the hideous conditions in which they lived, struggled to survive, and died. He clearly means to show above all else how they are exploited and how they suffer in the tenement environment of New York. He obviously knows that members of every group have been dehumanized by the brutal conditions of tenement life and must do whatever they can to compete with members of their own group and other groups to survive. Nevertheless, ironically, for a book meant to highlight injustice and dehumanization, Riis's effort could in many parts be used by exploiters of immigrants to show that they deserve what they get, or little better.
Riis likens the Jews and the Italians for their industriousness and their determination to not only survive but to rise above other groups:
Hardly less aggressive than the Italian, the Russian and the Polish Jew, having overrun [one] district . . . to the point of suffocation, is filling the tenements [of a second district] and disputing with the Italian every foot of available space in the back alleys of Mulberry Street. The two races . . . have this in common: they carry their slums with them wherever they go, if allowed to do it (Riis 22).
In "Jewtown," Riis focuses on this immigrant group. emphasizing their work ethic and their determination to save money:
Thrift is the watchword of Jewtown. . . . It is at once its strength and its fatal weakness, its cardinal virtue and its foul disgrace
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