Beyond the Silk Mills

As a Jewish immigrant to New Jersey in 1898, Emma dreams of the wealth that will usher her family into high society. Despite the odds, she single-mindedly finagles her way to success and prosperity to attain her desired status, but at a terrible price.
Disinterested in money, Emma’s husband Meyer has a passion for workers’ rights that stems from his days as a weaver in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland, where he was an activist in the socialist Labor Bund. When he unionizes his comrades for the historic Paterson Silk Strike of 1913, their lives change forever.
Their daughter, Sophie, is forced to choose between her parents, and this choice leads her to the tenements of New York’s Lower East Side, unlikely friendships, pregnancy, and newfound love.
Beyond the Silk Mills, is a compelling saga of family discord, obsessive ambition, romance, and regret.
The Epstein family’s struggle during the early twentieth century in New York City and Paterson, New Jersey, illuminates the roots of modern feminism and contemporary labor issues.