Jewish People In The 1920's

In the 1920’s five out of six of the Jewish people in the United States were Eastern European (“Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States”). From the 1880’s to the 1920’s 3,750,000 Jewish Eastern Europeans immigrated to the United States. The Jewish people added to the culture and politics in the United States of America. Before the Jewish people got to the United States they had to face many obstacles. Most of the Jewish people lived in places taken by Russia at the time. So Russia wouldn't let the Jewish people leave so they had to sneak out of Russia on either foot or train, the journey was very dangerous (Polish/Russian- A People at Risk-Immigration, Teacher Resources). After they got out of Russia the immigrants spent about a week on a ship. The ships were filled with other Jewish people trying to escape and there was little to no access to kosher foods, so the orthodox Jewish people couldn’t practice their religion on the boats. …show more content…
Most countries at the time were anti-semitic. Anti-semitism was a major obstacle for Jewish immigrants. In Russia, the Jewish people had to sneak out of Russia illegally. A lot of the Jewish immigrants had to change their names. Once they got to America, the Jewish immigrants were packed into states like New York, but there were so many Jewish people that towns and cities became overcrowded. Most of the immigrants worked in factories. They were excluded from social clubs, and universities. News publishers blamed the Jewish population for the economy dropping, and world war one (A Resource Guide for Teachers: Russian Jewish Immigration 1880-1920, Forbes, Ethan, et al). The Jewish immigrants mainly faced social obstacles, but they still became politicians and lawyers, which changed the United