Eastern European Jewish Communities

Eastern European Jewish Immigrants in German Jewish Communities Late nineteenth/early twentieth century Eastern European Jewish immigrants who settled in Ohio cities merged to some extent with the pre-existing German Jewish communities. Despite the various cultural differences such as language, religious values, and different immigration experiences, the new Eastern European Jews used the German Jews as a cultural example and became the equivalent of a lower-class German Jew. The economically and socially established German Jews assisted the new Eastern European Jews in adapting this new life in the new world, while these new immigrants became a large portion of the Jewish population in the cities. This increasing population gave the German …show more content…
The economic potential was from the Ohio River and the invention of the steamboat in 1811, and caused a massive population growth in Ohio cities. In 1830-1860 when railway chains were created to connect all the major markets with the river, cities along the river grow two to four times their size. German Jews already had created a community and had jobs in Ohio before the majority of these newcomers came, and they already had secured jobs. Most early German immigrants earned a living in meat and grocery businesses, or by peddling. German Jewish immigrants had an established community and secure livelihood, so while new members of these cities used the flourishing economics to simply make a living, the German Jews were able to use this growth to increase their economic presence and power. The well connected community and cities on the brink of economic industrialization provided the resources and for German Jewish immigrants to become important figures engrained in the new cities as entrepreneurs, journalists, bankers and other occupations. The entrepreneurs and used their saved money to create small businesses, and some of these businesses were able to grow much larger. While not the only area Jewish Entrepreneurs became successful, the Garment …show more content…
As the cities increased in size because of the new economic opportunity from the Ohio River, the German Jewish population became a smaller portion. Being such a small minority, they didn’t get much political interest and couldn’t really do much about it. Even the Jewish upper class was not immune to treated as less than other groups, they were limited on where they could live by groups such as the upper-class Christian society. Those in the lower class had to face the threat of assault by gangs of kids, molestation, and the inability to get education or housing outside of the Jewish