Mike Gold is the central figure in Jews Without Money. He is the protagonist, the narrator, and the entryway into the impoverished lives of the community of Jewish people on New York’s Lower East Side. Mike begins the story as a very young boy and charts his short, violence-filled childhood as his family struggles to get by. The reality of living in a dangerous world means that Mike is not able to enjoy his childhood. Each day, he is confronted with his own poverty, his vicinity to violence, and the harshness of the world around him. Family members are killed or injured, friends are sexually assaulted, and everyone he knows faces a perpetual struggle that forces young people to grow up quickly. Whether he is selling newspapers or disdaining his sister’s love of fairy tales, Mike knows that he has to grow up; otherwise he will be punished by the world in which he lives.

Mike relies on two forms of support to help navigate life in the tenement building: He has his family and his friends. The former is small group of loving, caring people. His father tells him bedtime stories, and his mother infuses him with a practical view of the world.