At the turn of the twentieth century about five million Jews lived in Russia’s Pale of Settlement, an area—first established under Tsarina Catherine the Great in 1791 and maintained until 1917—in which they were compelled by law to reside. Representing approximately 60 percent of Europe’s, and 40 percent of the worldwide, total Jewish population, this was by far the largest concentration of Jews in the world. The Pale (meaning “Borders”) of Settlement consisted of some fifteen provinces in Western Russia (including the Ukraine, Lithuania, Belorussia, and Crimea), most of which were lands that had been annexed from Poland and the Turkish Empire. The forced settlement of Jews in this area (a kind of “buffer zone” between Western Europe and ancient Russia) represented the tsars’ attempt to minimize Jewish influence—certainly economic and social, but also religious—on the traditional homeland. Even within the Pale, Jews were subjected to discriminatory laws. Prohibited from owning land, they could live only in cities (with the exception of several major ones) and shtetls—specially established small, rural towns. They were also plagued by severe legal restrictions on their educational and professional opportunities. Moreover, the government condoned, sometimes even sponsored, a series of violent pogroms in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a result of these harsh conditions, between 1881 and 1914 approximately two million Jews from the Pale immigrated to the United States.

Leon Kirchner’s grandparents and parents were part of this migration, and thus his roots lead deep into its origins and culture. Both sides of his family had lived in Odessa, a major commercial city and port on the Black Sea. His father, Samuel Kirzner, was born there in 1888 and came to New York City in 1906, traveling by ship from Le Havre. Although he arrived alone, an older brother had immigrated previously and was living in New York City. Samuel had already begun working in Odessa, at age seven, as a French-art embroiderer and thus was able to continue his profession as an embroidery manufacturer. Leon’s mother, Sonie Kirsner, was born in 1896, also in Odessa.