Figure 1.--Here we see a Jewish boy in New York during 1911, probably outside his father's shop. The character of the Jewish community in America was fundamentally altered by immigrants from Eastern Europe--mostly Russia and areas of Polish controlled by Russia. Presumably this boy is one of tyhose Eastern European immigrants.

The Jews were not a national group and came from many countries. The economic and social impact of Jews on America varied coincerning their origins, but my far the most important wre the Russian and other Eastern European Jews. The vast oproportion of Jews who emmigrated to America came from Russia and eastern Europe, but primarily Russia. (Large areas of Poland at the time were part of Tsarist Russia.) The reason of course was the terrible oppression visited upon the Jews by the Tsarist regime and the Cossacks. Not only were there legal restrictions, but vicisious programs massacred Jews in the thousands. The primary impetus for Russian immigration to America was the pogroms directed at Jew in the wake of the assaination of Tsar Alexander II (1881). A substantial proprtion of the Russian immigrants were Jews. This was the largest group of European Jews to come to America. Earlier Jewish immigrants had been primarily German, but they were realtively small in number compared to the numbers of Russian Jews that began to arrive in America during the 1880s. This same oppression drove Jews into Western Europe, especially Germany which under Bismarck had emancipated the Jews. The Jews are notable for several reasons. Notably the Jews were most likely to stay in America. Few returned to Europe. The Jews were also the immigrant most willing to aid new arrivals. They actively support relief agencies for the new arrivals. The most important impacts of the Jews is surely the impact on American intellectual and political thought.

Nationality

The Jews were not a national group and came from many countries. The vast oproportion of Jews who emmigrated to America came from Russia and eastern Europe, but primarily Russia. (Large areas of Poland at the time were part of Tsarist Russia.) substantial proprtion of the Russian immigrants were Jews. This was the largest group of European Jews to come to America. Earlier Jewish immigrants had been primarily German, but they were realtively small in number compared to the numbers of Russian Jews that began to arrive in America during the 1880s.

Early American Jews: Sephardic Jews

Jews came to America in small numbers, in the 17th century mostly Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition. The Inquisition dates to medieval Europe. The Spanish and Portuguese expelled the Jews to "purify" their countries (1492). This dispersed the Jewish community when became known as Sephardic Jews. Many Jewsstayed in Spain and either converted or claimed to have converted. The Inquisition devoted considerable attention in the 16th and 17th century to ferreting out these Jews. The first Jews to arrive in America came from from Portuguese Brazil where the Inquisition was targeting Jews. A group of 23 Spanish-Portuguese Jews arrived in New Amsterdam (1654). Many Sephardic Jews sought refuge in the Netherlands. These were the few Jews to arrive in the Dutch colony. The Dutch restricted Jewish worship, but wre willing to accept the Jews. More Jews arrived, this time from the Neherlands (1655). The British subsequently seized New Amsterdam, remaming it New York (1664). The British proved more tolerant than the Dutch. Throughout the colonial perod, small numbers of Jews came to America. Mostly they came as individuals and quitely worshiped in their homes. It should be remembered that in the early colonies there was no freedom of worship even for other Protestant denominations. This only developed slowly. One of the most important centers for a more open attitude toward religion was Roger Williams' Rhode Island. And it was here that the first permanent Jewish community was tolerated. That community was in Newport. Jews there under the leadership of Judah Touro built the Touro Synagogue (1773) and it still stands as a memorial to the patriot and philanthropist. There were other early Sephardic (Spanish-Portuguese) Jewish communities scattered throughout the colonies (Charleston, Savannah, and Philadelphia-1745). Another community was organized in Richmond after the Revolution.

German Jews

The next group of Jews to arrive in America were a very different group, mostly from Germany. While the Sephardic Jews were likely to identify themselves as Jews, the German Jews that came to America in the early and mid-19th century were largely assimilated Jews likely to identify themselves as Germans. Germany at the time was in the process of emancipating the Jews. This was a process began in earest by the French Revolution. Germany was not yet unified and thus this process varied among the different German states. German Jewish emmigration was not largely motivated by religious opression, although this was a factor. Important motivations were scarcity of land, poverty, and restrictions on marriage, domicile and employment. The desire for political freedom was also important, especially after the failure of the 1848 Revolutions. Germany like America in the 1880s was to be affected by the oppression of Russian Jews. Large numbers not only came to America, but also to Western Europe, especially Germany which under Bismarck had emancipated the Jews.

German Jews In America

German Jews were present in America before the Revolution, but they became the dominany Jewish cultural group in the early 19th Century. Immigration at the time was virtually wide open. There was no effort made to restrict immigrants for religious reasons. America was a wide open country at the time. The frotier was rapidly being wrestled from Native Americans and pushed west. Like other German groups, Jews spread out throughout the United States. Jews primarily moved into the North and Northwest and to a lesser extent the South. I do not yet fully understandcthis regional divergence. Like other immigrants they traveled west via the Erie Canal. Jewish Communities were founded in Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Paul. The early European (mostly German) Jews were primarily young, unmarried men. They formed informal, scattered networks of relatives and neighbors, often from the same European communities. Often they encouraged relatives to follow them to America. A second wave of German Jews came after the failed 1848 Revolutions. This second group tended to be slightly older and better educated. They were frustrated by the failure of the republican 1848 Revolutions and often were motivated by a desire for political demokcracy. Economic opportunity was also very important. Many of these Jewing immigrants persued peddling and petty trade requiring only small capital outlays. From these foundations came important depatment stores and other businesses. Perhaps the best known of these immigranys is Levi Strauss, famous of course for his blue jeans. These German immigrants rapidly entered the American middle class. The commitment of these German Jewish immigrants can be seen in their commitment to communal life. They founded a variety of religious, philanthropic and fraternal organizations. They were center of the early Reform Movement in American Judiasm. Reform Judaism was founded by assimilated Jews in Hamburg, Germany and worked to achieve civic equality and social acceptance for Jews.

Russian Jews

Russia had the largest Jewish population in Europe. Russia in the 18th century aquired large numbers of Jews through the Polish partitions. Actually the term Russian Jews is a misnomer. They mightbbe more acurately called Polish Jews. The Russian Jewish population was fairly limited and Russia when in conquuered areas like the Ukraine expelled or murdered the Jewish population. This only changed with the Polish Partitions of the 18th century. The Jews we now refer to as Russian Jews in America often came from areas Russia acquired in the Polish Partitions. While Jewish immigrants that came tobAmerica commonly came from the Russian Empire, the aeeas that they cane from was commonly the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which became the heart of the Pale established by Catherine the Great (1791). Some Jews assimulated in Russia but most Jews did not. Even assimilated Jews faced wide-spread anti-Semitism even before the accession of Alexander III. Shaken by the assasination of his father, Alexander enflamed sentiment against Jews, in part to distract the growing political opposition to ansolute rule. The pogroms and growing anti-Semitism drove Jews from Russia in large numbers. Some went to Germany and other European countries. Even more came to America. At the time there were no limitations on immigration. The Russian Jews came in such mumbers that they overwealmed the existing Jewish communities with mostly German roots. Most Ameucan Jews todays arecdescended from Russian Jews.

Alexander III (1881-94)

Alexander was the second son of Alexander II. He was born in St. Petersburg on February 26, 1845. Alexander III became official heir to the throne after the death of his elder brother, Nicholas, in 1865. He came to the throne on March 1, 1881, at the age 36 after the assassination of his father and was crowned in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on May 15, 1883. Alexander III's reign coincided with an industrial revolution in Russia and the strengthening of capitalism. His domestic policy was particularly harsh, directed not only against revolutionaries but other liberal movements. Fearing an attempt on his life, he refused to live in the Winter Palace; instead, he lived away from St. Petersburg in Gatchina, the palace of his great-grandfather, Paul I, which was designed like a medieval fortress surrounded by ditches and watchtowers. He married the Danish Princess Dagmar (Maria Feodorovna) and had six children. Alexander was a mountain of a man and renowed throughout Russia for his strength and vigor. Alexander III died on October 20, 1894, in Livadia, Crimea, and was buried in the Cathedral of the St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. I have no information yet on his childhood or how he was dressed as a boy, but am attempting to obtain some.

Pogroms

The reason of course was the terrible oppression visited upon the Jews by the Tsarist regime and the Cossacks. Not only were there legal restrictions, but vicisious programs massacred Jews in the thousands. The primary impetus for Russian immigration to America was the pogroms directed at Jew in the wake of the assaination of Tsar Alexander II (1881). The Russians condicted pogroms (1881-84 and 1903-06) in which Jewish communities were ravished. Large numbers of Jews dispairing of life in Russia emigration to Western Europe and the United States.

Russian Jews in America

The wave of Russian and Eastern European Jews entering America begiining in the 1880s was the third and by far the largest wave of Jewish immigrants. They were fleeling Tsarist persecution in Russia and Poland (largely conrolled by Russia). The Russian nd Polish Jews coming to America becausevof repression and pogroms were very different than the German Jews that had come before them. German Jews had come mostly as single men. The Russian Jews came as whole families. The Russian Jews were much less assimilate than the German Jews. As part of the Russian and Polish immigration were the Hasidic Jews. The Hasidim for the most part believed in a strict, orthodox way of life. The Russian and Polish Jews did not move west like the German Jews. Rather they settled in New York City and other large northeaster cities. They became part of the industrial proletariat of late 19th and early 20th century America. Many of the girls and young women killed in the New York Triange Shirt Waist Factory Fire, for example, were these Russian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Gradually many of the Russian Jews raised small amounts of capital and went in to busiess, gradually entering the middle class. Many of these Jews spoke Yiddish as their primary language. This was the vehicle for a rich cultural expression which found an outlet in journalism, fiction, poetry and the theater.

Cultural Divisions

The original Sephardim looked on the the middle class German Jews in the early 19th century as upstarts. The well established, assimilated German Jews in the late 19th century as very foreign looking and sounding aliens. The German Jews felt more "American" than the working class Jews pouring in from Rusdsia and Eastern Europe. Their Reform Judiasm also conflicted with the more orthodox Judiasm of the new immigrants. The Russian Jews had been forced into a more insular way of life than the assimilated Grman Jews were accustomed to in America. Russian Jews tended to form formed cohesive communities of their own within the cities where they settled. They fervently maintained an intense sense of religiosity which permeated their daily lives. Reform and Orthodox communities worshiped separately. In particular the maintenance of a Yiddish culture tended to separate the Russian and German Jewish communities.

Impact on America

The Jews are notable for several reasons. Notably the Jews were most likely to stay in America. Few returned to Europe. The Jews were also the immigrant most willing to aid new arrivals. They actively support relief agencies for the new arrivals. The most important impacts of the Jews is surely the impact on American intellectual and political thought.

Created: 3:33 PM 9/5/2004
Last updated: 5:11 AM 9/24/2006