What Immigration Stories Teach Us About Stress and Trauma

COVID-19 has proven stressful for all and traumatic for most of us. We have all felt the impact of massive deaths, as well as the fear of dying, abandoned, in a hospital. During the early weeks of the pandemic, we felt that everyone was the enemy. Anything, we were told—our neighbors, our children, even our groceries—could harm us.

In this era of unprecedented trauma, how can we develop resilience?

Jewish immigration stories of a century ago can teach us about coping with stress and trauma. The majority of the Jewish immigrants who came to the U.S. before 1924 encountered the trauma of persecution, poverty, anti-Semitic violence, or war—and immigration itself was hugely stressful. The children of these Jewish immigrants also felt the effects of their parents’ trauma. Here’s what we can learn about resilience from the stories of these immigrants and their children.

Persistence

Immigrant stories are striking for their accounts of hard-working individuals who were repeatedly knocked down, but had a great capacity to pick themselves up and go on. They seemed to have an inner sense that, even when things were going badly, they could stay the course. (Persistence on its own may not be enough to help with adversity, however. A person who is persistent but has little capacity for self-nurture may be left feeling drained by too much hard work.)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Trudy was born into an impoverished Russian-Jewish family near the turn of the 20th century. At 16, Trudy emigrated alone to New York City, where she faced a life of hardship, working in a sweatshop. She was frightened, lonely, and homesick.

Despite her misery, Trudy worked hard. Ambitious and determined to succeed, she eventually was elected to be the chairwoman of her union. Trudy saved enough money so that in time she was able to lend it to family members who wanted to start businesses. In addition, she cared for several family members whom she had helped to emigrate to the U.S.; she always worried about one of them, her teenage brother.

Trudy remained employed through the Depression when her husband had no job, and she continued to work while having children. After her husband died in a tragic accident, she somehow stoically carried on, continuing to work; later, she purchased a rooming house with her savings. Her persistence led to financial independence for herself and laid the foundation for her children and extended family to succeed in America.

Creating a Healing Narrative

Trauma, by definition, is incomprehensible. It overwhelms our capacity to cope, and it disrupts our normal processes of mind. (If you felt an ongoing terror—or perhaps felt flooded—when COVID was most contagious in your community, you will know what I mean.)

To heal from trauma, it must be put into words so that it is given meaning. In order to work through the effects of traumatic events, you may have to repeatedly explain what happened to you. In this process, you are creating a healing narrative. Usually, this is constructed in the presence of an empathic listener, but sometimes people create this by silently telling it to a “virtual listener.” Either way, the healing narrative becomes part of your own story, thus contributing to your resilience.

David was the son of Jewish immigrants. As a child, his mother was malnourished, injured in a fire, and contracted typhoid fever; she watched as her own mother was spuriously arrested and jailed. David was deeply connected to—and distressed by—his mother’s trauma; as with many other children of immigrants, it had become his trauma, too.

David had spent a good deal of time putting his trauma—which was related to his Jewish identity—into words, creating a healing narrative. At separate times, he had enrolled in two doctoral-level Jewish Studies programs, which he attended after work hours; the writing David did for these programs helped him to narrate both his family’s stories and personal aspects of Jewish history. Creating a narrative allowed him to find meaning in the trauma of his Jewish past and to integrate his historical past with his present. David was truly resilient, and his zest for learning and joie de vivre were a testament to that.

Finding Community

Feeling a sense of safety in your community is key to resilience. Before emigrating, many Eastern European Jews lived in Jewish towns and were highly interdependent; for them, the collective was paramount. The community provided necessary support in a difficult environment. When these Jews immigrated to the more individualistic U.S., most lived in Yiddish-speaking neighborhoods. They socialized with and relied on extended family and neighbors, helping one another, for instance, with job hunting and childcare.

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Social scientists write of the support which comes from a sense of community. A supportive community provides a sense of belonging, a feeling of similarity to others, and emotional safety. Interdependence is acknowledged.

Minna was a Jewish immigrant who was friendly, outgoing, calm, and reliable despite all that she had suffered. She and her husband Saul escaped from Eastern Europe in the midst of appalling anti-Semitic violence; their lives were in danger. Sadly, they needed to leave family members behind when they emigrated.

In the U.S., Minna and Saul started a small grocery, living in the back of the store. For many years, life was a constant strain; they barely survived financially, and Saul, to receive grocery deliveries, needed to awaken at five every morning.

What sustained Minna and Saul through these many difficult years—and in healing from their trauma—was their connection with others from home. In their New York City neighborhood were others they knew and talked to from their Eastern European village; they also belonged to a Jewish hometown society, where they socialized with friends from their town. This provided Minna and Saul with continuity with what had once been home. Minna’s sociability meant that she thrived on interaction; her connection to this community added to her resilience.

What can these immigrant stories teach us about coping with COVID-19?

If we have an intrinsic sense of our own inner strength—if we know that through our hard work, we can prevail—persistence can be helpful with the long-term stress of the COVID crisis. If we become depressed, and persistence is not enough, we will need to add the encouragement of friends and family, or perhaps psychotherapy, to our resilience toolkit.

Putting into words the traumatic events that you experienced during the COVID crisis—giving meaning to these events from the context of your own story—is important. Talking to a trusted friend or a therapist can help you create a healing narrative; writing down your thoughts and feelings is another method, along with expressing your trauma through music, poetry, or art.

By providing a sense of belonging and stability, the community provides strength, which is crucial to thriving during a crisis. How can you nurture a sense of community? One way is to link neighbors or people with something in common on a group email. Let email participants know that stress is best handled together and that they can help one another through upcoming challenges. A second way is to host Zoom parties or outdoor gatherings.

Resilience is not a “one-size-fits-all” strategy. Persistence, creating a healing narrative, and finding community can each be useful, and they are among the many pathways to resilience. The stories of Eastern European Jewish immigration to the U.S. provide examples of coping with long-term stress and dealing with trauma. From these narratives, we can learn ways of grappling with the stress and trauma of COVID-19. The inner resources and coping techniques we develop now will prove adaptive during our future setbacks.