Jewish Immigration To America Essay

Lucy Dawidowicz, the author of “The War Against The Jews 1933-1945” grew up in New York. She

When one looks through the history of the last century, many great atrocities can come to mind. However, the one that is the most common is that of the Holocaust during World War II. People often wonder how something like this could have been allowed to happen. These same people wonder this without realizing that something similar has happened, right within their own shores. Not only this, but they do not realize how previously close we could become to having this happen again.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in New York City before September 11th, 2001. On 1911, approximately 140 to 147 people died in the fire which held no mercy for them. The day of the fire is commonly known as “The day it rained children”. The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, hired immigrated women who were young, poor, barely educated, and spoke very little English. These women were overworked and very underpaid, and yet they could do nothing because they needed the money. Many Eastern European Jews were exposed to the revolutionary ferment in Russia and they brought a strong sense of justice and political will for the skirmish for social change in the United States.

The article From the Russian Pale to Labor Organizing in New York City written by Annelise Orleck reveals how the working class immigrant community played a significant role in influencing women’s labor movements in the early twentieth century. Orleck maintains that as a result of their background, Jewish women had an experience in America different from most women. She posits that since they did not subscribe to the Victorian ideal of a traditional women’s role, Jewish immigrant women were able to form networks which transcended class, ethnicity, and even gender. Orleck’s book is a significant contribution to

One thing that stood out to me was how the rest of the World put a limitation on Jewish immigration when the Jewish refugees tried to escape from Hitler’s take over. In 1924, the United States passed the Johnson-Reed Act which restricted immigration based on national quotas. President Herbert Hoover went has far to bar the mentally disabled from coming into America. In 1936, an Arab general strike occurred to protest Jewish immigration. Recession and revolt meant a decline in immigration certificates, even for Jews in Europe. Due to this increased violence, the White Paper of May 1939 which put limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine so that the Jews would never outnumber the Arabs. The Arabs were worried about the Jews taking over Palestine

In the autobiography, “Out of the Shadow”, author Rose Cohen, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, explains the social and economic conditions during the late 1800s and early 1900s for Jews immigrating into the United States. Cohen explains how many Jews fled Eastern Europe and Russia during this time due to the ruling of the tsar, fear of religious persecution, and economic restrictions. Because these restrictions were becoming the norm for Jewish people in their county, Rose’s father, a tailor, began to embark on a journey to the United States of America, in hopes of beginning a new life for himself and his family. Even though her father is captured at the border of Russia and returned home, he managed to get to America. Once in

These “newcomers” did not deserve to come here and steal their jobs. Mike Trudic’s account from his childhood referred to his father’s hunt in America to desperately find work, “At the end of a week he was taken ill and died. It said he died of a broken heart”(Mike, 188). There were just too many workers and not enough jobs to be filled. Another first hand source provided by Rose Cohen, called Out of the Shadow, depicts the story of a jewish girl in New York and the experiences her family goes through in order to reach a sustainable lifestyle. The struggles included descriptions of harsh working conditions and anti-semitism, which created difficulty for immigrants who were trying to assimilate into the American culture.

Several years ago, America was taught to be a 'melting pot,' a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society, but now America is more of a 'salad bowl' where instead of forming an incorporated entity the people who make up the bowl are unwilling to unite as one. America started as an immigrant nation and has continued to be so. People all over the world come to America for several reasons. Most people come to America voluntarily, but very few come unwillingly. For whatever reasons they may have for coming they all have to face exposure to American society. When exposed to this 'new' society they choose whether to assimilate or not. Assimilation

Internal Jewish anxieties and struggles also made assimilation impossible. Lewisohn’s second reason explaining Jews cannot assimilate is because of their ancestral past. Jews “are a people” and “cannot shake off the impress of experience of seventy generations.” This Jewish past prevents Jews from assimilating because they cannot stop being Jewish, and even if one tries to forget or deny their Jewishness his past makes it impossible. The past is so imbedded “in his essential character. . . as well as of all his actions he remains a Jew.”6 Howe, like Lewisohn, also acknowledges the internal difficulties of assimilation. He writes that New York City at this time was “the embodiment of that alien world which every Jewish boy raised in a Jewish immigrant home had been taught, whether he realized it or not, to look upon with suspicion.”7 Since Jews were “cut. . . off from official society” they formed “from immigrant Jewish families. . . a genuine community.”8 This mutual suspicion between Jews and the outside world caused many Jews to withdraw further into their own segregated communities, making the possibility for larger social acceptance and assimilation impossible.

The United States has been a host to a wide diaspora of people. Immigrants have had to transition from their familiar land to a new-fashioned foreign land that they must consider home. They bring with them the essence of their initial homeland such as customs, traditions and beliefs that inadvertently change the dynamics of culture within the United States. As a result the United States is an extremely culturally diverse nation. The continual changes or accretions that Americans encounter have always been a controversial topic depending on the experiences of individuals and communities that have immigrant populations. This essay will critically explore

Adolf Hitler came to power over Germany in January of 1933. He hated Jews and blamed them for everything bad that had ever happened to Germany. Hitler’s goal in life was to eliminate the Jewish population. With his rise to power in Germany, he would put into action his plan of elimination. This is not only why German Jews were the main target of the Holocaust, but why they were a large part of the years before, during, and after the Holocaust. Hitler’s “final solution” almost eliminated the Jewish population in Europe during World War II. At the end of the war and along with his suicide, the Jewish population would survive the horror known as the Holocaust and the Jews would eventually find their way back to their homeland of Israel

While most diseases are caused by obtaining two recessive alleles, there are certain genetic disorders that are more prevalent in smaller populations. In the fourteenth century, a small population of Jews immigrated to Germany. Since there were few of these individuals in their population, these immigrants were the founders in Germany for the Jewish community.

America is traditionally a country of immigrants. Very few people today have relatives who were Native Americans, many of them because of religious persecution, and others because of they were just looking to start a new life on the exciting untouched frontier. For instance, in Florida, the first arrivals were European, beginning with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who explored the land in 1513, following French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century. From the past, America was seen as a country of opportunities. People from all over the world have moved here looking for better opportunities. There are a lot of reasons why immigrants should live in this country, but I would like to mention three of them.

Throughout the history of the United States immigration has become apart of our country’s fabric which, began centuries ago. Only to become a hot topic in the US in recent years with its primary focus being illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration is when people enter a country without government permission. As of 2008 the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the US which is down from 2007‘s 12.5 million people. Although the Center for Immigration Studies estimates are very different from other estimates that range from 7 to 20 million. While the Pew Hispanic Center estimated in March of 2009 there are 11.1 million illegal immigrants and that number is from March 2007’s peak of 12

A small percentage of German immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century decided to move due to religious reasons. In the colonial period, religious freedom had been a major factor for immigrants from all over Europe, but during the 1800s it was less significant (Daniels, Coming to America 147). Beginning in the 1830s through the 1880s, anti-Semitic laws were being passed in several of the German states (Hoobler and Hoobler 24). Jews escaped these areas in search of the opportunity to worship freely in America. In the late 1830s, a movement began in Prussia forcing the unification of the Lutheran and Reformed churches (Brownstone and Franck 139). “Old Lutherans,” who resisted this merger, escaped to the United States in protest (139). Religious radicals from Germany found homes in the ever-tolerant Pennsylvania (Daniels, Coming to America 147). These religious persecutions forced many Germans to make the difficult decision to leave their homeland for the promises of freedom and prosperity in America.