History of the Jews in the United States
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- For information on contemporary American Jewish culture, see Jewish American.
The history of the Jews in the United States comprises a theological dimension, with a three-way division into Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. In social terms the Jewish community began with small groups of merchants in colonial ports such as New York City and Charleston. In the mid and late 19th century well-educated German Jews arrived and settled in cities across the country. From 1880 to 1924 large numbers of Yiddish-speaking Jews arrived from Eastern Europe, settling in New York City and other large cities. After 1945 numbers came as refugees from Europe; after 1980 many came from the Soviet Union, and there has been a flow from Israel. By the year 1900 the 1.5 million Jews gave the United States third place in numbers, behind Russia and Austria-Hungary). The proportion of the population has been about 2 to 3% since 1900, but in the 21st century the Jews were widely diffused in major metropolitan areas in New York, Florida, California, New England and Illinois.
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[edit] American Revolution
By 1776 and the War of Independence, around 2,000 Jews lived in America, most of them Sephardic. They played a significant role in the struggle for independence, including fighting against the British (the first Jew to die during the War was Francis Salvador). David Salisbury Franks, an aide-de-camp of Benedict Arnold, suffered from his association with the traitorious general despite loyal service in both the Continental Army and the American diplomatic corps. Jews also played a key role in financing the Revolution, with the most important of the financiers being Haym Salomon.
President George Washington remembered the Jewish contribution when the first synagogue opened in Newport, Rhode Island in 1790 in a letter, dated August 17, 1790: "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in the land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants. While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."
[edit] 19th century
During this period (especially the 1840s and 1850s), Jewish immigration came primarily from Germany, bringing a liberal, educated population that had experience with the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. It was in the United States during the 1800s that two of the major branches of Judaism were established by these German immigrants, including Reform Judaism (out of German Reform Judaism) and Conservative Judaism, in reaction to the perceived liberalness of Reform Judaism.
Jewish communities began to organize themselves in the early parts of the 19th century. A Jewish orphanage was set up in Charlestown, South Carolina in 1801, and the first Jewish school, Polonies Talmud Torah, was established in New York in 1806. In 1843, the first national secular Jewish organization in the United States, the B'nai B'rith was established. See also History of Jewish education in the United States (pre-20th century).
[edit] Civil War
Jews, like the United States itself, were divided on the slavery debate, although most appeared to be in favor of emancipation. They participated in the Civil War, with approximately 6,000-8,000 Jews (out of around 150,000 Jews in the United States, total) fighting on the Union side, and 1,500 on the Confederate side. Jews also played leadership roles on both sides, with 9 Jewish generals and 21 Jewish colonels participating in the War. Judah Benjamin, a non-observant Jew, served as Secretary of State and acting Secretary of War of the Confederacy.
[edit] The Jews and the government
The first Jewish Representative, Lewis Charles Levin, and Senator, David Levy Yulee, were elected in 1845. Official government anti-Semitism continued, however, with New Hampshire only offering equality to Jews in 1871, the last state to do so. Jews also began to organize as a political group in the United States, especially in response to the United States' reaction to the 1840 Damascus Blood Libel. As of 2006, there is a disproportionately large number of Jewish senators, for although only about 2% of the population of the United States is Jewish, there are approximately 14 Jewish senators, or 14% of the senate.
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- For more information, see Relationship of American Jews to the U.S. Federal Government (pre-20th century).
[edit] Jewish immigration
The history of the Jews in the United States was influenced by waves of immigration. The primary reason for immigration was the periods of anti-Semitism and persecution that rippled through Europe. The history of Jewish immigration therefore parallels that anti-Semitic repression in Europe.
[edit] Third wave: Russia, Poland, and Eastern Europe
But none of the early migratory movements assumed the significance and volume of that from Russia and neighboring countries. This emigration, mainly from Russian Poland, began as far back as 1821, but did not become especially noteworthy until after the German immigration fell off in 1870. Though nearly 50,000 Russian, Polish, Galician, and Romanian Jews went to the United States during the succeeding decade, it was not until the pogroms, anti-Jewish uprisings in Russia, of the early eighties, that the immigration assumed extraordinary proportions. From Russia alone the emigration rose from an annual average of 4,100 in the decade 1871-80 to an annual average of 20,700 in the decade 1881-90. Additional measures of persecution in Russia in the early nineties and continuing to the present time have resulted in large increases in the emigration, England and the United States being the principal lands of refuge. The Romanian persecutions, beginning in 1900,lll also caused large numbers of Jews to seek refuge in the US.
By 1924, two million Jews had arrived, mostly from Eastern Europe and Russia. Growing anti-immigration feelings in the United States at this time, resulted in the National Origins Quota of 1924, which severely restricted immigration from Eastern Europe and Russia after that time.
[edit] Later immigration
The immigration restrictions of the late 1920s prevented many Jews from coming to the United States, yet some 100,000 German Jews did arrive in the 1930s, escaping Hitler’s persecution. During the Holocaust, less than 30,000 Jews a year reached the United States, and some were turned away due to immigration policies. Immediately after the Second World War, some Jewish refugees resettled in the United States, and another wave of Jewish refugees from Arab nations settled in the US after expulsion from their home countries. The last large wave of immigration came from the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, where approximately 150,000 Jews emigrated from
[edit] The 20th Century
The twentieth century’s wave of immigration, followed by the Holocaust that destroyed most of the European Jewish community, made the United States the home of the largest Jewish population in the world during the 20th century. At the beginning of the century, there were around a million Jews in the United States, at the end of the century, around 6 million. Jewish growth slowed after the 1920s, when immigration fell due to new restrictions, and intermarriage and assimilation resulted in many of Jewish descent identifying more with their American than Jewish heritage. Currently, the intermarriage rate in the United States for Jews exceeds 50%.
[edit] Voting
[edit] Politics and Civil Rights
The German Jews were primarily Republicans. However the Yiddish-speaking Jews, many with experience with the Labor Bund in Eastern Europe, were leaders in the socialist and labor movements after 1910. They formed strong unions that played a major role in left-wing politics, and after 1936 in Democratic party politics. Polls showed Jews gave 90% support to Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman in the elections of 1940, 1944 and 1948. They gave about a third of their vote to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. In 1960 Jews voted 83% for Catholic Democrat John F. Kennedy. In 1964, when the Republicans nominated arch-conservative Barry Goldwater, of Jewish descent, 90% of Jews voted for his opponent. [1] The heavily Democratic pattern continued into the 21st century. In 2004 74% of Jews voted for Democrat John Kerry, a Catholic, and in 2006 87% voted for Democratic candidates for the House.[2] By the 1990s Jews were becoming prominent in Congress and state governments throughout the country.
Jews were leaders of movements for civil rights for all Americans, including themselves and African Americans. Seymour Siegel argues the historic struggle against prejudice faced by Jewish people led to a natural sympathy for any people confronting discrimination. This further led Jews to dialogue about the relationship they had with African Americans. Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress, stated the following at the March on Washington on 28 August 1963: "As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a twofold experience--one of the spirit and one of our history" [3] Yet there was dissension within Judaism about this civil rights involvement. Rabbi Bernard Wienberger exemplified this point of view, warning that "northern liberal Jews" put at risk southern Jews who faced hostility from white southerners because of their northern counterparts. Most of the selections about Jewish responses to the civil rights movement and black relations lean toward acceptance and activism against prejudice, demonstrating the important role that this community played in race relations during the 1960s. [4]
[edit] World War II and the Holocaust
In 1939 a Roper poll found that only thirty-nine percent of Americans felt that Jews should be treated like other people. Fifty-three percent believed that "Jews are different and should be restricted" and ten percent believed that Jews should be deported. [1] The United States’ tight immigration policies were not lifted during the Holocaust, news of which began to reach the United States in 1941 and 1942 and it has been estimated that 190 000 - 200 000 Jews could have been saved during the Second World War had it not been for bureaucratic obstacles to immigration deliberately created by Breckinridge Long and others.[2]
Rescue of the European Jewish population was not a priority for the US during the war, and the American Jewish community did not realize the severity of the Holocaust until late in the conflict. Despite strong public and political sentiment to the contrary, however, there were some who encouraged the U.S. government to help victims of Nazi genocide. In 1943, just before Yom Kippur, 400 rabbis marched in Washington, DC to draw attention to the plight of Holocaust victims. A week later, Senator William Warren Barbour (R; New Jersey), one of a handful of politicians who met with the rabbis on the steps of the Capitol, proposed legislation that would have allowed as many as 100,000 victims of the Holocaust to emigrate temporarily to the United States. Barbour died six weeks after introducing the bill, and it was not passed. A parallell bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Samuel Dickstein (D; New York). This also failed to pass. (Davis S. Wyman Institute) Even after the Holocaust, the US did not change its immigration policies until 1948.
Over 550,000 American Jews served in the US armed forces during World War II, or about 50% of all American Jewish males between 18 and 40.
[edit] The founding of Israel and American Zionism
American Jews were not particularly strong Zionists before the Second World War, believing that America, with its freedom for the Jewish people, was already what the Zionists hoped to
[edit] Recent times
American Jews continued to prosper throughout the late 20th century, and, with their success, increasingly assimilated into American culture, with high intermarriage rates resulting in either a falling or steady population rate at a time when the country was booming. Jews also began to move to the suburbs, with major population shifts from New York and the Northeast to Florida and California. New Jewish organizations were founded to accommodate an increasing range of Jewish worship and community activities, as well as geographic dispersal.
Politically, the Jewish population remained strongly liberal. Jews proved to be strong supporters of the American Civil Rights Movement and by all estimates over 60% of Jewish Americans are backers of the Democratic party.
[edit] Anti-Semitism in the United States
Anti-Semitism has proven less destructive to the Jews in the United States than in any other country outside of Israel, Australia and India. Even so, Jews were often persecuted, and were not allowed to vote in some states until the late 19th Century. Anti-Jewish sentiment started around the time of the Civil War, when Jews were often blamed by each side for aiding the other, Ulysses Grant even issued an order (quickly rescinded by President Lincoln) of expulsion against Jews from the portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi under his control. (See General Order No. 11)
Anti-Semitism continued to rise, and even to become normalized, through the late 1800s and first half of 1900s. It took primarily four forms: verbal or written criticisms of Jews that included the dissemination of vicious stereotypes; calls for law restricting Jewish immigration or influence; violence against individual Jews, and de facto social and economic discrimination. Jews were discriminated against in employment, access to residential and resort areas, membership in the clubs and organizations, and in tightened quotas on Jewish enrollment (numerus clausus) and teaching positions in colleges and universities.
Anti-Semitism in America reached its peak during the interwar period. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, the anti-Semitic works of Henry Ford, and the radio speeches of Father Coughlin in the late 1930s indicated the strength of attacks on the Jewish community.
Anti-Semitism in the United States has rarely turned into physical violence against Jews. Some more notable cases of such violence include the attack of Irish workers and police on the funeral procession of Rabbi Jacob Joseph in New York City in 1902, lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, assassination of Alan Berg in 1984, and the Crown Heights riots of 1991. Sometimes, during the race riots, as it was a case in Detroit in 1943, Jewish business were targeted for looting and burning.
Following the Second World War and the American Civil Rights Movement, anti-Jewish sentiment waned. Some members of the Black Nationalist Nation of Islam claimed that Jews were responsible for the exploitation of black labor, bringing alcohol and drugs into their communities, and unfair domination of the economy. Furthermore, according to ADL surveys begun in 1964, African-Americans are significantly more likely than white Americans to hold anti-Semitic beliefs, although there is a strong correlation between education level and the rejection of anti-Semitic stereotypes for all races. However, black Americans of all education levels are nevertheless significantly more likely than whites of the same education level to be anti-Semitic. In the 1998 survey, blacks (34%) were nearly four times as likely as whites (9%) to fall into the most anti-Semitic category (those agreeing with at least 6 of 11 statements that were potentially or clearly anti-Semitic). Among blacks with no college education, 43% fell into the most anti-Semitic group (vs. 18% for the general population), which fell to 27% among blacks with some college education, and 18% among blacks with a four-year college degree (vs. 5% for the general population). (Source: [3].)
The 2005 survey includes data on Hispanic attitudes, with 29% being most anti-Semitic (vs. 9% for whites and 36% for blacks); being born in the United States helped alleviate this attitude: 35% of foreign-born Hispanics, but only 19% of those born in the US. (Source: [4].)
[edit] Jewish contributions to the United States
Jews made major contributions to the cultural, scientific, political, and economic life of the United States. For example, 37% of all United States Nobel Prize winners in the 20th century were Jewish. For more information on famous Jews and their contribution to the United States, see List of Jewish Americans.
[edit] Bibliography
- Cutler, Irving. The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb. (1996)
- Diner, Hasia. The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004) online
- Diner, Hasia. Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present (2002) online
- Feingold, Henry L. Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present (1974) online
- Feingold, Henry L. A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream: 1920-1945. Vol. 4 of The Jewish People in America. (1992)
- Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers. (1976)
- Hyman, Paula E., and Deborah Dash Moore, eds. Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, 2 vol. (1997).
- Kaplan, Dana Evan, ed. The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism (2005)
- Karp, Abraham, ed. The Jews in America: A Treasury of Art and Literature. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, (1994)
- Moore, Deborah Dash. GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation (2006)
- Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews. (1981).
- Morowska, Ewa. Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890-1940 (1996)
- Neu, Irene D. "The Jewish Businesswoman in America." American Jewish Historical Quarterly 66 (1976-1977): 137-153.
- Sarna, Jonathan D. American Judaism Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-300-10197-X
- Shapiro, Edward S. A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II. Vol. 5 of The Jewish People in America. (1992).
- Sorin, Gerald. A Time for Building: The Third Migration, 1880-1920. Vol. 3 of The Jewish People in America. (1992).
[edit] Primary sources
- Salo W. Baron and Joseph L. Blau, eds. The Jews of the United States, 1790-1840: A Documentary History. 3 vol.(1963) online
- Howe, Irving and Kenneth Libo, eds. How We Lived, 1880-1930: A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America (1979) online
- Marcus, Jacob Rader, ed. The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (1996.)
- Staub, Michael E. ed. The Jewish 1960s: An American Sourcebook University Press of New England, 2004; 371 pp. ISBN 1-58465-417-1 online review
[edit] Links and references
- online Jewish encyclopedia
- American Jewish Historical Society
- Resources > Jewish communities > America > Northern America The Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Jewish Virtual Library Thousands of articles on Jewish history
- My Jewish Learning Extensive American Jewish history
- Old Jewish Cemetery, Chambersburg PA
- Jews in the Civil War
- Jews in the Wild West
- Western Jewish History Center, Berkeley, California
- Jews in the New Wilderness
- Davis S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, "A Thanksgiving Day when Jews Mourned," copyright 2005. Accessed 7 September 2006.
