Between 1880 and 1924, about two million Jews left the Russian Empire. Matching the description on the Statue of Liberty, they arrived in America as tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Few, if any, spoke English, most lacked the work experience to garner a living wage.

Unfettered by oppression and tyranny, they took advantage of the freedoms given to every person in the New World. Within a generation, though Yiddish could still sometimes be heard, the typical Jew had become an assimilated American, striving for and even reaching the American Dream.

This is their tale, as told through the lens of Taylor Shiroff's ancestors. By introducing us to the people in his family, he puts a face on the Eastern European Jewish immigrant. By exploring where they came from, why they left, and how they assimilated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he tells the story of what it takes to become American.