The massive Jewish immigration from eastern Europe occurred during that period. Even as early as 1825 the B’nai Jeshurun community in New York counted Polish Jews as members, and in 1852 a small synagogue for Russian Jews was founded, though the great immigration from Russia didn’t commence until 1881. From 1881-1899 alone about 1,038,000 Jews immigrated; in the following three decades, from 1900-1930, about 1,866,000 Jews came. The fraction of Jews in the total immigration into the United States was around 10 percent. As opposed to this, the number of Jews who returned to Europe was tiny, about 54,000 from 1908-1929. [One wonders if this number reflects those immigrants who were denied entry at Ellis Island for reasons of health.]
(Continued Next Month)
