Throughout the history of America, there has always been a influx of Jews from Europe. Even though Emma Lazarus wrote her poem after the massive immigration of German Jews to America, her poem can be used to describe the Jewish Immigrants. Many German Jews arrived in New York " tired ... poor... [and] yearning to breathe free." While New York City was still a hub for German Jewish immigrants, some had also moved to Atlanta and more Western states. Several of the German Jewish families who immigrated to America will forever have their names etched into her history, through their central role as entrepreneurs in America's expanding clothing industry. They began from humble careers and worked their way up the proverbial food chain. Once settled in, these German Jews knew they had to take advantage of their circumstances, past experiences and ability to "predict" the future in order to survive in the dog eat dog world of the Nineteenth Century. Although many of which did not have much startup capital, they managed to pay off their debts and move into the profit margin. For a job that can fabricate those results, many chose to become peddlers.
A very lucky few, such as the Straus family who owned Macy's (bought in 1887), Lyman G. Bloomingdales who started Bloomingdales (1872) and the Altmans of B. Altman & Co (1865). (Hendrickson 66, 105 & 159). Many of the enormous department stores which Americans and the world cherish so much, started from theses poor Jewish German immigrants. These stores, such as Bendels, A&S and Gimbels helped established New York City as one of the top four fashion capitals of the world (Ellecanada). They moved to cities with a big population with many job opportunities because "The Jews were men who act...
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...ent that was owed. If the supplier was out of business than he donated to a charity in that area. This is "a phenomenon still remembered in credit circles half a century later (Harris 41). In addition to these distinguishable traits, they were also able to predict the "flow", "thoughts" and "movements" of society. In their own way, they were sages of their time, creating new fashions, starting new policies that the public raved for, and choosing spots to place their small, then turned massive, stores. L. G. Bloomingdales opened his store at 938 Third Avenue, NYC, far away from "New York's shopping district [which] was then located between Fourteenth and Twenty-third streets." His ability to assess and apprehend the psychology of the shopping nature allowed him to relocate his store to a key spot. As they say in real estate, "Location, location, location" (Friedman).
According to Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, between 1880 and about World War I, the vast majority of Eastern European Jews and Southern Italians came to the United States populating neighborhoods in New York and the Lower East Side is the best example. One thing, which was common to the immigrant experience is that, all immigrants come to the United States as the “land of opportunity”. They come to America with different types of expectations that are conditioned by their origins and families. But every immigrant comes to America wanting to make himself/herself into a person, to be an individual and to become somebody. In this case, the author showed in Bread Givers, Sarah’s desire to make herself into something and bring something unique to America, which only she can bring. It is an effort to understand the immigrants, particularly Jewish immigrants, from a woman’s point of view. The book shows that it was a challenge for Jewish immigrant children, particularly females, on the account of the intensity of their family’s connections and obligations that was so critical for the immigrant communities. This was true for the immigrants who came to settle in the neighborhoods like the one Sarah and her family settled in.
Hilene Flanzbaum recalls that what is called the great wave of Eastern European immigration to the eastern United States occurred between 1880 and 1920, after which generations of Jewish-American immigrants established what it meant to be Jewish in America (2013, p. 485). Ilan Stavans points out, however, that the original Jewish settlement in what would become the United States began as early as 1654 with twenty three Portuguese-speaking Sephardic Jews from Recife, Brazil (Stavans, 2005, p. 2).
The United States is a country known for its variation of nationalities and ethnic races. After extensive research, and questioning I discovered that my ancestors originated from Norway and Switzerland. My family migrated to the United States in the late 1800’s from Norway due to social, economic, and religion reforms as well as, a surplus in the population. Learning of my ancestor’s migration to America has very much influenced my views on the existing immigration problems that the U.S. currently faces.
The small town south experienced an exodus of its Jewish population following World War II. The war significantly changed the economy of the south. It drained the farming population, changed methods of federal spending, and led to the mechanization of production along with the decrease of cotton as the “king” export. Instead, soybeans became the chief export of Southern agriculture. (Rockoff. Jewish Roots in Southern Soil. 284) For the most part, these towns lost their younger generations as they left for war or to pursue a higher education. These heroes and academics were not eager to return; the rural Jewish south was shrinking and many saw greater economic opportunity in growing southern cities like Atlanta. The small towns of the rural south had defined the old paradigm of southern Jewish life when European Jewish immigrants settled in America as peddlers, and later business owners. During the 1800s, they established
In the eyes of the early American colonists and the founders of the Constitution, the United States was to represent the ideals of acceptance and tolerance to those of all walks of life. When the immigration rush began in the mid-1800's, America proved to be everything but that. The millions of immigrants would soon realize the meaning of hardship and rejection as newcomers, as they attempted to assimilate into American culture. For countless immigrants, the struggle to arrive in America was rivaled only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the existing American population.
In the face of increasing anti-Semitism during the interwar periods Jewish identity often came into conflict with societal pressures to assimilate. Irving Howe’s, A Memoir of the Thirties, written in 1961, depicts his experiences as a Jew in New York City. In his memoir Howe describes the living and social conditions during this decade that pushed many New York Jews to become involved in some type of socialist movement. Although the memoir is primarily about political activities, his description of the social conditions and the Jewish community provides ...
According to the broadest definition, there are approximately 9 million Jewish adults in America. Of those, 5.3 million are Jewish because they practice the Jewish religion or who have a Jewish parent and consider themselves Jewish. Non-hispanic blacks make up 2% of that population. (A Portrait of Jewish Americans) Blacks constitute such a small percentage of the Jewish population that they are often considered to be obviously “not Jewish”. This was the experience of Rabbi Shlomo ben Levy.In an article entitled, “Who are we? Where did we come from? How many of us are there?”, Rabbi Levy describes his feelings of marginalization triggered by an advertisement for Levy’s Jewish Rye. The advertisement features a black boy eating a sandwich and the caption “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s”. The idea was to present a child who was clearly not Jewish enjoying Jewish bread but for Rabbi Levy who is both black and Jewish it was yet another message that denied his existence. (Who are we?)
If one were to ask a New York resident in the 1950’s how many people he or she would expect to be living in New York sixty years from now, he would most likely not say 20 million. Among those 20 million, it is even more unfathomable that an estimated 1.7 million Jews reside within New York City, making New York home to over a quarter of the Jews living in America today . Amongst those Jews however, how many of them consider themselves religious? Seeing that only an estimated 10 percent of Jews today classify themselves as observant, how and when did this substantial dispersion occur? The period post World War II in America presents the many different factors and pressures for Jews arriving in America during this time. Although many Jews believed America would be the best place to preserve and rebuild Jewish presence in the world, the democracy and economic opportunity resulted in adverse effects on many Jews. The rate of acculturation and assimilation for many of these Jews proved to be too strong, causing an emergence of two types of Jews during this time period. Pressures including the shift to suburbanization, secular education into professional careers, covert discrimination in the labor market and the compelling American culture, ultimately caused the emergence of the passive and often embarrassed ‘American Jew’; the active ‘Jewish American’ or distinctly ‘Jewish’ citizen, avertedly, makes Judaism an engaging active component of who and what they are amidst this new American culture.
Zollman, Joellyn. "Jewish Immigration to America - My Jewish Learning." Jewish Immigration to America - My Jewish Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. . Joellyn Zollman described three "waves" of Jewish immigration to America. First came the Sephardic settlers from 1654 and several decades on, second the German Jews (mainly to escape oppression and denial rights, even basic human rights) in the 1840s, and lastly the Eastern Europeans after 1880. It provided information on the history of Jewish immigration to the United States, along with the reasons why - these reasons seemed to be part of a trend throughout history.
Millions of new immigrants came to the United States during the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. In contrast to the earlier American settlers who were mostly from British, Irish or German backgrounds, the new immigrants came from the nations of southern and western Europe such as Italy, Russia, Poland and Greece. Most of these immigrants were attracted to America because they were trying to escape from the problems they faced in their home countries. For example, many Russian Jews came to America in order to escape violent persecution on the part of the Russian government (Cox 32). These new immigrants were attracted to the freedoms offered by
to fully comprehend the nature of why they have changed so vastly. Jews came to
During the early 20th century many Jews began coming to America to escape. They sought America as a place of freedom and refuge during the pre-revolutionary times from economic struggles. Many coming from Europe settled on the east coast into many small communities. “Currently there are 4.2 million Jews who still live in Israel which is considered there homeland, but there are 5.8 million Jews who live in the United States and consider it their home.” www.everyculture.com
This paper discusses Jewish involvement in shaping United States immigration policy. In addition to a periodic interest in fostering the immigration of co- religionists as a result of anti- Semitic movements, Jews have an interest in opposing the establishment of ethnically and culturally homogeneous societies in which they reside as minorities. Jews have been at the forefront in supporting movements aimed at altering the ethnic status quo in the United States in favor of immigration of non- European peoples. These activities have involved leadership in Congress, organizing and funding anti- restrictionist groups composed of Jews and gentiles, and originating intellectual movements opposed to evolutionary and biological perspectives in the social sciences.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that “equal opportunity” here stood for individual freedom, ability and rationality to choose favorable prospects while discounting external circumstances that grant privileges or set forth detriments. Thus, setting apart American Jews from their American counterparts and fellow immigrants in terms of financial standing which cannot be attributed merely to external circumstances, that is, having availed themselves the opportunity to leverage a cultural capital that engendered favorable economic outcomes in a capitalist
Ron Johnson spent a great deal of time and money to promote his ideas of “stores-within-stores” by turning floor space into an area to house several branded boutiques. He did this in order to attract a target market of a wider demographic which includes age, gender, and generation. One of the m...