Alexander M. answered • 01/19/21
San Diegan obsessed with studying the world and its people
I see where you were going with your thought process because you are right, Russian Jews certainly received harsh intolerance throughout Communist Russia. Further research concluded that the Soviet Union ramped up their Anti-Semitism under the reign of Joseph Stalin in the late 1940s.
Maybe your teacher is referring more to what was going on in Germany in the early 1900s. Germany during this time was the main adversary of the Western Allies of two World Wars, and we know the horrible tragedies that accompany Adolf Hitler's reign against the Jewish population. Events such as Kristallnacht (One night, many Jewish synagogues & businesses were destroyed, many were killed & many were sent to the concentration camps; 1938) & the horrors of the Holocaust (Around 6 million Jews died, nearly 2/3 of Europe's Jewish population).
To wrap up, I believe that you are correct with the Bolshevik explanation, but perhaps your instructor was looking for the main reason that many Jewish immigrants came to America in the early 20th century was due to the rising power of Germany & the aftermath of Germany. As you said, America was a beacon of hope from all the hardships that Jews faced in Europe at this time.
Hopefully this helped!
Alexander M.
Oops! No problem... I did more research and saw how the major influx of Ashkenazi Jews (Central and Eastern Europe) came about from many violent revolts throughout Russia to murder or get rid of the Jews from their land; these riots are called a pogrom. These pogroms happened started in the 1880s but happened continuously up to around 1925. (The Kristalnaacht example from the last post is an example of the most famous, but again, in 1938, so it doesnt count towards this question). Also, that excerpt you provided might hold another answer. Like other racial and ethnic minorities immigrating to the United States, the Ashkenazi Jews wanted a change and an opportunity to reinvent themselves in the New World. Use your instructors words to your advantage!01/19/21
Galena M.
Okay thank you so much; however, I should've made this more clear, but my paper is more focused toward 1910, 1920, early 1930s; before the Holocaust etc, so do you have any ideas about that? My prof. said that , "Jews were a major threat to their American Exceptionalism, bringing a deadly plague to their values., etc. Jewish Socialists, who came from Russia, envisioned a new Jew in America, where Jews were smart, broad-minded, and ingrained in American culture. Furthermore, Jewish immigrants injected new elements of nationalism and tradition into Jewish life becoming active in literature, theater, and music. Jews wanted to be seen as Progressives and influential characters, integrated within American society while continuing to practice Judaism. However, the Red Scare influenced American fear about foreign immigrants, such as Jewish socialists who were seen as grave threats to their American Exceptionalism, bringing a deadly plague to their values." What could I do with that?01/19/21