The fear of being put out of work by advances in technology has been
around since the Industrial Revolution, and is back with us today as
people wonder how robotics and Artificial Intelligence will affect
human jobs. And so it was true even in the shtetls of Eastern Europe
as described in this excerpt >from the Yizkor book of Kalish in Poland.
Working in a textile factory was a grueling job in the best of times
and usually did little to raise laborers out of poverty. In "The
Clattering Machines," Simon Horonchik wites of the "monotonous days
ran on like long grey threads" with "the only ray of light for which
their eyes looked out was the Eve of Sabbath and the Sabbath." Then
the threaders and embroiderers worried about a darker future when the
new machines arrived.

URL: https://www.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/1402610553094429

Bruce Drake
Silver Spring, MD

Researching: DRACH, EBERT, KIMMEL, ZLOTNICK
Towns: Wojnilow, Kovel