In Eli Evan’s The Provincials and Stuart Rockoff’s piece “The Fall and the Rise of the Jewish South” the reader looks at the changing life and times for people of Jewish ancestry in the American south. Since the 1950’s, the Jewish south has experienced rife anti-semitism, a demographic shift as small town populations significantly decreased while large cities grew, and social change due to the civil rights movement. 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 …show more content…
In many cases they are the storytellers. In historical letters from that era, women served as ambassadors and as the vehicles of cultural continuity. Gertrude Weil for example, a resident of Goldsboro North Carolina was a cultural reformer and social activist for both the civil rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement. (Lecture. 11.2.15) Along with women who participated in Wednesdays in Mississippi, and women who participated in Hadassah chapters across the country. Eli Evan’s mother was another such woman, as she relates many of her stories in The
The novel Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska examines the roles and experiences of Jewish immigrants in America roughly after the years of WWI in New York City. The novel follows the journey of Sara, a young Jewish immigrant, and her family who comes to the country from Poland with different beliefs than those in the Smolinsky household and by much of the Jewish community that lived within the housing neighborhoods in the early 1900s. Through Sara’s passion for education, desire for freedom and appreciation for her culture, she embodies a personal meaning of it means to be an “American”.
This book describes a revolutionary woman who altered and help pave the path of women's role in American history. Eleanor Roosevelt was undoubtedly one of the most important woman figures in the history of the United States, notably during the twentieth century. The direction the author took the book to help the reader understand Eleanor's life, makes the reader feel as if they have a personal connection with Mrs. Roosevelt.
“Modern anti-Semitism, in contrast to earlier forms, was based not on religious practices of the Jews but on the theory that Jews comprised an inferior race. Anti-Semites exploited the fact that Jews had been forced into exile by extolling as ‘fact’ that their ‘rootlessness’ had a genetic basis. A Jew was a Jew not because he or she practiced any particular religion, but because it was a character of his or her blood.”
Although she always denied claims of having a distinct Jewish calling, being a second generation German Jewish immigrant, she has always been associated with Jewish New York. Wald has never laid claim to being a crusader for the Jewish people, and yet most of the information published about her comes from the Jewish community trying to sell her as an activist for the Jewish cause. Marjorie N. Feld gives readers a critical look into the life and work of woman dedicated to revealing the similarities of people not their differences. Lillian Wald’s story is an important one because she spent her life working towards a universal vision that would group people together and yet remembered by her difference from other progressive reformers of the time, being Jewish. In this book Feld describes Wald not as person fighting for a particular group, but a person fighting for humanity's equality.
The book begins by giving a brief background into the setting of America at the onset of the war. It details an anti-Semitic America. It also explains most of the anti-Semitism as passive, which ordinarily would do little harm, but during a holocaust crisis became a reason for America’s inaction.
Roberts says that if it weren’t for these women our lives today might very well be completely different then they are today. There still might have been poor and unsafe working conditions, unequal wages between men and women, and much more. These women were constantly fighting and influencing their husbands and important men around them to, as Abigail Adams said, “remember the ladies”. George Washington was a man that never forgot to recognize the ladies. Roberts provides a quote from George Washington where he is recognizing the men which we now call the Founding Fathers. He starts by giving credit to the men that formed our nation but also includes that the ladies played a huge role in shaping our country and they are the “best patriots America can boast”. Roberts concludes the book with that statement, which leaves the book at an ending that makes you stop and reflect on the real impact these women have had. Female activists were formed because of the bravery of these women and if it went for them, female activists might not have been as successful as they were. Roberts proves that these Founding Mothers were the foundation and stability behind our Founding
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.
Throughout history Jewish people have been discriminated against relentlessly and while one may think that the world has finally become an accepting place to live in, unfortunately the battle against discrimination still exists even in countries such as the USA. Different opposing groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the Knights Party have not only discriminated against people of non-white races, but they have helped promote anti-Semitism in the United States. Anti-Semitism is the hatred of or discrimination of against Jews, which according to Efron et al. “anti-Semitism was born of modern racial theories and political ideas, or for that matter with Christian anti-Semitism, fueled by distinctive theological ideas unique to Christianity” (Efron et al. Pg. 68).
Jewish emancipation in Germany dates from 1867 and became law in Prussia on July 3, 1869. Despite the fact the prominence which Jews had succeeded in gaining in trade, finance, politics, and literature during the earlier decades of the century, it is from the brief rise of liberalism that one can trace the rise of the Jews in German social life. For it is with the rise of liberalism which the Jews truly flourished. They contributed to its establishment, benefited from its institutions, and were under fire when it was attacked. Liberal society provides social mobility, which led to distaste among those who had acquired some place in a sort of a hierarchy. Although many were, not all anti-Semites were anti-liberal, but most anti-Semites opposed Liberalism’s whole concept of human existence, which provides much equality.
Arons, Ron. The Jews of Sing Sing. New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc. June 1st, 2008
The Abolitionist Movement transformed the role of women in American History. Prior to the abolitionist movement, women were viewed as invisible icons in society. A typical woman would only be responsible for motherhood duties, cleaning, and preparing food. While many women agreed with this, others did not. The desire to be heard and treated equally was something numerous women shared. Astonishing women like, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Grimke sisters became prominent leaders in the abolitionist movement and made a pathway in history by initiating speeches, participating in female politics and supporting their personal opinions of women’s rights through religious doctrines.
...ths of the sixteenth century. Yes, women of that time and place left a very light mark on history. Eventually, the story the book tells spirals down into just some nasty courtroom feuds among family members. The story provides a driving narrative that brings into intimate contact disparate kinds that are still prevalent today. And the conclusion drawn from Anna's actions and reactions may surprise. In both everyday life and in times of crisis, women in the twenty first century has access to effective personal and legal resources.
Before World War I, the nation’s cities were primarily industrial. During and after World War I, there was a demand for workers that stimulated an influx through northward migration of hundreds of thousands of southern blacks into ...
When the call went out in the summer of 1961 for volunteers to ride buses throughout the South to help integrate public transportation, a large percentage of the people who made a commitment to take on this dangerous assignment were Jews. To be exact, nearly two-thirds of the Freedom Riders were Jewish which is “quite an amazing feat for a minority which made up less than 2% of the entire American population” (Weinblatt 5). Although Jews and African Americans are two very distinct, and often opposing, cultural groups in our society, the great struggle to end racism in America meshed these two groups tightly together. Their shared motivations, expectations and experiences in dealing with white racists during the civil rights movement are amazingly similar, especially when they are compared in the writings of African American essayist and activist James Baldwin and the personal recollections of the Jewish Freedom Riders.
In the late 19th century, Susan B. Antony , Elizabeth Cady Stanton ,Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Harriet Beecher Stowe were famous suffragettes. Influenced by the secular intellectual reasoning that followed the Age of Enlightenment, some of these suffragettes saw in the Church an obstacle to women’s rights and encouraged a matriarchal writing.