Demographic Patterns >> Jews


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Before the 19th century, very few Eastern European Jews entered the United States. It was because of the turmoil in the Russian Empire following the assassination of Czar Alexander II on March 13th, 1881, that Ashkenazi Jews began to enter the United States in large numbers. In Eastern Europe, there were false rumors that the assassination was the work of the Jews. This resulted in a series of riot-sized hate crimes, called pogroms. These attacks and the widespread discrimination were the main reason for the mass migration. There was also a distinct wave of Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews arriving from the Pale of Settlement (modern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova), and the Russian-controlled portions of the former Duchy of Warsaw. 

The migration of Eastern European Jews was particularly evident in 1881 and 1905, when the most inhumane of pogroms occurred in Kiev, Odessa, and Warsaw. These acts of violence resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews. Not surprisingly, in both of these years, record numbers of Eastern European immigrants entered the United States. They represented almost 2% of the total increase in population. By the time the National Origins Act of 1924 was passed, the United States was home to almost 2,000,000 Jews. They constituted the third largest concentration in the country.

Some anthropologists, such as Hasia Diner, challenge the notion that the pogroms were the sole reason for the wave of Eastern European Jewish migration. In the 1880s, under the rule of Alexander III, Russia began industrializing rapidly. This was not beneficial to the Jews, and was another motive for their leaving.

Map of pogroms and antisemitic acts of violence in Russia and the Pale from 1871-1906. (http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/gallery/pogroms.htm)

 

                                                                              


 


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Below is an excerpt from Jews For Racial and Economic Justice's timeline of Jewish immigration to the United States. 

JFREJ's "An Abbreviated Timeline of Jewish Immigration to the United States"

1654-1820 The first wave of Jewish immigration to the United States.  Fewer than 15,000 Jews fleeing religious intolerance travel here from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Bordeaux, Jamica, England, Curacoa, Holland and Poland.  They found the first Jewish communities in the United States in NYC, Newport, Charleston, Savannah, and Philadelphia.
1820-1880 The second wave of Jewish emigrants, brings 250,000 German Jews to the United States. 
1881-1924 Waves of porgroms (anti-Jewish riots), poverty, and mandatory conscription in the Jewish Pale of Settlement in Russia and Eastern Europe cause ~2,000,000 Jews to emigrate to the United States.  Bringing 138,051 in 1914 alone. 
1921-1924 The National Origins Quota legislation passes, restricting the number of immigrants allowed into America to no more than two percent of the number of each nationality residing the U.S. in 1890.  Due to the National Origins Quota of 1924 few Eastern European refugees were allowed into the US during World War II.
1939 About 70,000 Sephardi Jews are now living in the United States, a majority of whom live in New York City.

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The spike in Jewish immigration during the early 20th century was already receding by the time the National Origins Act of 1924 was passed. The level of immigration was very low during the 1940s, when the Holocaust was underway, and it was extremely difficult for Jews to leave their native countries.

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Immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe (1890-1930)

1890 512,464
1900 1,134,680
1910 2,956,783
1920 3,731,327
1930

3,785,890

There was a steady increase of Eastern European immigration to the United States during the first decade of the 1900s.

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Once in the United States, most Jewish immigrants resided in segregated neighborhoods, such as the Lower East Side. Their standard of living was relatively poor. Many felt as though assimilation was their only option, often neglecting their religious obligations in order to survive in their new environment. Although many Jews were already breaking away from their religion when they left Eastern Europe, a significant amount struggled with issues such as keeping their job, or respecting the Sabbath.

Very few Jewish immigrants eventually returned to their native countries. Most were not in a financial position to do so, and even those who were able were not guaranteed a home to return to. The Russian political unrest was unceasing, and the pogroms continued throughout the early 1900s. By 1900, the 1.5 million Jews residing in the United States comprised the third-largest Jewish population in the world, only surpassed by that of Russia and Austria-Hungary. The population increased steadily, and a quarter of a century later, America was home to nearly 2 million Eastern European Jews. 

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