Jewish Immigration Into the United States

Jewish immigration to the United States boomed in the early 20th century as Jews heavily migrated into the Northeast coast of the United States through Ellis Island and especially New York. By 1914 the Jewish population in New York was around 1.5 million people and there were a total of 3.5 million Jews in the U.S. which was much higher than any other country.

This century of Jewish immigration was marked by people who wanted to assimilate into the American culture. Jews heavily supported the communist party and also voted heavily Republican in the elections. Jews tried to be productive in labor and tried to organize unions and labor drives. Most Jews worked in sweatshops, especially the garment industry. The organization called the United Hebrew Tides tried to form a labor union and was led by Samuel Gompers who became a prominent name in American labor history in the American Federal of Labor (AFL).

Jewish immigration into the United States made Jewish people move towards secularism in society and away from their religion. While there were many Jewish communities in the U.S., the Jewish religion did not have the same dominant effect that it had back in Europe.

In 1886, the Bialystok Mutual Aid Society started setting up various clubs and organizations to help Jewish people adapt to American life. These clubs were called "landsmanshaftyn" and a multitude of them were set up across America. The club helped Jewish people with welfare, insurance and other things which were foreign concepts to them in America. The United Brisker Relief Society was one such example of these clubs and it prospered around the nation. By 1924, enrollment into these clubs reached 1 million Jewish people.

Yiddish was a language that helped Jewish immigrants feel welcomed into America as Jews were able to bond with each other based on a common language. Jewish lectures on life for both Judaism and for American life became very popular in Jewish communities as lecture halls and rooms filled to capacity on weekends. Yiddish newspapers became very big and popular among American Jews. The Yiddish newspaper called the "Forverts" became the largest Yiddish newspaper in the world.

The Forvert Yiddish newspaper was social-democratic in its views and its publication was started in 1897. Its head editor was Abraham Cahan who was raised in the Pale of Settlement in Europe and fled to the United States after the Russian police were after him because of his underground illegal activities. In the United States he worked in a sweatshop and as a tobacco striper. He attended a young grade school in the Lower East Side of NY to learn English and American customs and within two years he soon became a freelance journalist, writing for a multitude of newspapers and magazines. He wrote for a Russian newspaper, Yiddish newspaper, and American newspaper in English. In 1901 Abraham Cahan accepted the head editor's position for the Forvert newspaper. Cahan transformed the paper into a secular newspaper into a newspaper about Yiddish customs and ideas and increased the readers from 6,000 people to 140,000 people which were a remarkable accomplishment. While Cahan's newspaper dealt with many Yiddish issues, he also stayed true to his working class constituency of readers by appealing to them in his articles with secular subjects as well. Cahan's newspaper also gained popularity through its advice columns which helped out people who wrote to Cahan with questions about their daily life. Cahan died in 1955 at the age of 91.