ABSTRACT
The ghetto illustrates a phenomenon in local community life, a phenomenon which underlies also the segregation of vice areas, of bright light centers, of bohemias and hobohemias in modern cities. The Jews drift into the ghetto, as has already been pointed out, for the same reasons that the Italians live in Little Sicily, the Negroes in the black belt, and the Chinese in Chinatowns. If people knew the full story of the ghetto they would have a laboratory specimen for the sociologist that embodies all the concepts and the processes of his professional vocabulary. The institution of the ghetto is not only the record of a historical people; it is a manifestation of human nature and a specific social order. The ghetto is a cultural community that expresses a common heritage, a store of common traditions and sentiments.
