Immigration
The primary years of Jewish immigration to Boston occurred between 1880 and 1924. In 1881, many fled the Pale of Settlement, an area containing parts of Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Belorussia and Ukraine. During this time period it was not uncommon for dramatic events such as sicknesses and assassinations to be blamed on the Jewish people (Antoline). Their blame for Tsar Alexander II's murder, though significant, was just one spark for their migration to the United States (Antoline). When they arrived in America, they were met with challenges and new experiences, and eventually established an important niche in the American culture.
PUSH AND PULL FACTORS
PUSH
|
PULL
|
The jewish experience
Life as a Jewish Immigrant:
- Extremely poor; lived in cramped tenement housing ("Immigration")
- Dangerous, demanding factory work ("Immigration")
- Very low wages ("Immigration")
- Discrimination ("Immigration")
- Some were peddlers (Antoline)
- Beacon Hill (previously an African-American community) was one of first places Jewish immigrants settled in Boston (Antoline)
- Boston's West End was another poor community inhabited by Jewish immigrants (Antoline)
Triumphs and Impacts:
- Response to struggles with synagogue support systems and immigrant aid societies (Grunberger 17)
- Triumph of the Vilna Shul, a synagogue created by members of the Jewish immigrant community. The famous structure still stands today (Antoline).
- Advancements in education, labor rights, and healthcare such as the foundation of the esteemed Beth Israel Hospital in 1916 (Grunberger 90; Antoline)
Community Evolution:
- Historians feel differently as to how the Jewish community has evolved. Some historians such as Rabbi Posner of the Chabad House of Greater Boston believe that Judaism hasn't changed "institutionally," while others believe that it has changed "dramatically" (Antoline)
- Rabbi Posner also believes that any values have remained constant, though some traditions/practices of the earliest generations have been lost, while historian Jessica Antoline feels that "values are not constant in the community," and that "many" traditions have been "lost/altered" (Posner; Antoline)
- Assimilation with American culture (Posner)
- Merging of Eastern and Western European Jewish cultures (Antoline)