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The politics of American Jews was affected by the wave of tidal wave of Jewish immigration which swamped merica in the late-19th and early-20th century. Until that time, American Jews were small in number and thorougly assimilated. Many came from Germany. A good example was Henry Morgenthau Jr, President Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury, who as a little boy was asked about his religion. His mother told him simply to say, "I am an American." This generation of Jews was primarily interested in assimilation. Many suceeded as shop owners or in the professions, but rarely in banking or growing corporate America because of anti-Semitism. This all changed as the Russian Tsar Alexander III launched his Russification and related often violent anti-Semetic campaign. The small, confortanle American Jewish community of Western European (Sephardic) origins to a large and growing community of Eastern European (Ashkenazic) origins. To the existing Jewish communities, these Eastern European Jewish arrivals seem as strange and unsettling as to other Americans. It also radically changed the politics of Americn Jewery. The new immigrants came with little or nothing. They thus joined the ranks of the urban working class. Few had agricultural experience because land ownership was prohibited as part of anti-Semitic laws. Thus when after ariving in America they mostly stayed in the cities and were affected by the same influences as the rest of the growing urban working class. Therewas, hiwever, an importnt difference. Other immigrant groups arrived with a range of nationlist feelings, which in many cases were being supressed by the imperial regimes that dominted much of Europe (Austro-Hungarian, German, Otoman, and Tsarist). This was not the case of the Jews. They had little nationalist sentiment and a hatred for the Tsar and his empire. Zionism was of little or no importance. And they brought with them from Europe, or soon acquired, an interest in socialist and other left-wing political issues. This orientation was stronger among Jews than other immigrants because the nationalist compnent of other groups was lacking. In Europe it was nationlist groups that were often the most anti-Semitic as would be seen during World War II and the Holocaust. There were also threads in Jewish theology which supported this orientation, especially humnitarianism. Other elements supportung a capitalist orienttion were suppressed by the poverty and working class experience of the immigrants.
This all became more pronounced when the second generation with more American experiences began to emerge after the turn-of the 20th century. The first gneration understood how much better conditions were than in the Tsarist Empire. The second generation without the Tsarist experience were more willing to criticize the conditions they were experiencing. Thus many rejected capitalism and turned to socialist variants (including liberalism, Communism, and Anarchism) which seemed a panacea for correcting America as they found it. Thus of all the immigrant groups, Jews had the most liberal or left-wing orientation. Jews were among the most willing to speak out about the inequities of the day. These ideas were dicussed and reinforced by editorials in the Yiddish newspapers. The first major effort was the Kosher Meat Boycott (1902). Many Jewish women in New York women were enfuriated when the price of kosher meat increased from 12 to 18 cents per pound. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was major turning point (1911). any of the victims were teenagers and young Jewish women. Jews even before this were drawn to the progressive movement, although progressives were not always comfortable with their Jewish allies like the progressive failure to address African-American issues. Better working conditions for garment industry workers became a major issue amomg Jews. Jews adopted other issues asociated with demands for social and political justice. The Civil Rights Movement gripped the Jewish American community sooner than much of the rest of America. Jews more than many others grasped the need for equal rights for all citizens.
The politics of American Jews was affected by the tidal wave of Jewish immigration which along with other Europeans swamped America in the late-19th and early-20th century. Until that time, American Jews were small in number and thorougly assimilated. Many came from Germany. A good example was Henry Morgenthau Jr, President Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury, who as a little boy was asked about his religion. His mother told him simply to say, "I am an American." This generation of Jews was primarily interested in assimilation. Many suceeded as shop owners or in the professions, but rarely in banking or growing corporate America because of anti-Semitism. This all changed as the Russian Tsar Alexander III launched his Russification and related often violent anti-Semitic campaign. The small, confortable American Jewish community of Western European (Sephardic) origins to a large and growing community of Eastern European (Ashkenazic) origins. To the existing Jewish communities, these Eastern European Jewish arrivals seem as strange and unsettling as to other Americans.
The hughe number of Eastern European immigrants also radically changed the politics of American Jewery. The new immigrants came with little or nothing. They thus joined the ranks of the urban working class. Few had agricultural experience because land ownership was prohibited as part of anti-Semitic laws. Thus when after arriving in America they mostly stayed in the cities and were affected by the same influences as the rest of the growing American urban working class.
There was, however, an important difference. Other immigrant groups arrived with a range of nationlist feelings, which in many cases were being supressed by the imperial regimes that dominted much of Europe (Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Tsarist). This was not the case of the Jews. They had little nationalist sentiment for the country from which they cme--primarily the Tsarist Empire. And they prought a hatred for the Tsar and his Empire along with the pogroms and other repressive actions. Zionism which in essence is a form of nationalsm, at the time was of little or no importance. One of the problems the founders if Zionim faced was the relative prosperity of Jews in Western Europe and especially America.
And they brought with them from Europe, or soon acquired, an interest in socialist and other left-wing political issues. This orientation was stronger among Jews than other immigrants because the nationalist compnent of other groups was lacking. In Europe it was nationalist groups that were often the most anti-Semitic as would be seen during World War II and the Holocaust. There were also threads in Jewish theology which supported this orientation, especially humnitarianism. Other elements supportung a capitalist orienttion were suppressed by the poverty and working class experience of the immigrants.
This all became more pronounced when the second generation with more American experiences began to emerge after the turn-of the 20th century. The first gneration understood how much better conditions were than in the Tsarist Empire. The second generation without the Tsarist experience were more willing to criticize the conditions they were experiencing. Thus many rejected capitalism and turned to socialist variants (including liberalism, Communism, and Anarchism) which seemed a panacea for correcting America as they found it. Thus of all the immigrant groups, Jews had the most liberal or left-wing orientation.
Jews were among the most willing to speak out about the inequities of the day. These ideas were dicussed and reinforced by editorials in the Yiddish newspapers. The first major effort was the Kosher Meat Boycott (1902). Many Jewish women in New York women were enfuriated when the price of kosher meat increased from 12 to 18 cents per pound. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was major turning point (1911). any of the victims were teenagers and young Jewish women.
Jews even before the developing activisn were drawn to the progressive movement, although progressives were not always comfortable with their Jewish allies like the progressive failure to address African-American issues. Better working conditions for garment industry workers became a major issue amomg Jews. Jews adopted other issues asociated with demands for social and political justice. Here the girls are protesting child labor (figure 1). The Civil Rights Movement gripped the Jewish American community sooner than much of the rest of America. Jews more than any other group grasped the need for equal rights for all citizens. Jews lent
their support and marched alongside African-Americans and were fervently devoted to the movement. It was no accident that one of the civil rights workers targeted in the Freedom Summer Murders at Philaelphia, Missisippi was Jewsish-- Michael "Mickey" Schwerner. Jews were deeply involved with the movement. One of the speakers at the March on Washington orgnized by Dr King was Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a Holocaust survivor and Civil Rights activist. He mentiond how Jewish Americans believed in their cause. He said, "It is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is ... a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience .... The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence."
The Russian Revolution had a powerful affect on American Jews. Suddenly the country thy most despised (Russia) became the center of international socialist thought. Many Jews came to believe that the Soviets were building a workers and peasant paradise. Soviet propaganda was very effective in blocking the terrible truth of Stalinist totalitarian horrors.
Since World War II, many American Jews have had some of their most stongly held political beliefs shattered. While there is still a left wing-orientation and adhernce to the Democratic Party, there is a political shift underway. Jews found that despite their support for civil rights, there is a stong under current of anti-Semitism among African-Americans. Jessie Jackson's Jaime Town comment simply reflected widely held views among African-Americans, something that most white Americans had abanoned decades earlier. There is little appreciation of the huge role Jews have plyed in the Civil Rights movement. Then Jews, even stringly ideological left-wing Jews, began to become aware not only of the terrible atrocities of Stanist Era, but the underlying anti-Semitism of the Soviet state. Still not widely undrstood is that the Doctor's Plot was Stalin's way way of launching aasive attavk on Soviet Jews. Saving Soviet Jews became a Cold War issue and a major issue for American Jewery. And gradually Jews who had transferred their allegiance from Jehova to socialism began to encounter find a new anti-Semitism being championed within the world socialist community. Here a factor has been the relative success of Jews in our post-World war II which has lead to some questioning the ethics of wealth distribution. Numerous polls show that Jews have been steadily, if slowly moving toward the Republican Party. Jews are still stronly Democratic, but only because during the New Deal they became so overwealmingly Democratic. We note poles in the mid-2010s suggesting aboout a 60/30 break (10 pecent undecided. And the Democratic Party which since the New Deal Jews had championed began to promote ideas they fundamentlly opposed such as quotas. This mirrored trends in Israel where socialism failed as an economic system and in sharp contrast, free market reforms fundamentally improved economic success.
Sauer, corinne and Robert M. "Jewish theology and economic theory" Religion & Liberty (Action Intitute) Vol. 17, No. 1
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