The Discrimination and Persecution of Jewish Immigrants

In modern Europe, Jews faced struggles such as Emancipation and the Holocaust. All they wanted was to become accepted in society; however instead they were mistreated and eventually massacred. This all leads up to Jewish life in America, something drastically different than the pattern that has remained constant for centuries. Through the American ideals such as freedom of speech and religion, Jews were able to prosper. No longer were Jews confined to being the people they were expected to be; rather, they had the freedom to establish their own identity.

Zionism's Change from a Passive Notion to an Active Ideology During the Nineteenth Century Although it has been a precondition of Jewish consciousness to believe that the emergence of a Modern political Zionist movement can be attributed to the rampant anti-Semitism suffered by the European Jews, this does not provide an adequate explanation. The entire history of the Jews can be defined by the way in which they suffered persecution under the oppressive hands of others, proving that anti-Semitism was not a phenomenon unique to the Jews of the nineteenth century. Thus, and exploration of the transformation of the Jewish world in lieu of the invention of the modern world as we know it is imperative to the understanding of the development of Zionism from a passive consciousness and yearning to the emergence of the first political Zionist writings marking the beginning of an active ideological movement advocating mass immigration to Eretz Israel. The nineteenth century was a dynamic climate in European politics. The Enlightenment, a Western movement celebrating man's rationality, centrality, and equality, began in France in the last decades of the eighteenth century; however it was not until the nineteenth century that grants of emancipation proliferated across Europe.

What was the dominant definition of what it meant to be an American at the time that many Jews arrived arrived in the United States? How did the Jews in the book compare? What hopes did many Jewish immigrants have for life in America? Were the expectations met? What else do the letters reveal about the late 19th Century through the 1920s?

A few years later, Hitler deported most of the Jews in this ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. The remaining Jews were furious, and held an uprising. Although the Jews were defeated, they were strong and showed the Nazis that they could hold their own. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was sometimes called the Second Warsaw Uprising. It was called this to distinguish it from the earlier Warsaw Uprising, where the Polish Home Army resisted the German occupiers (Axelrod, Kingston).

To further excommunicate Jews from society, Nazis prevented Germans from shopping in stores owned or run by Jews. By 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with the yellow Star of David or had the word "Juden" written on the window. This was no... ... middle of paper ... ...far as to say Jews were the devil. Children being exposed to such outrageous anti-Semitic messages throughout their life, puts an idea in to their heads that anti-Semitism was ok and even normal. Before the Nazi’s reign and Hitler’s power in Germany, anti-Semitism and prejudice towards Jewish people was still a problem in society, but Nazi’s use of propaganda changed anti-Semitism from dislike of Jews because they were different to the dehumanization and genocide of the Jewish people.

It all began in the first millennium of the Christian era. Catholic leaders had developed beliefs that Jews were responsible for the execution of Jesus “For centuries churches taught that Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death” ("From the Early Church to 1400”). Jews were the most known minority group. Many myths and stereo-types were started at this time and the hate grew worse and worse (World E... ... middle of paper ... ...n concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Some were used as lab rats for medical experiments.

How did the world let this happen? Sir Edmund Burke summed it up by saying, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. This tragedy did not happen over night and no one did much to stop it until it was to late. The documentary, The American Experience: America and the Holocaust, portrays life in America for Jews and non-Jews during the Holocaust. When Jews in Europe began to be persecuted, many moved to begin a new life in America.

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. For a Jew arriving in America from Europe starting anew marked a defining point.

I looked at demographics of where most Jewish-Americans live. I examined how Jewish-Americans have contributed to our culturally pluralistic society in the United States. 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). At that time director-general Peter Stuyvesant wanted to keep the Jews out of his diverse town.

The program state that “The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine secure by public law”. Much of the Jewish community at this point held mixed views about this movement but it was this time period of the late 19th ce... ... middle of paper ... ...Palestine. The main points of the White Paper put the plans for partition as impractical and enforced restrictions on Jewish immigration and the transfer of land. The White Paper said that with the Jewish population at 450,000 having been settled in the mandate, the points in the Balfour Declaration have been met. “His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.” Even though much hope seemed to be lost at this point, faced with the impending Nazism in Europe, Zionist Jews and non-Zionist Jews had felt the pressure to unite and thus led to the Biltmore Conference.