This chapter examines David Berger's The Legacy of Jewish Migration: 1881 and Its Impact (1983). The wave of pogroms in Russia in 1881–2 forcefully brought to the surface a complex of demographic, ideological, and cultural developments that had been working their way through the Jewish communities of the Pale since the mid-19th century and which were to affect profoundly modern Jewish history. Commemorating the centennial of those catalytic years and their aftermath, especially the mass emigration and resettlement of Russian Jews during the three decades that followed, the book under review re-examines the impact of these events on different areas of life of 20th-century Jewry. The volume consists of fourteen short essays presented originally as papers at the 9th Annual Conference on Society in Change held at Brooklyn College in March of 1981. The Legacy of Jewish Migration reads well, and the variety of topics treated in the book successfully holds the reader's attention; also, bibliographies appended to each selection are useful and up to date.
