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History of the Jews in the United States

 
History of the Jews in the United States

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History of the Jews in the United States



 
 
The history of the Jews in the United States has been influenced by waves of immigration primarily from Europe, inspired by the social and economic opportunities of the United States of America and fueled by periods of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews.This prejudice or hostility is usually characterized by a combination of Religion, Race , cultural and ethnic group biases....
 and persecution of Jews in Europe.






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The history of the Jews in the United States has been influenced by waves of immigration primarily from Europe, inspired by the social and economic opportunities of the United States of America and fueled by periods of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews.This prejudice or hostility is usually characterized by a combination of Religion, Race , cultural and ethnic group biases....
 and persecution of Jews in Europe. The history of Jewish immigration therefore parallels that anti-Semitic repression in Europe. Antisemitism in the United States
Antisemitism in the United States

Jewish Americans have flourished in the United States, enjoying freedom and opportunity that have not been afforded to them in other countries. However, like other minorities, Jewish Americans have also suffered prejudice and oppression, especially during times of economic hardship or war....
 has always been less prevalent than in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

Jews have been present in what is today the United States of America as early as the Colonial period of the 17th century
17th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Si?cle dominated by Louis XIV, and the Scientific Revolution, includ...
, though they were small in numbers. The earliest Jewish communities were almost exclusively Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish
Spanish people

Spanish people or Spaniards are a nation or ethnic group native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. They are often considered an amalgam of different ethnic groups, rather than an ethnic group by itself....
 and Portuguese
Portuguese people

The Portuguese people are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of Southern Europe-Western Europe Europe....
 ancestry. Until about 1830 the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina
History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina

There is a long history of Jews in Charleston, South Carolina. The charter of the Carolina Colony, drawn up by John Locke in 1669, granted freedom of thought to all settlers, expressly mentioning "Jews, heathens, and dissenters."...
 was the most numerous in North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. Large-scale Jewish immigration commenced in the 19th century
19th century

The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Late Imperial China, and Ottoman Empire empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal Empire empire collapsed....
, when many Ashkenazi Jews from Germany
History of the Jews in Germany

Jews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenazi Jews", at least since the early 4th century, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of Antisemitism violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe, the subsequent division of Germany and reunification, and post-unification immigratio...
 arrived in the United States, primarily becoming merchants and shop-owners. By 1880, there were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States, many of them being the educated, and largely secular, German Jews
History of the Jews in Germany

Jews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenazi Jews", at least since the early 4th century, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of Antisemitism violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe, the subsequent division of Germany and reunification, and post-unification immigratio...
, although a minority population of the older Sephardic Jewish families remained influential.

Jewish immigration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s as a result of persecution in parts of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
, with a distinct wave of Yiddish
Yiddish language

Yiddish is a non-territorial High German languages of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. Unlike other such languages, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet as opposed to a Latin alphabet....
-speaking Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
 arriving from the poor rural Jewish populations of the Russian Empire
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union

The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest Jewish diaspora in the world. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of intense antisemitism discriminatory policies and persecutions....
, the Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement

The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Russian Empire, along its western border, in which permanent residence of Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish residence was generally prohibited....
 (modern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova), and the Russian-controlled portions of the former Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Poland state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit....
.

Over two million Jews arrived between the late nineteenth century and 1924, when immigration restrictions increased due to the National Origins Quota of 1924 and Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act, was a United States federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, accord...
. Most of these immigrants were Yiddish-speaking Jews from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
 who settled in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and its immediate environs (New Jersey, etc.), establishing what became one of the world's major concentrations of Jewish population.

These newly-arrived Jews built support networks consisting of many small synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
s and Ashkenazi Jewish Landsmannschaften (German for "Territorial Associations") for Jews from the same town or village. Jewish American writers of the time urged assimilation
Jewish assimilation

Jewish Assimilation encompasses the outward social and genetic process, as well as the internal religious process of assimilation and integration of the previously segregated Jewish people into predominantly non-Jewish Europe and later, the wider world....
 and integration into the wider American culture
Culture of the United States

The development of the culture of the United States of America ? Music of the United States, Cinema of the United States, Dance of the United States, Architecture of the United States, Literature of the United States, Poetry of the United States, Cuisine of the United States and the Visual arts of the United States ? has been marked by a tens...
, and Jews quickly became part of American life. 500,000 American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, and after the war Jewish families joined the new trend of suburbanization
Suburbanization

Suburbanization is a term used to describe the process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe. It is one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl....
. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated as rising intermarriage
Intermarriage

Intermarriage may refer to:*Interreligious marriage*Interracial marriage*Cultural exogamySee also:*Cultural assimilation...
 rates combined with a trend towards secularization. At the same time, new centers of Jewish communities formed, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960.

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 approximately a million Jews in the United States, at the end of the century, close to six 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 fifty percent.

By the year 1900
Historical Jewish population comparisons

Jewish population centers have shifted tremendously over time, due to the constant streams of Jewish refugees created by expulsions, persecution, and officially sanctioned killing of Jews in various places at various times....
 the 1.5 million Jews residing in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 comprised the third-largest Jewish population in the world, behind those of Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Kaiserlich und k?niglich Monarchy was a state in Central Europe ruled by the House of Habsburg, constitutionally a personal union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary....
. In the 1930s and after World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, large numbers of Jews came as refugees from Europe, and after 1980 Soviet Jews were able to emigrate from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
.

The proportion of the Jewish population in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 has measured 2-3% since 1900.

In the 21st century
21st century

The 21st century is the current century of the Christian Era or Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will end December 31, 2100....
 American Jews were widely diffused in major metropolitan areas in New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, South Florida, Philadelphia, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
, Ohio
Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region , Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads in North America....
, and Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
.

On a theological level, American Jews
American Jews

American Jews, or Jewish Americans, are Jews who are United States citizens or resident aliens. The United States is home to the second largest Jewish community in the world depending on religious definitions and varying population data....
 are divided into a number of Jewish denominations
Jewish denominations

Several groups, sometimes called "denominations", "branches," or "movements," have developed among Jews of the modern era, especially Ashkenazi Jews living in anglophone countries....
, of which the most numerous are Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
, Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern Jewish denominations of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s....
 and Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to the spectrum of beliefs, practices and organizational infrastructure associated with Reform Judaism in Reform Judaism and in Reform Judaism ....
. Conservative Judaism arose in America and Reform Judaism was popularized by American Jews.

Colonial era

In September, 1654, shortly before the Jewish New Year, twenty-three Jews of Dutch ancestry from Recife
Recife

File:P?r-do-Sol_na_Jaqueira.jpgRecife is the fourth largest Metropolitan area in Brazil and the capital of the state of Pernambuco. The population was 1,549,980 in 2007....
, Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
, arrived in New York, which at the time was under Dutch rule and known as New Amsterdam. This arrival was the beginning of Jewish-American history. Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant

Peter Stuyvesant served as the last Netherlands Director-General of New Amsterdam of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664....
, the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam

New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonization of the Americas settlement that later became New York City.The town developed outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland Territory which was situated between 38 and 42 degrees latitude as a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic as of 1624....
, sought to bolster the position of the Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church

Dutch Reformed Church was one of many branches of churches established during the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century. While the Dutch Reformed Church was based in the Netherlands, other churches holding similar theological views were founded in France, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, England, and Scotland....
 by trying to reduce religious competition from denominations such as Jews, Lutherans, Catholics and Quakers. He stated that Jews were "deceitful", "very repugnant", and "hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ". He warned in a subsequent letter that in "giving them liberty we cannot (then) refuse the Lutherans and Papists". However, religious plurality was already a legal-cultural tradition in New Amsterdam and in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
. His superiors at the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a company of The Netherlands merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx . On June 3, 1621, it was granted a chartered company for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the African slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and...
 in Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Capital of the Netherlands and List of cities in the Netherlands with over 100,000 people of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands of North Holland in the west of the country....
 overruled him in all matters of intolerance.

Sephardic Dutch Jews were also the early settlers of Newport
Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island....
 (where the country's oldest surviving synagogue building
Touro Synagogue

The Touro Synagogue is a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, that is the Oldest synagogues in the United States still standing in the United States,...
 stands), Savannah
Savannah, Georgia

Savannah is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Chatham County, Georgia, Georgia , United States. Savannah was established in 1733 and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia....
, Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County....
, Philadelphia and Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the U.S. state of Maryland in the United States. Baltimore is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay....
.

There were only about 250 Jews living in North America in the 17th century. These faced a number of restrictions, including being banned from practicing law, medicine, and other professions. As late as 1790, one year before adoption of the Bill of Rights, several states had religious tests for holding public office, and Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and South Carolina still maintained established churches. Within a few years of the ratification of the Constitution, Delaware, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia eliminated barriers that prevented Jews from voting, but these barriers did not fall for many decades in Rhode Island (1842), North Carolina (1868), and New Hampshire (1877). Despite these restrictions, which were often enforced unevenly, there were really too few Jews in 17th- and 18th-century America for anti-Semitism to become a significant social or political phenomenon at the time. And the evolution from toleration to full civil and political equality for Jews that followed the American Revolution helped ensure that anti-Semitism would never become official government policy, as it had in Europe.

Revolutionary era

By 1776 and the War of Independence, around 2,000 Jews lived in America, most of them Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews

Spanish and Portuguese Jews are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardim who have their main ethnic origins within the crypto-Judaism communities of the Iberian peninsula and who shaped communities mainly in Western Europe and the Americas from the late 16th century on....
 (Sephardic Jews). 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
Francis Salvador

Francis Salvador , was the first United States Jew to be killed in the American Revolution. Salvador was born in London, but emigrated to America from London, where his great-grandfather, Joseph Salvador, was a prominent businessman, and leader of the local Portuguese language-speaking Sephardic Jewish community....
). David Salisbury Franksan, aide-de-camp of Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold V was a General officer during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army, but switched sides to the British Empire....
, suffered from his association with the traitorous 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
George Washington

George Washington was the leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States of the United States of Americas ....
 remembered the Jewish contribution when he wrote to the Sephardic congregation
Touro Synagogue

The Touro Synagogue is a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, that is the Oldest synagogues in the United States still standing in the United States,...
 of Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island....
, 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."

Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s (particularly Sephardic Jews) have over a 300 year history in Charleston, South Carolina
History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina

There is a long history of Jews in Charleston, South Carolina. The charter of the Carolina Colony, drawn up by John Locke in 1669, granted freedom of thought to all settlers, expressly mentioning "Jews, heathens, and dissenters."...
. Charleston had, until around 1830, the largest and wealthiest colony of Jews in North America .

19th century

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
B'nai B'rith

The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith is the oldest continually-operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was founded in New York City by Henry Jones and 11 others on October 13, 1843....
 was established. See also History of Jewish education in the United States (pre-20th century)
History of Jewish education in the United States (pre-20th century)

The history of Jewish education in the United States before the 20th century is as old as the United States itself; it's a part of History of the Jews in the United States....
.

Jewish Texans have been a part of Texas History since the first Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an explorers arrived in the 1500s. Spanish Texas
Spanish Texas

Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. Although Spain nominally claimed ownership of the territory, which comprised part of modern-day Texas, including the land north of the Medina River and Nueces Rivers, the Spanish did not attempt to colonize the area until after discovering evidence of the fail...
 did not welcome easily identifiable Jews, but they came in any case. Jao de la Porta
Jao de la Porta

Jao de la Porta, along with his brother Morin, financed the first Human settlement by European ethnic groupss on Galveston Island in 1816. Joa de la Porta was born in Portugal of Jewish parentage and later became a Jewish Texan Merchant....
 was with Jean Laffite at Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas

Galveston is a city in and county seat of Galveston County, Texas located on Galveston Island on the Gulf Coast of the United States in the U.S....
 in 1816, and Maurice Henry was in Velasco in the late 1820s. Jews fought in the armies of the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was fought from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836 between Mexico and the Mexican Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas....
 of 1836, some with Fannin at Goliad, others at San Jacinto. Dr. Albert Levy became a surgeon to revolutionary Texan forces in 1835, participated in the capture of Béxar, and joined the Texas Navy the next year.

By 1840, Jews constituted a tiny, but nonetheless stable, middle-class minority of about 15,000 out of the 17 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census. Jews intermarried rather freely with non-Jews, continuing a trend that had begun at least a century earlier. However, as immigration increased the Jewish population to 50,000 by 1848, negative stereotypes of Jews in newspapers, literature, drama, art, and popular culture grew more commonplace and physical attacks became more frequent.

During the 19th century, (especially the 1840s and 1850s), Jewish immigration was primarily of Ashkenazi Jews from Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, bringing a liberal, educated population that had experience with the Haskalah
Haskalah

Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the late 18th century that advocated adopting Age of Enlightenment values, pressing for better Social integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history....
, 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: Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to the spectrum of beliefs, practices and organizational infrastructure associated with Reform Judaism in Reform Judaism and in Reform Judaism ....
 (out of German Reform Judaism) and Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern Jewish denominations of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s....
, in reaction to the perceived liberalness of Reform Judaism.

Civil War


During the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, approximately 6,000-8,000 Jews (out of around 150,000 Jews in the United States) fought on the Confederate side and 4,000 fought on the Union side. Jews also played leadership roles on both sides, with nine Jewish generals and 21 Jewish colonels participating in the War. Judah P. Benjamin
Judah P. Benjamin

Judah Philip Benjamin was an American politician and lawyer. He was born a British subject in the West Indies, became a citizen of the United States and then the Confederate States of America....
, a non-observant Jew, served as Secretary of State and acting Secretary of War of the Confederacy.

By the time of the Civil War, tensions over race and immigration, as well as economic competition between Jews and non-Jews, combined to produce the worst outbreak of anti-Semitism to that date. Americans on both sides of the slavery issue denounced Jews as disloyal war profiteers, and accused them of driving Christians out of business and of aiding and abetting the enemy.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant , was an United States general and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States ....
 was influenced by these sentiments and issued General Order No. 11 expelling Jews from areas under his control in western Tennessee:

The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled …within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.


This order was quickly rescinded by President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
 but not until it had been enforced in a number of towns.

Grant later issued an order "that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the road southward." His aide, Colonel John V. DuBois, ordered "all cotton speculators, Jews, and all vagabonds with no honest means of support", to leave the district. "The Israelites especially should be kept out…they are such an intolerable nuisance."

The Jews and the government

The first Jewish member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
, Lewis Charles Levin
Lewis Charles Levin

Lewis Charles Levin was the first Jewish person elected to the United States Congress.Lewis Charles Levin was born in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1828....
, and Senator
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
, David Levy Yulee
David Levy Yulee

David Levy Yulee was an Politics of the United States and the first member of the United States Senate to have been, at one time, a practicing Jew....
, were elected in 1845 (although Yulee converted to Episcopalianism the following year). 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
Blood libel against Jews

Blood libels against Jews are false accusations that Jews use human blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and religious holidays. Although the first known instance of blood libel against Jews was in the writings of Apion, an early 1st century Paganism Greeks-Egyptians who claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek people victims in...
. For more information, see Relationship of American Jews to the U.S. Federal Government (pre-20th century)
Relationship of American Jews to the U.S. Federal Government (pre-20th century)

Relationship of Jews in the United States to the Federal Government The Damascus Affair of 1840 marks the real beginning of the diplomatic or international phase in the history of American Jews ....
.


1880-1925

Happynewyearcard

Immigration of Eastern European Jews

None of the early migratory movements assumed the significance and volume of that from Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and neighboring countries. This emigration, mainly from Russian Poland and other areas of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
, began as far back as 1821, but did not become especially noteworthy until after the German immigration
German American

German Americans are citizens of the United States of Germans ancestry, with traditions and self-identity based on German language and culture....
 fell off in 1870. Though nearly 50,000 Russian, Polish, Galicia
Galicia (Central Europe)

Galicia is a historical region in East Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine, named after Ukra?ni?n city of Halych.The nucleus of historic Galicia is formed of three regions of western Ukraine: Lvivska oblast, Ternopilska oblast and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast....
n, and Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
n Jews went to the United States during the succeeding decade, it was not until the pogrom
Pogrom

A pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by the killing and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers....
s, anti-Jewish uprisings in Russia, of the early 1880s, 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, forced large numbers of Jews to seek refuge in the US.

By 1924, two million Jews had arrived from Eastern Europe. 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 after that time. The Jewish community took the lead in opposing immigration restrictions, which remained in effect until 1965.

Progressive movement

Abolish Child Slavery
With the influx of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe many members of the Jewish community were attracted to labor and socialist movements and numerous Jewish newspapers such as Forwerts
The Forward

The Forward is a Jewish-American weekly newspaper published in New York City.As of 2008, the Forward is published as a weekly news magazine in separate Yiddish and English language editions....
 and Morgen Freiheit
Morgen Freiheit

The Yiddish based Morgen Freiheit was published in both Yiddish and English language on a daily and weekly basis, as an independent publication affiliated with the Communist Party USA [CPUSA] until it pro-Israel Zionist and views on the Soviet Union came into disfavor and its editor Paul Novick was expelled from the Communist Party, USA....
 had a socialist or communist orientation. Left wing organizations such as the Arbeter Ring and the Jewish People's Fraternal Order played an important part in Jewish community life until World War II.

Jewish Americans were involved in many important social movements including those promoting workers rights, civil rights, peace, and various other progressive causes.

World War I

As early as 1914, the American Jewish community mobilized its resources to assist the victims of the European war. Cooperating to a degree not previously seen, the various factions of the American Jewish community—native-born and immigrant, Reform, Orthodox, secular, and socialist—coalesced to form what eventually became known as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. All told, American Jews raised 63 million dollars in relief funds during the war years and became more immersed in European Jewish affairs than ever before.

Refugees from Nazi Germany

In the years before and during World War II the United States Congress, the Roosevelt Administration, and public opinion expressed concern about the fate of Jews in Europe but consistently refused to permit large-scale immigration of Jewish refugees.

In a report issued by the State Department, Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat noted that the United States accepted only 21,000 refugees from Europe and did not significantly raise or even fill its restrictive quotas, accepting far fewer Jews per capita than many of the neutral European countries and fewer in absolute terms than Switzerland.

According to David Wyman, "The United States and its Allies were willing to attempt almost nothing to save the Jews." + There is some debate as to whether U.S. policies were generally targeted against all immigrants or specifically against Jews in particular. Wyman characterized Breckenridge Long as a nativist, more anti-immigrant than just anti-semitic.

U.S. opposition to immigration in general in the late 1930s was motivated by the grave economic pressures, the high unemployment rate, and social frustration and disillusionment. The U.S. refusal to support specifically Jewish immigration, however, stemmed from something else, namely antisemitism, which had increased in the late 1930s and continued to rise in the 1940s. It was an important ingredient in America's negative response to Jewish refugees.

About 100,000 German Jews did arrive in the 1930s, escaping Hitler’s persecution.

SS St. Louis


The Nazis were aware of rising western antisemitism and so the German Propaganda Ministry and the Nazi party conceived of a propaganda exercise which would demonstrate that Germany was not alone in its territorial, exclusionary hostility to Jews as a permanent minority within the political economy of their state. They (German propagandists) wanted to demonstrate that the “civilized” world agreed with their assertion that Jews constituted a continuing, “hidden-hand” of influence on national and economic affairs. They wanted to demonstrate that no other Western country or people would receive them as refugees. Firstly it would appear that the Nazis were allowing the Jewish refugees a new life in Havana. With no one allowing the passengers entry they would be in no position, in the future, to morally object when Germany dealt with their 'problem' Jewish population.

The SS St. Louis
SS St. Louis

SS St. Louis was a Germany ocean liner built by the Bremer Vulkan shipyards in Bremen for the Hamburg America Line. Even though she did not have a steam engine, inaccurate usage of the SS prefix in referring to St....
 sailed out of Hamburg into the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 in May 1939 carrying one non-Jewish and 936 (mainly German) Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish refugees seeking asylum
Refugee

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecutionOwing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
 from Nazi
Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
 persecution just before World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

On 4 June 1939, having failed to obtain permission to disembark passengers in Cuba, the St. Louis was also refused permission to unload on orders of President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , often referred to by his initials FDR, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States....
 as the ship waited in the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
 between Florida and Cuba. Initially, Roosevelt showed limited willingness to take in some of those on board despite the Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act, was a United States federal law that limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, accord...
, but vehement opposition came from Roosevelt's Secretary of State, Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull

Cordell Hull was an Politics of the United States from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best-known as the longest-serving United States Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt....
, and from Southern Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
 — some of whom went so far as to threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if this occurred.

World War II and the Holocaust


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
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 had it not been for bureaucratic obstacles to immigration deliberately created by Breckinridge Long
Breckinridge Long

Breckinridge Long was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as United States ambassador to Italy and as Assistant Secretary of State with jurisdiction over immigration and refugee problems during World War II....
 and others.

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
Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise genocide definitions, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ....
. In 1943, just before Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur , also known in English as the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and important of the Jewish holidays. Its central themes are Atonement in Judaism and Repentance in Judaism....
, 400 rabbis marched in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
 to draw attention to the plight of Holocaust victims. (See "The Day the Rabbis Marched.") A week later, Senator William Warren Barbour
William Warren Barbour

William Warren Barbour was an United States Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1931 to 1937 and again from 1938 until his death in office in 1943....
 (R; New Jersey), one of a handful of politicians who met with the rabbis on the steps of the U.S.Capitol
United States Capitol

The United States Capitol serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States....
, 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 parallel bill was introduced in the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
 by Rep. Samuel Dickstein
Samuel Dickstein (congressman)

Samuel Dickstein was a Democratic Party Congressional Representative from New York, and a New York State Supreme Court Justice. He played a key role in establishing the committee that would become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which he used to attack fascists, including Nazi sympathizers, and suspected communists....
 (D; New York). This also failed to pass.

During the Holocaust, less than 30,000 Jews a year reached the United States, and some were turned away due to immigration policies. The US did not change its immigration policies until 1948.

Postwar

Having never been subjected to the Holocaust, the United States stood after the Second World War as the largest, richest, and healthiest center of Judaism in the world. Smaller Jewish communities turned increasingly to American Jewry for guidance and support.

Immediately after the Second World War, some Jewish refugees resettled in the United States, and another wave of Jewish refugees from Arab nations
Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
 settled in the US after expulsion from their home countries.

Creation of the State of Israel

With its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel became the focal point of American Jewish life and philanthropy, as well as the symbol around which American Jews united.

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War of June 1967 marked a turning point in the lives of many 1960s-era Jews. The paralyzing fear of a "second Holocaust" followed by tiny Israel's seemingly miraculous victory over the combined Arab armies arrayed to destroy it struck deep emotional chords among American Jews. Their financial support for Israel rose sharply in the war's wake, and more of them than ever before chose in those years to make Israel their permanent home.

A lively internal debate commenced, following the Six-Day War
Six-Day War

In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
. The American Jewish community was divided over whether or not they agreed with the Israeli response; the great majority came to accept the war as necessary. A tension existed especially for leftist Jews, between their liberal ideology and (rightist) Zionist backing in the midst of this conflict. This deliberation about the Six-Day War showed the depth and complexity of Jewish responses to the varied events of the 1960s.

Civil rights

Jews were highly visible as 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 discuss the relationship they had with African Americans. Jewish leaders spoke at the two iconic marches of the era. Joachim Prinz, president of the American Jewish Congress, appeared at the March on Washington on 28 August 1963, noting that "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" Two years later Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Warsaw-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians of the 20th century....
 of the Jewish Theological Seminary marched in the front row of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.

Within Judaism, increasing involvement in the civil rights movement caused some tension. 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. However, most known Jewish responses to the civil rights movement and black relations lean toward acceptance and against prejudice, as the disproportionate involvement of Jews in the movement would indicate. Despite this history of participation, relations between African Americans and Jews have sometimes been strained by their close proximity and class differences, especially in New York and other urban areas.

Jewish feminism

In its modern form, the Jewish feminist movement
Jewish feminism

Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women....
 can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. According to Judith Plaskow
Judith Plaskow

Dr. Judith Plaskow is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. Her scholarly interests focus on contemporary religious thought with a specialization in feminist theology....
, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to the spectrum of beliefs, practices and organizational infrastructure associated with Reform Judaism in Reform Judaism and in Reform Judaism ....
, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan
Minyan

A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum required for certain Mitzvahs. The traditional minyan for most cases consists of ten men, which continues to be the position with Orthodox Judaism....
, the exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot
Mitzvah

This article is about commandments in Judaism. For the Jewish rite of passage, see Bar Mitzvah and Bat MitzvahMitzvah is a word used in Judaism to refer to the 613 Mitzvot given in the Torah and the Mitzvah#Rabbinical_mitzvot instituted later for a total of 620....
, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce
Jewish view of marriage

Judaism traditionally considers marriage to be the ideal state of personal existence; a man without a wife, or a woman without a husband, is considered incomplete....
.

Immigration from the Soviet Union


The last large wave of immigration came from the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, from where approximately 150,000 Jews emigrated. In modern times, many Israeli Jews have left Israel (particularly those with families living outside of the country), emigrating to the USA particularly but also other countries such as Australia, Canada, and the UK. The collapse of the USSR brought about a hundred thousand Ashkenazi and Bukharian Jews to the US.

Current situation


American Jews continued to prosper throughout the late 20th century, and, with their success, have become 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.

Demographically, the community is stagnant. It has not grown appreciably since 1960, comprises a smaller percentage of America's total population than it had in 1920, and seems likely to witness an actual decline in numbers in the decades ahead.

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. The heavily Democratic pattern continued into the 21st century. Since 1936 the great majority of Jews have been Democrats. In 2004 74% of Jews voted for Democrat John Kerry
John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the Junior Senator United States Senate from Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.As the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party , he was defeated by 34 electoral votes in the United States presidential election, 2004 by the Republican Party incumbent President of the United States...
, a Catholic, and in 2006 87% voted for Democratic candidates for the House. By the 1990s Jews were becoming prominent in Congress and state governments throughout the country. Jews proved to be strong supporters of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Antisemitism in the United States


Anti-Jewish sentiment started around the time of the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, when General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant , was an United States general and the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States ....
 issued an order (quickly rescinded by President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
) of expulsion against Jews from the portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi under his control. (See General Order No. 11)

Antisemitism continued into the first half of 1900s. Jews were discriminated against in some employment, not allowed into some social clubs and resort areas, given a quota on enrollment at colleges, and not allowed to buy certain properties.

Antisemitism in America reached its peak during the interwar period. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan is the name of several past and present secret domestic militant organizations in the United States, originating in the southern states and eventually having national scope, that are best known for advocating white supremacy and acting as terrorists while hidden behind conical hats, masks and white robes....
 in the 1920s, the antisemitic works of Henry Ford
Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the United States founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T History of the automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry....
, and the radio speeches of Father Coughlin in the late 1930s indicated the strength of attacks on the Jewish community.

Antisemitism 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
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 in 1902, lynching of Leo Frank
Leo Frank

Leo Max Frank was an United States man who became the only known Jew in history to be lynching on American soil. The manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, Frank was convicted in the rape and murder of a pencil-factory worker, 13-year-old Mary Phagan....
 in 1915, assassination of Alan Berg
Alan Berg

Alan Berg , was an United States Lawyer and Talk radio host in Denver, Colorado, Colorado. Berg was known for taking a largely Modern liberalism in the United States stand on issues and was, at times, abrasive and combative to callers and guests who held opposing views....
 in 1984, and the Crown Heights riots of 1991.

Following the Second World War
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 and the American Civil Rights Movement, anti-Jewish sentiment waned. Some members of the Black Nationalist
Black nationalism

Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of black national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different black nationalist philosophies but the principles of all black nationalist ideologies are 1) Black pride, and 2) black economic, political, social and/or cultural independence from white society....
 Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam is a religious group founded in Detroit, Michigan, Michigan, United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in July 1930 with the self-proclaimed goal of resurrecting the spiritual, mind, society, and economics condition of the Black people of America....
 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 Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League is a United States of America based, international non-governmental organization. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all."...
 surveys begun in 1964, African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
s are significantly more likely than white Americans to hold antisemitic beliefs, although there is a strong correlation between education level and the rejection of antisemitic 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 antisemitic. In the 1998 survey, blacks (34%) were nearly four times as likely as whites (9%) to fall into the most antisemitic category (those agreeing with at least 6 of 11 statements that were potentially or clearly antisemitic). 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).

The 2005 Anti-Defamation League survey includes data on Hispanic
Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that historically denoted relation to the ancient Hispania . During the Modern Era, it took on a more limited meaning relating to the contemporary nation of Spain....
 attitudes, with 29% being most antisemitic (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.

See also

  • List of Jewish Americans
    List of Jewish Americans

    This page is a list of lists of notable American Jews.The Jewish population of the United States is currently the largest Jewish population in the world....


Bibliography

  • Cutler, Irving. The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb. (1996)
  • ; , copyright 2005. accessed 7 September 2006.
  • Diner, Hasia. The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000
  • Diner, Hasia. Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present
  • Feingold, Henry L. Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present
  • 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.
  • , October 15, 1943; p. 21; ; accessed December 12, 2006 (There may be a charge for this article if accessed online.)
  • 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).


Primary sources

  • Salo Wittmayer Baron and Joseph L. Blau
    Joseph L. Blau

    Joseph Leon Blau was an American scholar of Jewish history and philosophy....
    , eds. The Jews of the United States, 1790-1840: A Documentary History.
  • Howe, Irving
    Irving Howe

    Irving Howe , was an American literary and social critic. He was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York, as a son of immigrants who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the Great Depression....
     and Kenneth Libo, eds. How We Lived, 1880-1930: A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America
  • 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


External links and references