The striking appearance and practices of Orthodox Jews caused consternation in the larger American community as well as among Reform Jews. In July 1902 after the death of Jacob Joseph, chief Orthodox rabbi of New York, some fifty thousand mourners followed his coffin in its procession from his home to the cemetery. The New York Times reported that "most of the men wore long beards. They were of the type of Russian Jew, so familiar to those who have visited the east side." As they passed a printing factory on the Lower East Side, chanting and lamenting, the factory workers began to yell, jeer, and throw buckets of water as well as iron debris onto the mourners from second-story windows. When the procession's leaders went into the factory foreman's office to complain, he drew a pistol on them and ordered them out. Or so...