On the front door of this house in South Providence are a bunch of political bumper stickers. One says, “We Were All Immigrants Once.” It’s fitting, considering my Irish immigrant ancestor Thomas O’Keefe lived here just before he died in 1919. Another sticker says, “I Support The Campaign for Immigrant Rights.” However, in black marker, “Rights” has been crossed out and “No” has been scrawled in, twice.
I made this drawing with my back to the big, empty, handsome synagogue Temple Beth-El, built in 1911. It served the large population of Ashkenazi Jews in this area at the time, as the home of the Sons of Israel. It changed hands in 1954 to another congregation—Shaare Zedek. Then, in 1984, a fence was put up facing busy Broad Street. Twenty years later, the building was left vacant. Now it’s water-damaged, vandalized, and on a list of Providence’s “Most Endangered Buildings” from the Providence Preservation Society.
The Jews and the Irish have moved out, but South Providence remains a busy, heavily-populated immigrant enclave (as well as an African-American one). Despite my family’s history here, it is completely foreign to me. I know nothing about this place and I’ve worked nearby for decades. I live in a different world while only a mile away.
Visiting the Relatives 