Judaisms Modernization In America

The Jewish way of life has been affected in a tremendous way by the people of the United States of America. By the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there were only 2500 Jews in America. For forty years beginning in 1840,

250,000 Jews (primarily from Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia) entered this country. Anti-Semitism and economic woes in Eastern

Europe went from bad to worse after the pogroms of 1881-1882.

Almost three million Eastern European Jews left between 1881 and

1914, two million (85%) of which decided to come to America, where they thought "the streets were paved with gold." They were wrong. Because of this intercontinental migration, the social characterization of Jews in America changed drastically. Before the move, the largest group in the early eighteenth century were the Sephardic Jews. They lived in the coastal cities as merchants, artisans, and shippers. The Jews who predominately spoke German came to America over 100 years later, and quickly spread out over the land. Starting as peddlers, they moved up to business positions in the south, midwest, and on the west coast. New York

City had 85,000 Jews by 1880, most of which had German roots. At this time in American history, the government accepted many people from many different backgrounds to allow for a diverse population; this act of opening our borders probably is the origin of the descriptive phrase "the melting pot of the world."

These German Jews rapidly assimilated themselves and their faith. Reform Judaism arrived here after the Civil War due to the advent of European Reform rabbis. Jewish seminaries, associations, and institutions, such as Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, New

York's Jewish Theological Seminary, the Union of American Hebrew

Congregations (UAHC), and the Central Conference of American

Rabbis, were founded in the 1880s.

America was experimenting with industry on a huge scale at the time the Eastern European Jews that arrived. Their social history combined with the American Industrial Age produced an extremely diverse and distinct American Jewry by the end of the intercontinental migration, which coincided with the start of the

Great World War (World War I). Almost two out of every three new immigrants called the big northeast municipalities (such as the

Lower East Side of New York) their new home. They would take any job available to support the family, and they worked in many different jobs which were as physically demanding as they were diverse. The garment district in New York today was made from the meticulousness, the sweat, and the determination of the Jews.