While the traditional Jewish mother is often defined as the “essence of sacrificial motherhood, a pillar of strength, and a fountain of tears” (Ginsburg 1997: 633), the early twentieth century added a new dimension to this stereotype and its counterimage of the monstrous, overbearing mother. There have been instances where Jewish mothers have historically been figured as “literal or figurative monsters,” yet the novels of the ghetto problematise this role in the form of traumatised mothers, “sweatshop Cinderellas,” prostitutes, community educators and cultural saviours. Mothers develop into unloving, emotionally distant persons, who attempt to preserve the traditional, old-world Jewish models over American assimilation or fail to prevent inhumane behaviour. This essay reflects on forms of monstrosity or Menschsein in the writings of Michael Gold and Anzia Yezierska in the face of criticism of the American proletariat, racial cohesion, and literary naturalism. Yezierska’s Bread Givers and short stories focus on generational relationships between mothers and daughters, showing “a woman so traumatised by poverty that she cannot love her children” (Stone 1999: 6). Michael Gold’s Jews Without Money presents us with the “half-insane mother” of the character Nigger, prostitutes, and an uplifting mother. The growing initiation into American culture reflects on the Great and the “Jewish Depression,” gender relations and equality, as well as the space, voice and power available to monstrous mothers.