Russian Jews Tricked into Slavery in America

An immigrant from the Russian Empire who arrived in Galveston, Texas, around 1907, Moishe Opotowski (Moyshe Opatovski) wrote a letter to Der forverts (The Forward) alleging his experience of being taken into forced labor upon his arrival in the United States. His passage from Europe to America was arranged by the Jewish Immigrants’ Information Bureau, an organization that sought to settle Jewish immigrants in smaller towns in the United States, primarily Galveston, with the goal of alleviating overcrowding in immigrant neighborhoods on the East Coast. Opotowoski’s letter appeared on the front page of the Forverts on December 2, 1907.