Economic Opportunities and Some Pilgrims' Progress: Jewish Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the U.S., 1890–1914

1978 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arcadius Kahan
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
Economic Progress ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Proper Perspective ◽  
Original Habitat ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
The U.S

The purpose of the following essay is to evaluate the existing economic opportunities for Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and to indicate the pace of their economic progress during the period 1890–1914. This purpose can best be achieved by viewing the mass migration of these European Jews in the proper perspective, that is, in terms of the dynamics of their situation at the places of original habitat; second, by differentiating successive cohorts of immigrants in terms of their skill composition, literacy, and degree of experienced urbanization, all elements important for the adaptability to and utilization of existing economic opportunities; third, by analyzing the structure of the U.S. industries that provided employment opportunities to the East European Jewish immigrants; fourth, by assuming the income level and standard of living of the native-born labor force as the yardstick for measuring the economic progress of the immigrants. Such an approach may broaden our understanding of the mechanism of adjustment that enabled the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe both to take advantage of existing economic opportunities and to create new ones.

Was the Traditional East European Jewish Family in the Recent Past Patriarchal?

2010 ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
The Family ◽  
Male Head ◽  
Minor Children ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
Male Authority ◽  
Jewish Families

This chapter assesses whether the traditional Jewish family in eastern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was patriarchal. In traditional east European Jewish families, authority over children was not monopolized by fathers; mothers also had a great deal of authority over minor children. Fathers often spent more hours a day out of the house than did mothers, and often they had to work far from their homes. As such, mothers usually determined what went on at home, and even when this was in accordance with their husbands' wishes, it does not imply that it was under their husbands' authority. Perhaps the greatest potential for paternal authority can be found in the marital patterns of their children. Meanwhile, in the area of relations between the male head of the family and his wife in traditional east European Jewish families, male authority could not be taken for granted and male heads of families could not simply force wives to do their bidding. The chapter then defines patriarchy, arguing that the dynamics of the traditional Jewish families in eastern Europe complicate the utility of the term.

The Secular Appropriation of Hasidism by an East European Jewish Intellectual: Dubnow, Renan, and the Besht

2004 ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Robert M. Seltzer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Common People ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
East European ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
The 19Th Century

This chapter studies the role that Hasidism played in the thought of the modernized Jewish intelligentsia of Eastern Europe toward the end of the 19th century. Simon Dubnow played a pivotal role in the emergence of this new image of Hasidism. In his autobiography, Dubnow describes in some detail the influence on him at that time of Leo Tolstoy and Ernest Renan. The influence of Renan's History of Christianity is quite evident in the structure of Dubnow's History of Hasidism as well as in some of Dubnow's solutions to problems of interpretation. Like Renan, Dubnow opened with a discussion of the social and intellectual background of a movement that can be traced to a founder known only for a long time through oral sources which retained the character of legend or saga. Applying Renan's statement that such pious biographies have a historical core, Dubnow stripped the life of the Baal Shem Tov, as recorded in the Shivhei ha-Besht, of its supernatural elements to reveal a simple, humble man who loved nature, especially the forests of the Carpathian mountains; a man who had immense affection for the common people and disdain for the proud, aloof scholars of his time and who preached a lofty doctrine of religious pantheism and universal brotherhood.

scholarly journals NATO Eastern Flank: Continuity and New Accents in the U.S. Policies in Eastern Europe under the Biden Administration

2021 ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Pavel Smirnov
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Lower Priority ◽  
The Face ◽  
Western European ◽  
Nord Stream ◽  
The One ◽  
Specific Interests ◽  
The U.S

Specific traits of the U.S. policies in Eastern Europe in the first months of the Joe Biden presidency are pre-determined primarily by the Democrats’ desire to normalize the U.S. relationship with the major Western European allies and the EU as a whole, spoiled under Donald Trump. This task makes it necessary to abandon artificial opposing of Eastern Europe to Western Europe. The Biden administration attaches major importance to the issue of common liberal values, which creates certain problems in relations with some East European governments, like Hungary or Poland. Political and diplomatic steps of the new administration in the region, both in a bilateral format and through multilateral forums (in particular the Three Seas Initiative), have revealed, on the one hand, the U.S. desire to keep protecting the security of the region in the face of the Russian and, increasingly Chinese, challenge; on the other hand, lower priority attached to "energy wars" with Russia, gradual waiving of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, as well as Biden's unwillingness to sacrifice relations with Germany and other Western European allies for the sake of specific interests of countries like Poland, which were conceived by the Trump administration as a counterweight to Western Europe. 

Globalizing Diaspora

2021 ◽  
pp. 408-430
Author(s):  
Tobias Brinkmann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Short Period ◽  
European Jewish

Between the 1860s and the early 1920s, more than two million Jews moved from small towns in Eastern Europe to the United States. Smaller groups went to other destinations in the Americas, Western Europe, Palestine, and South Africa. This chapter discusses the background and impact of that mass migration around the world. The global diffusion of Jews from Eastern Europe concentrated in three new Jewish centers: the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel. The Eastern European Jewish mass migration, however, did not ultimately lead to the formation of a distinct diaspora of Yiddish-speaking Jews, but rather became the driving force behind a dramatic transformation of the Jewish diaspora as a whole. The reasons for this can be explained by several factors: accelerated Jewish assimilation in these centers, the short period of the mass migration, the great diversity of the migrants, and the almost complete destruction of Jewish life and culture in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust.

Jacob Jay Lindenthal, Abi Gezunt: Explorations into the Role of Health and the American Jewish Dream. Brighton, Mass.: Academic Studies Press, 2017. xxix + 187 pp; together with The Lindex: A Companion to Abi Gezunt. xi + 341 pp.

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-309
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Role ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
American Jews ◽  
East European ◽  
American Jewry ◽  
Crucial Effect ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
European Jewish

Is there a causal relationship between the remarkable economic success and rapid upward mobility of American Jews and behavioral patterns on their part that promoted health and the prevention of disease? Jacob Jay Lindenthal offers what he terms “a conjectural analysis” (p. xiii) to suggest such a causality, and he supports his argument with an impressive array of medical sources that scholars of American Jewry have rarely utilized. Lindenthal maintains that Jewish “values, beliefs, traditions, attitudes, and behavioral patterns” have all had a crucial effect on Jewish health (p. xv). He highlights such cultural factors among the Jews as awareness of and concern for health; an emphasis on cleanliness as mandated by Jewish law (halakhah); a cohesive family life; the promotion of education; specific childrearing practices (among them, circumcision, breastfeeding, and maintaining longer time intervals between births); a low rate of alcoholism; and communal charitable institutions and solidarity as playing a decisive role in keeping East European Jewish immigrants in America in relative good health. As he notes, Jewish immigrants in early 20...

scholarly journals Promoting diversity. The Polonia Book Fund, Ltd Transnational Network, 1958-1963

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawel Sowinski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
Private Partnership ◽  
East European ◽  
Historical Materials ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

<p>This article discusses the history of the so-called “book program”—a joint effort by the U.S. government, the East European diaspora, and readers of prohibited books behind the Iron Curtain. Between 1956 and 1989 the program purchased some 10 million copies of publications and delivered them to people in Soviet–dominated Eastern Europe in order to undermine communist rule. Using the historical materials of the Polonia Book Fund, a U.S.–sponsored publishing project for Poland, this article contributes new insights on the transatlantic perspective of the cultural Cold War. This article focuses on the program’s early stages, and describes various elements of the transnational smuggling network. The program’s state-private partnership was a workable solution that helped to foster a diversity of opinions in post-Stalinist Poland.</p>

Is the Question the Answer? The Context and Consequences of an Educational Pattern

2010 ◽  
pp. 229-251
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Jewish Education ◽  
North African ◽  
East European ◽  
Muslim Society ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
Historical Issues ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter studies the role of questions in east European Jewish education. The importance attributed to question asking by children and students may appear to be a rather trivial aspect of traditional Jewish education in eastern Europe. However, attitudes to questions shed light on a number of educational and historical issues, and reflect basic cultural styles. The chapter demonstrates this by comparing the strategies used in two communities — that of east European Jewish society and North African Muslim society — in relation to sacred sources. While asking questions was a highly regarded skill in traditional east European Jewish education, writing answers — and writing in general — was of peripheral importance. The respect and import attributed to asking questions was closely connected to one of the more overlooked aspects of Jewish education: the special nature of literacy and schooling in the east European Jewish ḥeder from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

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