The Cohort of 1951

When my Parents arrived in Brooklyn, New York in 1949, neither one of them spoke English. They consequently had trouble finding work. Relatives who had emigrated to the United States earlier than my Parents urged Mom to scan the want ads in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Problem: she couldn't read English, and she didn't know how to fill out a job application.

There were no English-language classes for immigrants. Mom and Dad learned to read English by borrowing library books. They started with children's literature. My Mom felt that her English was proficient when she fluidly digested the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Mom landed her first job at Wyckoff Heights Hospital. The hiring staff there didn't believe that she was a physician, so they initially placed Mom in the lab, where she worked as a technician. When her medical-school paperwork arrived from Germany, the staff acknowledged her diploma and started calling her "Dr." instead of "Mrs."

There were only three women in Mom's internship cohort. All three women were recent immigrants.

Brooklyn, New York, 1951. My Mom—the woman on the far left—sits among the other interns.

Ladies, please fold your hands.