughter to bring them to America. There are immigration records at Ellis Island for them for both these years.
