Russian Jewish Emigration to America

The Jewish people have been coming to America since 1585 when Joachim Ganz landed on Roanoke Island (Timeline 2016). By the 1700s a synagogue had been built in New York City and prominent Jewish communities extended southward through Philadelphia and into Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina (Timeline 2016).  Over the years Jewish people from all over the world slowly made their way to America and established themselves and their communities. But in the late 1800’s the steady stream of Jewish immigrants turned into a flood as Russian Jews sought to escape an oppressive existence in Eastern Europe. In 1880 there were only a few hundred Russian Jews entering the country but by the late 1800s there were more than 2000 Russian Jews arriving each year (Spiro) and that number got bigger as the 19th Century came to a close.

Conditions for Jewish people living in Russia in the 19th Century were difficult and as the century progressed their harsh conditions did too. Their safety was questionable and their ability to earn a living also became increasingly difficult. They faced hostility from the Russian elites and competition from the peasantry. In the early 1800s laws were enacted which limited where Jews could live, the professions they could work in, and the property they could own (Antisemitism in Imperial Russia). Many Jews were evicted from their homes in Russian villages and were forced to move to remote cities and live in areas known as ghettos. Confined to these areas and with restricted job options it was hard for these displaced Jews to find work. The work that was available was limited and many Jews were unemployed or could only find occasional work as manual laborers (Brecher and Kniesmeyer). At the same time pogroms, which were organized attacks on Jewish communities, often with the encouragement of the rulers, became more prevalent. Jewish youth were also being conscripted into the Russian army. Often these conscripts were forced to become Christians. There was a host of problems facing Russian Jews.

Although the 19th Century was not a good time for Jews living in Russia there was a brief respite from their oppression when Alexander II came to power. At that time, he eased their restrictions and Russian Jews thought that their lives would get better. Unfortunately, Jews were blamed for Alexander’s assassination and things only got worse. Once again, the Jews were a convenient scapegoat.

Throughout European history Jews were often blamed for whatever problems their communities were experiencing. This was also the case in Russia during the 19th Century, but now they were being blamed for the death of a king as well as the usual Russian problems. But the Russian issues had nothing to do with the Jewish population. At that time Russia was an antiquated, corrupt and feudal regime (Brecher and Kniesmeyer). A good way to take attention away from the corruption and poor economic climate was to blame the Jews. To this end, the new ruler, Alexander III, organized a seemingly unending series of pogroms and enacted more harsh anti-Semitic laws. By the end of the 19th Century Jewish living conditions had deteriorated, and the Jewish population faced antisemitism and official measures of violent persecution. The Jewish population became desperate and many chose to leave Russia. Most of these emigrants went to America (Spiro). They had a desire for economic and religious opportunity and it seemed like America was a good place to go.

America did offer economic opportunity and religious freedom but, although conditions were better than they were back at home, the Russian Jews faced new problems and challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the newly arrived Russian Jews was their faith. Russian Jews might have thought that they would be welcomed since there was already a Jewish population in America. But when the Russian Jews arrived, they found that the German Jews who had preceded them were mostly Reform or secular. More than 90% of American synagogues at that time were Reform (Reform Judaism).  Reform was a very different form of Judaism than what the more conservative Russian Jews practiced.

Reform came about after the French Revolution. One of the outcomes of the French Revolution was that it recognized Jews as proper citizens. But that status ended for a lot of Jews with the defeat of Napoleon in the early 1800s. In order to keep their newly found status as citizens, many Jews chose to convert to Christianity. The Jewish leadership was concerned with this trend and some Rabbis encouraged Jews to keep away from Christians and to give up their status in order to remain Jewish (Reform Judaism). Other Rabbis realized that Jews were changing not because they dislike Judaism but because they had a desire for better treatment. Reform came about as way to retain the Jewish faith without necessarily observing the Jewish practices of Conservative Judaism. It arose from a Jewish desire to assimilate day to day lives with the cultural life of the surrounding areas.

Practicing Reform, the German Jews often did not adhere to the practices of observant Jews. Some even chose to become secular and gave up all pretense of Jewishness. The primary conflict for the newly arrived Russian Jews was their observance of the Shabbat. This conflicted with the 6 day work week that was practiced in America at the time. For the Russian Jews, Shabbat, which was held on Saturday, was the seventh day of the Jewish week and it was a day of rest and abstention from work (Reform Judaism). It offered Jews a chance to remember their faith and observe the rituals and practices that were required of them.  This was a specific time when families gathered to sing songs, eat traditional foods and reinforce the tenets of Judaism. But Americans were mainly Christians and their work week and holidays were based on the Christian calendar. For most Americans, Sunday was their day of rest. The German Jews either practiced Shabbat on Sunday or they gave up the practice altogether ((Reform Judaism). At that time America had a 6 day work-week and the new immigrants were expected to work on Saturdays. As newly arrived and impoverished immigrants, Russian Jews did not have any choice as to whether they worked on Saturdays. They had to. If they did not work, they would lose their job and with fierce competition in a tight economy a new job could be hard to find. Faced with economic reprisals and other pressures they soon began to assimilate and slowly the traditions that they brought from Russian were lost.

When the Russian Jews arrived in America, they soon discovered that the established German Jews resented them for their provincialism and manner of speech, which the Germans believed, drew attention to Jews. The problem was that there was a prevalent level of antisemitism in America at the time. While Jews were free to practice their religion, but they still suffered discrimination and social isolationism. Even educated, wealthy and successful Jews were denied access to fine hotels, social clubs and country clubs (Brecher and Kniesmeyer). Faced with economic and social pressures as well as pressure from established Jews, many Russian Jews stopped observing Shabbat. And once Shabbat, the core of Judaism, was dropped other Jewish observances also were dropped. Almost all of the people who arrived in America as observant Jews dropped their observance as they became assimilated to American culture and its version of Judaism (Spiro).

But, despite these challenges, the wave of Russian Jewish immigration to America continued and by 1924 two million Russian Jews had arrived on it shores (Spiro). Most of the Russian Jews arrived in New York City via Ellis Island. What they found probably both comforted them and frightened them. Lacking economic resources and facing language barriers many Russian Jews made their way to the Lower East Side (Forbes et al). This was the center of Jewish culture (The Lower East Side). What they found was a microcosm of the Jewish world they had left behind. There were synagogues, social clubs, Jewish libraries, and Jewish stores (The Lower East Side). Businesses and institutions were either owned by or run by Jews. Most of the people they interacted with were probably Jewish. The Russian Jewish immigrants could communicate with and be surrounded by people who shared a common language, faith and history. For a Jew in a strange country, this aspect of America must have been reassuring.

But life was not easy on the Lower East Side at the beginning of the 20th Century. The Russian Jews who ended up on the Lower East Side found an over-crowded tenement teeming with people. In 1900 the Lower East Side was crammed with 700 people per acre and was the most populous neighborhood in the world (The Lower East Side). Because of this oversized population work was hard and it was hard to find. Russian Jews worked in sweatshops, unsafe factories and at other grueling jobs 6 days a week.

Jewish life in America, however, was thriving. By 1924, two million Russian Jews had arrived and were getting established (The Lower East Side). The numbers were so large that the government started to get worried and passed laws to restrict immigration from many countries including Russia. These immigration restrictions remained in effect until 1965 and Russian Jewish immigration was slowed for forty years.

What was Russia in the late 1800s, when the great wave of Russian Jewish emigration started, became the Soviet Union in the early 20th century and it grew into a Super-power by the 1960’s. Life as a Russian Jew did not get much better when the Soviet Union came into being and the ingrained anti-Semitism of the Russian peasantry was still present. The Soviet Union continued to repress Jews both in their daily life and also by denying them the right to emigrate (Kliger).  Relations between the Soviet Union and the West were tense in the 50s and 60s and they were engaged in a cold war situation. This did not help Russian Jewish emigration and their immigration to America slowed from the 1930s until the 1970s.

In the 70s, the Soviets, trying to ease cold war tension, started to allow some Jews to leave for Israel (Kliger). But, once they had escaped Russia, many Jews chose to divert their emigration from Israel to the United States and by the late 1970s there were as many Soviet Jews going to the U.S as there were that were going to Israel (Kliger). At the end of the decade, a third of the Russian Jews living in the United States had arrived in the previous 10 years (Kliger).

Another Russian Jewish immigration wave had arrived on American soil. This time the Russian Jews were much better prepared for their assimilation into American society. Most of these immigrants were refugees or were family members of refugees and their entry was well-supported.  They had learned to speak English and knew about American culture from books, TV and film. They faced their own unique challenges, and their numbers have ebbed and flowed depending on the world-politics of the time, but Russian Jews continue to come to America for economic hope and religious freedom. They continue to contribute to American culture and society just as they have for more than a 100 years.

Works Cited

“Antisemitism in Imperial Russia.” Religion, World Future Fund, www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Religion/Antisemitism%20Russia.htm. Accessed 14 Nov, 2017.

Brecher and Kniesmeyer, D, and J Kniesmeyer. “Political Activity and Emigration.” Beyond the Pale: The History of Jews in the Russian Empire, www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/39.html. Accessed 15 Nov 2017.

Forbes et al, Ethan, et al. “Russian Jewish Immigration 1880-1920.” Fitchburg State University. https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/uploads/files/TeachingAmericanHistory/RussianJews.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov. 2017.

Kliger, Sam. “Russian-Jewish Immigrants in the U.S.” Russian-Jewish Immigrants in the U.S: Social Portrait, Challenges, and AJC Involvement - AJC - Russian, AJC Center for Jewish Advocacy, www.ajcrussian.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=chLMK3PKLsF&b=7718799&ct=11713359. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.

“Timeline in American Jewish History.” Education, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of The American Jewish Archives, americanjewisharchives.org/education/timeline.php. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.

“The Lower East Side.” Polish Russian Immigration, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/polish6.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.

“Reform Judaism.” The Tenets of Reform Judaism, Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-tenets-of-reform-judaism. Accessed 13 Nov. 2017.

Spiro, Ken. “Jewish Life in America.” Judaism 101, Aish.com, 29 Dec. 2001, www.aish.com/jl/h/cc/48956976.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.