Chapter 5 of Binder and Reimers’ All The Nations Under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial History of New York City provides a thorough discussion of Jewish immigration to the Lower East Side of Manhattan beginning in the late nineteenth century. Between 1881 and 1914, about two million Jews immigrated to the United States, with three quarters of that population remaining in New York City. The immigrants hailed primarily from Russia and Eastern Europe where anti-Semitic sentiments were high and persecution and pogroms forced families to leave their homelands.
Many of the arriving immigrants could be characterized as skilled or semiskilled laborers—over forty percent having been employed in the clothing industry back in Eastern Europe. Other industries included construction, metal working, and the food industry. Well educated scholars were equally forced to emigrate under czarist oppression, yielding a more secular Jewish population in America. In fact, the Jews that often refused to settle in “the land of opportunity” were the religious orthodox that viewed the United States as a land where spiritual values had no place.
To some extent, they were correct. Stronger than the Jewish religion in the densely populated Jewish quarter of Manhattan was Jewish culture. The Jews filled in where the Irish and Germans left their mark with no plans to return back home. As the population grew, the Lower East Side of Manhattan became the most congested district in the five boroughs yet was still central to Jewish immigrants even after subways and bridges opened Brooklyn up to them. With rising antisemitism, the established German Jews feared that the influx of their Eastern European counterpart would perpetuate the hate, but the majority of Western Jewish philanthropy was directed toward helping victims of pogroms migrate to America. To repair the view of the Jewish immigrants in the public eye and bridge the manners and customs separating the German from Eastern European Jews, the Educational Alliance was established by German Jews. The Alliance was intended to assist in vocational and citizenship training for new immigrants but also offered classes in subjects such as literature, philosophy, history and art. The heavy Americanization of Jewish culture in the Alliance, though, was very much resented by the Eastern European Jews.
Another organization intended to repair the image of Jewish immigrants in America was the New York City Kehillah led by Rabbi Judah Magnes. The Lower East Side was not necessarily violent, but crime was nevertheless a problem—pickpocketing, arson, prostitution and gambling could all be found in the alleyways between tenements or in the slums themselves. After police commissioner Theodore Bingham exaggeratedly spoke out against the immigrant Jews in the September 1908 issue of the North American Review, The New York City Kehillah was founded that same year. About 200 organizations united to support Jewish immigrants in an effort to reduce crime among them, but the coalition never truly unified the community.
In terms of earning a living, most Eastern European Jews entered manufacturing, specifically the garment industry. This was no surprise as ten percent of the Jewish immigrants were skilled tailors and most of the factories were owned by German Jews. The garment industry, once run within tenements until the 1892 Tenement House Act, shifted into sweatshops, but that did not change the unbearable working conditions. Many Jewish laborers, especially women, began to unionize, and the umbrella labor organization, United Hebrew Trades, was founded in 1888. Membership particularly grew after The Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire where 146 workers, mostly young Jewish women, lost their lives. In conjunction with the labor movement, the socialist movement was widely applauded by Jewish immigrant workers in its values of brotherhood and traditional Jewish concepts.
Politically, though, Eastern European Jews followed the Germans in their support for the Republican party which proved responsive to Jewish concerns regarding immigration policy and anti-Semitism abroad. With urban life increasing the secularity of Jewish immigrants, their attraction to socialism or Zionism dwindled, and secular education became increasingly important and valued in Jewish culture. Proper schooling was emphasized for both girls and boys in climbing the ladder to economic success, even though success for most Jews was a result of strategic commercial advances, not a diploma. In an attempt to revitalize Orthodox Judaism, the Young Israel movement of 1912 was formed which ultimately led to a movement of Jewish conservatism that recognized the need to maintain tradition while adapting to change. Overall, in the immigration story of Eastern European Jews there is a clear difference between upholding the Jewish religion and Jewish culture, and to fully participate in American life, compromises were made.
