Jewish Immigration to America Sephardic, German, and Eastern European immigrants each contributed to the formation of American Jewry. Today, America's Jewish community is largely Ashkenazic, meaning it is made up of Jews who trace their ancestry to Germany and Eastern Europe. We Also Recommend However, the first Jews to arrive in what would become the United States were Sephardic--tracing their ancestry to Spain and Portugal. The following article looks at the three major waves of Sephardic and Ashkenazic immigration to America. Historians have traditionally divided American Jewish immigration into three periods: Sephardic, German, and Eastern European. The Sephardim The first group of Sephardic settlers arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 from Brazil. Poster from World War I While the Ashkenazim outnumbered the Sephardim by 1730, the character of the American Jewish community remained Sephardic through the American Revolution. Did you like this article? Please consider making a donation today.
Victoria County - Indianola Database The port of Indianola was founded in August 1846 by Sam Addsion White and William M. Cook. During the period between 1844 and 1886 , Indianola grew from a plague-infested immigrant camp to a cosmopolitan port city. Two major hurricanes dealt serious and fatal results and after the second one in August 1886, the survivors left the port and moved inland and Indianola became a ghost town. The birth of Indianola was the direct result of calamitous difficulties encountered by early immigrants from Germany who were brought to the shores of the Republic of Texas. Since there were fewer rivers to cross going west, Indianola proved to be a favored point of landing for the Germans who were headed for the Texas "Hill Country". Since 1820 the immigration laws stated that the ship's manifest (passenger lists) were turned over to the port officials at the port where the ship FIRST made port. (The following article first appeared in STIRPES, Volume XXV March 1985 and is an excerpt of that article. W.
Education Albert Einstein: Physicist and Pacifist Universally recognized as the physicist whose radical theories proposed completely new ways of thinking about space, time, and gravitation, Albert Einstein is perhaps lesser known for another important role he served during his lifetime as a pacifist (a person opposed to war). By the time the German-born physicist was thirty, his theory of relativity and work in quantum mechanics had set off a revolution in physics, marking the beginning of the Nuclear Age. Taking a Closer Look A native of Hungary, Lucien Aigner was also a recent refugee from Nazism when he made this portrait of Albert Einstein during a 1940 interview at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Listen to Einstein explain E=mc², read his letter to President Roosevelt, learn more about the Nuclear Age, and click on other related sites at the following exhibition Web site:
Pacific Link: The KQED Asian Education Initiative: History: Angel Island From 1910 to 1940, tens of thousands of immigrants entered the West Coast of the United States through the Angel Island Immigration Station. Located in San Francisco's North Bay, not far from Alcatraz Island, the buildings were nearly forgotten and their history almost lost, until one day in 1970, when Alexander Weiss, a California State Park Ranger, re-discovered the treasure they held. His chance discovery began the long journey to save the immigration station, and ultimately, to save the stories hidden within it, and to help us remember its sad, but important role in American history. The exact number of immigrants who passed through Angel Island is unknown. Of those who arrived at Angel Island, it is estimated that anywhere from 11 percent to 30 percent were ultimately deported, whereas the deportation rate for the East Coast was only 1 percent to 2 percent. For more information, see the following sites:
The Jewish Americans . Assimilation: Making America Home Migration: The Diaspora in America Assimilation: Making America Home The Pursuit of Economic Opportunity Doing Well and Doing Good: Education and Philanthropy Anti-Semitism in America Jews on Field and Stage: Sports and the Arts America's Response to the Holocaust A Jewish Homeland Political Activism Being Jewish in Modern America Home | Jewish Life in America | Watch Video | Share Your Story | For Educators | Resources | About the Film | Contact Us THE JEWISH AMERICANS is a production of JTN Productions; WETA Washington, D.C.; and David Grubin Productions, Inc. in association with Thirteen/WNET New York.
Angel Island: Immigrant Journeys of Chinese-Americans Like people of other ethnicities, the Chinese immigrated to the United States for better lives. Before 1900, their work included farming, mining and building railroads. Men sent money home to their families in China. But American laborers resented the Chinese because the latter were willing to work for cheap wages. Stiff immigration laws were passed. From 1910-1940, Chinese immigrants were detained and interrogated at Angel Island immigration station in San Francisco Bay. Men and women were housed separately. The immigrants expressed their fears and frustrations through messages and poems written or carved into barrack walls. Immigrants were detained weeks, months, sometimes even years. A 1940 fire destroyed the Angel Island administration building, so the U.S. government abandoned the immigration station. Many years have passed. At Angel Island, a museum has been established in the old barracks, re- creating one of the living areas for Chinese detainees.
Polish/Russian - The Lower East Side - Immigration…- Classroom Presentation The Lower East Side When a new Jewish immigrant first set foot on the Lower East Side, he or she stepped into a Jewish world. The earliest Eastern European Jews to settle there had quickly established synagogues, mutual-aid societies, libraries, and stores. Every major institution, from the bank to the grocery store to the social club to the neighborhood bookmaker, was Jewish-owned or Jewish-run, and everyone a Jewish immigrant might speak to in the course of daily business would likely be Jewish. For all the comfort that this shared heritage brought, however, the Lower East Side was still a very difficult place to live--and a crowded one. I have found in three rooms father, mother, twelve children, and six boarders. This congestion brought with it many hazards, along with many annoyances. The Lower East Side could certainly be frightening, dangerous, noisy, and cramped. Facing Barriers Most of the new Jewish immigrants faced unique challenges in their search for work.
GALVESTON MOVEMENT GALVESTON MOVEMENT. The Galveston Movement operated between 1907 and 1914 to divert Jews fleeing the pogroms of Russia and eastern Europe away from congested communities of the Atlantic coast to the interior of the United States. The Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau directed the movement as a means of preventing an anticipated wave of anti-Semitism on the Eastern seaboard, which might lead to immigration restrictions. Several benevolent groups tried to find a southern port of entry to disperse the burgeoning population. The bureau considered three ports. Groundwork for the Galveston Movement was shared by several Jewish organizations in America and Europe. The first refugees-fifty-four men and two women-arrived on the steamship Cassel in early July 1907. The members of the first group were distributed among cities and communities throughout the western states and as far north as Fargo, North Dakota.
A Century of Immigration, 1820-1924 (From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, A Library of Congress Exhibition) In the century spanning the years 1820 through 1924, an increasingly steady flow of Jews made their way to America, culminating in a massive surge of immigrants towards the beginning of the twentieth century. Impelled by economic hardship, persecution, and the great social and political upheavals of the nineteenth century--industrialization, overpopulation, and urbanization--millions of Europe's Jews left their towns and villages and embarked on the arduous journey to the "Golden Land" of America. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Jewish immigrants came mostly, though not exclusively, from Central Europe. In addition to settling in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, groups of German-speaking Jews made their way to Cincinnati, Albany, Cleveland, Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco, and dozens of small towns across the United States. Deed to the Statue of Liberty Deed of Gift for the Statue of Liberty. The Fire Victims New York's Lower East Side
Welcome to AIISF - the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation The Wearable, Implantable, Personalized Future of Medicine As a child, you could always count on it, even after--especially after--you struck out playing T-ball, forgot your only line in the grade school play, and came home with chalk in your nose because you took the schoolyard dare. No matter what, your mom would hug you and tell you that you were special. Turns out, she was right. Each of us is special and unique among the roughly 7 billion humans on this planet. We are the walking, talking instantiation of the 3 billion instances of four nucleotides (abbreviated GATC) that constitute our unique genome’s DNA. Suppose you’re now middle aged and chest pains send you to a physician. Today, your physician would run diagnostic tests, compare your current health and test results to that of a typical human of your age and gender, and treat your disease accordingly. That is all about to change. Your physician will compare your current health to the best possible baseline. This will be great news if you are sick.