Blog Questions for November 6

Reading for November 6: German and Eastern European Jewish immigration to the US

JAH 326-332

Primary Sources, in Mendes-Flohr, The Jew in the Modern World
1. “Leo Frank Lynched," pp. 530-531.
2. “Jewish Immigration into the United States: 1881-1948,” pp. 532-533
3. “The Division Between German and Russian Jews," pp. 545-546.

In class we will be watching a short videos from the PBS series, "The Jewish Americans," on eastern European Jewish immigration, the Lower East Side, German Jews, and the Leo Frank case.

Questions

German Jews, JAH, pp. 326-328
1. German Jews began to come to the US in large numbers from the 1830s onwards, resulting in an immigration of about 200,000. Why did they leave Germany and how did they make a living once they arrived in America?
2. What were UAHC and HUC and why were they established?
3. What was the "Trefa Banquet" and what were its effects?

Eastern European Jews, JAH, pp. 328-332
1. How did Eastern European Jewish immigration between 1881 and 1914 differ from contemporary non-Jewish immigration to the US?
2. What kind of work did these Jews find in New York City? What were their conditions of work and housing in New York?
3. What effect did union organizing have on work conditions?
4. What happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on March 25, 1911? What was the political impact of this fire?
5. Why did Jewish women boycott kosher meat in 1902?
6. What caused the divisions between the "uptown" German Jews and the "downtown" eastern European Jews? How did the German Jews and the Russian Jews perceive the other? (For this question, see also pp. 545-546 Mendes-Flohr, the article on the "Division between German and Russian Jews").
7. What did eastern European Jews in America do to "help themselves"?
8. What happened to Leo Frank in 1915?