Hello everyone,
From the book Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman.
“In 1948,” McWilliams wrote, “frustrated Jewish doctors started their own hospital, Mt. Sinai, after being denied access to Minneapolis medical facilities.” I was born there. The article also noted that Jews were blocked from joining local chapters of labor unions that had been started in New York by Jewish organizers and that “summer resorts on Lake Minnetonka advertised that they catered to ‘Gentiles only.’ Department stores such as Montgomery Ward refused to interview Jewish job applicants. Many neighborhoods were ‘restricted,’ barring Jews, Blacks, and even Catholics and Italians. Jewish teachers were few and far between.” The discrimination was “much more pro-nounced in Minneapolis than in St. Paul,” according to McWilliams.
So, with the first chance to get out, after World War II, the Jews left the Northside urban core of Minneapolis en masse for St. Louis Park. As Quednau put it, “Many of them had ascended in class and wealth since they or their parents immigrated to America, and this allowed them more control over their housing along with more opportunity to be treated fairly in the housing market.”
Am I correct in thinking that the past pefect (had ascended) indicates that these Jews already ascended in class and wealth when they were in Northside urban core of Minneapolis. i.e. before they moved to St. Paul?
In other words, was the sequence of actions as follows:
- Jews immigrated to America (Northside urban core of Minneapolis).
- While being in Northside urban core of Minneapolis many Jews ascended in class and wealth.
- Jews (many of whom ascended in class and wealth) moved from Northside urban core of Minneapolis to St. Paul.
Thank you.