Between 1881 and 1914, 2 million Jews emigrated from eastern Europe to the United States, and 75 percent came from Russian lands. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these immigrants settled in New York City, and by 1910, Jews became the largest immigrant group in the city with a population of 1.4 million. The majority of the emigrants in the early stages were shtetl (small town) people, who were not skilled workers, but by the turn of the century, most of the eastern European Jews who immigrated to America were skilled or semiskilled workers. About 40 percent of these Jews became employed in the garment industry, and many others became machine & metal workers and food industry workers.
After 1905, severely oppressive behavior by the czarist government in Russia led many more immigrants to go to America, including those who were more well-educated and politically involved. They were also less religious and more likely to have received secular education than those who emigrated before them. And in comparison to other immigrants, whose returnee rates were around 30 percent, Jewish returnee rates from 1905 to 1920 were never more than 8 percent.
As more and more Jews swarmed into New York, the Lower East Side became the most congested district in all the five boroughs, and Yiddish became its dominant language. In fact, the Lower East Side’s Jewish population continued to rise until it peaked at 542,061 in 1910. However, new bridges and subways that connected Manhattan to Brooklyn led lots of the Jewish population to spread out into areas of Brooklyn including Williamsburg, New Lots, and Brownsville, whose Jewish population drastically grew from 4,000 in 1890 to 230,000 1915. And even still, the Lower East Side remained the epicenter of Jewish cultural and political life for most of the 20th century.
Facing an increase in anti-Semitic views, German Jews became determined to Americanize the people of their community, so they established associations including the Educational Alliance, which provided career and citizenship training. But since the immigrating Jews resented their patronizing behavior, the Alliance was forced to ease up and by the turn of the century, people had become more responsive to their programs.
But inevitably, various illegal activities became a problem on the Lower East Side due to its poverty. The most rampant problem the neighborhood faced was prostitution, and three-quarters of the prostitutes from the district who were tried in court between November 1908 and March 1909 were Jewish. Then in September of 1908, an anti-Semitic piece in the North American Review by New York City’s police commissioner Theodore Bingham stated that Jews were simply more likely to commit crime by nature. This led the German Jews to take action and create the New York City Kehillah in 1908. This congregation of Jewish organizations sought to educate Jews and help them deal with social issues. Although crime rates decreased, the Kehillah never did unify the community because of its Reform Jewish leader.
As Jewish interest in unions grew, landsmanshaftn were created. These were associations that offered a variety of social services to their Jewish members. But as the Jewish population grew, the number of similarly benevolent organizations in New York City also grew, and projects were launched that were more ambitious than those of the landsmanshaftn, one of which being the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
The eastern Europeans’ urban experiences prepared them much more suitably for positions in commerce and manufacturing than other immigrant groups, and by 1900 one-third of the Jewish immigrant population were involved in those fields. With growing numbers of customers, Jewish immigrants did indeed have the ability to save their way up the social ladder. Jews began dominating the garment industry, and made up three-quarters of its labor force by the end of the 19th century. However, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, low wages, and long hours led garment workers to protest and strike.
Between 1909 and 1914, union membership grew sharply, and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union emerged. On November 22, 1909, a dramatic strike was held by female workers of shirtwaist shops in New York City. The importance of unions became very clear and prominent after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, after which 100 constituent unions had a total of 250,000 members.
While Jewish immigrants were in support of socialist unions, they usually did not join the socialist party officially, and in 1912, the district with the lowest percentage of registered voters was the predominantly eastern European Jewish Eighth. At the local level, Jews either voted for Tammany, because he got lots of Jews in office, or whatever party had ideals similar to their own, including criticism of czarist Russia, support for immigration, and plans to improve working conditions. But the true beginning of the Lower East Side politics was Morris Hillquit’s candidacy for a seat in Congress in 1906. While he was unable to overcome Tammany’s monetary influence, another Socialist party candidate named Meyer London won a seat in 1914.
Due to the immigrants’ view of their new country, the impact of urban life on their religion was very evident. Some people remained truly orthodox, but most only practiced some aspects of the religion. Since the synagogue is a place of both socializing and worship, and since young Jew were the target audience for the religious reform, the Young Israel movement was formed in 1912 in order to draw more people to synagogue. Then in 1913, the Conservative movement aimed to merge the traditional practices and the new changes, which many young people were attracted to.
Young Jewish immigrants were less interested in religion mainly because they were more concerned with the important of secular education. Some teachers were known to be overly harsh, and punished students for speaking Yiddish, while others were praised for changing young people’s lives. Overall, Jews did very well in school because of their enthusiasm. But when it came time to go to high school and even college, facilities were limited and most kids had to work instead of going to school.
As a form of entertainment, twenty Yiddish daily newspapers were established between 1885 and 1914. These dailies represented every type of belief in the Jewish community, from secular to orthodox. While the dailies provided local and national news, they also included columns with advice on adapting to America. Within a decade of its debut on April 22, 1897, Foverts became the most popular Yiddish daily in the world, with 140,000 readers by 1912. This was mainly because of the paper’s editor, Abraham Cahan. The paper promoted a new, more religiously tolerant kind of socialism, advocated for Americanism, and provided advice and assistance on a wide array of problems involving adaptation to American life.
Other forms of entertainment, including dance and street games, also became popular with Jewish immigrants. But nothing compared to the popularity of the Yiddish theater. These theatres produced many cheesy comedies and skewed versions of European dramas, which the common people loved because they usually reflected immigrant life in lighthearted and comical ways. However, the Yiddish intellectuals called for serious theatre. Luckily for them, a talented playwright from Russia named Jacob Gordin arrived in 1891. He collaborated with acclaimed director, Jacob Adler, who established the Independent Yiddish Artists Company, and they created intellectually artistic theatrical productions.
Despite the small town beginnings of the first Jewish immigrants, it is clear that they established themselves culturally and socially in New York City. The Jews made their way up the social ladder, established a variety of organizations that were aimed at helping the Jewish community, and enthusiastically sought after education. They set up forms of mass and intellectual entertainment in the city, and although some began to stray from their religion, religious reform helped keep their faith intact as their lives were reshaped by the dynamic environment of New York.
