Term Paper on "Jewish Americans"

Term Paper 8 pages (2635 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Jewish-Americans From 1865 to Present

Since the end of the Civil War, Jewish-Americans not only have defined themselves, but also have helped define America. As they often prove throughout history, the bonds of Judaism operate like the bonds of a family: through shared religious beliefs, associations such as B'nai Israel, and economic and political prowess, Jews have succeeded in transcending many obstacles. By breaking American history into five units (beginning with 1865), this paper looks at how each unit has shaped and been shaped by American Jews in terms of culture, economics, literature, politics, and religion.

The rise of industrialization in America following the end of the Civil War brought many immigrant workers to big cities such as Chicago, New York and Detroit. These were rocky years, considering that one American President had been assassinated and his successor impeached; that over 600,000 people had died in the war between the Union and the seceding states; and that Reconstruction was underway in the New South, which was subject to all manner of fits and seizures at the hands of carpetbaggers, scalawags, politicians, and groups like the Ku Klux Klan. In the midst of this milieu, Jewish-Americans were especially sensitive to economic deprivations and social issues such as racism and Americanization.

Even before the conclusion of the war, Jews had shown their temerity in the face of racism. Accusing Jews of war-profiteering and illegal trading, Gen. Grant had issued in 1862 an order to have the Jews expelled from parts of Tennessee controlled by the Union. "Jewish merchants, led by Cesar Kaskel" succeeded, through the assistance of Jewish Republican Adolphus Solomons, in petitioning President Lincoln to force Grant to rescind the order (Jewish Virtual Library, General Grant's Infamy), which Grant did in 1863.

With the conclusion of the war and the influx of Jewish immigrants, both American and Jews faced new challenges.

One economic issue many Jewish immigrants faced was how to adapt to new surroundings and provide for a family in an urban setting.

By 1870, many Jewish immigrants from Europe were seeking to secure a future in urban cities. One such man was Samuel Goldstein, who at the age of twenty-six arrived in Providence, Rhode Island from Russia, and straightaway demonstrated that "independence of spirit which is one of the chief attributes of success […and by which a man] will endure any hardships or privations in order to accumulate enough capital with which to make a start for himself" (Goodkind, 1918, p. 106). By working for an iron and metal dealer for a number of years and saving scrupulously, Goldstein was finally able to establish himself in Detroit, MI as the head of a large iron and metal yard. Goldstein is just one example of the many Jewish immigrants who came to America and flourished through the bonds of a strong heritage and hard work ethic.

In fact, such a work ethic came to identify many Americans. The hard-working mentality of many, from frontiersmen to financial bankers, was no less a part of Jewish-Americans than it was of Irish, British and German-Americans. The American landscape was one that demanded labor and was a place where only the strong survived.

However, as demonstrated by Gen. Grant, social stigma was also a part of the lives of many Jews. How they dealt with prejudice was by banding together like a well-knit community -- as Cesar Kaskel demonstrated during the Civil War.

Unit Two: 1877-1920

Jews were once again receiving the blame in the early 1880s, when the Populist Party accused Jewish bankers of driving down farm prices. The Populist Party largely consisted of rural Protestants, who had little contact with Jewish-Americans, but also had little problem vilifying them. Protestants clashed with Jewish and Catholic groups repeatedly in an effort to establish WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) control over the States. Such was an example of a political issue Jews had to face during this time period.

As Ben Macri (2000) tells, "The most notable example of Populist anti-Semitism can be found in the novel a Tale of Two Nations, written by the Populist thinker 'Coin' Harvey." The story tells of a foreign Jewish banker who is at the heart of a conspiracy to keep the United States from adopting the silver standard. The foreign Jewish banker clearly represented the Rothschilds, the premier Jewish European bankers.

In 1896, the Populist Party took full advantage of the JP Morgan banking scandal that suddenly went public:

When the public learned that President Cleveland had sold bonds to a syndicate which included JP Morgan and the Rothschilds house, bonds which that syndicate was now selling for a profit, the Populists used it as an opportunity to uphold their view of history, and prove to the nation that Washington and Wall Street were in the hands of the international Jewish banking houses (Macri, 2000).

Jews were already in the crosshairs, so to speak, with the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfuss, a Frenchman and Jew who had been accused of spying for Germany. Though he was later exonerated, Jews in America, who followed the case closely, were linked to the image of the foreign assailant; and the JP Morgan banking scandal did nothing to alleviate these claims.

William Jennings Bryan who ran for office against William McKinley, often pled the Protestant plight of suffering at the hands of inimical Jewish interests. Referencing the crucifixion of Christ, he told supporters Jews would "not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold" (Macri, 2000). Two-facedly, however, he tried to earn the Jewish vote by claiming he was not against a race, but against avarice.

Jews responded by electing McKinley to the presidential office.

The American Jewish Committee was founded in 1906 to help safeguard the values and heritage of Jewish-Americans and fight prejudice.

But more persecution was to follow in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Jews were linked with Bolsheviks in America, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which had been published in London, as well as in America by industrialist Henry Ford, helped renew the idea that Jews were part of a conspiracy for world domination.

Unit III: 1921-1945

The polemic against Jews did not abate with WWI. In fact, Jews faced another political hurdle: the Johnson-Reed Act, which put a limitation on the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe who could enter America. Since most of the immigrants from Eastern Europe were of Jewish descent, the Johnson-Reed Act was seen by Jews as an attack.

Not every Jewish family was able to make its way to middle class. During this unit of time, Henry Roth wrote Call it Sleep, a novel depicting the pains and labors of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side of New York City. The novel was acclaimed critically, but failed to spark much public interest until thirty years later when it was reissued in paperback when anti-Semitic sentiments had lessened and next-generation men and women could read it with appreciation. Roth's novel, which "portrays family tensions and a vibrant neighborhood where people spoke Yiddish, English, German, Hebrew, Italian and Polish," drew on painful memories of a childhood with an abusive father, which led critic Irving Howe to remember and acclaim the book thirty years later (Tannenbaum, 2000).

One social issue faced by Jews who worked their way out of the slums of urban cities was admission to higher academics. Colleges such as Yale during this time tried to limit their acceptance of Jewish students. This phenomenon went on for decades, especially as Ivy League schools were predominantly WASP-oriented. But as more Protestants and Jews became Americanized, barriers between institutions were broken down.

Jewish-Americans also emerged as leaders in American cinema. As Jack Wikoff (1989) observes,

Jewish producers moved to Hollywood from the East Coast in the teens and twenties because of the abundant sunlight, cheap non-union labor and distance from the enforcers of the Edison Patents Company. [Adolf] Zukor and his associates arrived relatively late in Hollywood…the Jews did not invent Hollywood, but they certainly did come to dominate it.

In the book an Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Neal Gabler, says Wikoff, makes the case that not only did Jews make movies, but also they invented a new identity for themselves. The Jazz Singer in 1927 (in which Jakie Rabinowitz becomes Jack Robin) was the perfect example of "assimilation" of Jews into the American culture -- according to Gabler. Wikoff, contends, however, that "Jewish men never truly wanted to join the culture of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. What they sought was entry into those domains of power and influence which had once been exclusively gentile." Still, Gabler contends, and Wikoff agrees, that to some extent Jewishness did shape the content of Hollywood productions.

From the end of WWI to the end of WWII, the way Jews were viewed in America underwent a dramatic change. In fact, it reversed 180 degrees. In spite of congressional investigations and black-listings in Hollywood during the 40s and 50s, the… READ MORE

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