The United States, Jewish Immigration, and Mutual Aid Societies: How Real People Survived
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Nancy Josephson
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Adara Goldberg
Abstract:
Beginning roughly in 1820 and continuing for more than a century, hundreds of thousands of Central and Eastern European Jews made their way across the Atlantic Ocean and headed for American shores. Driven out of their communities by poverty, religious persecution, a volatile political climate, and violent civil unrest, the new arrivals hoped to find safety, security, and long-term survival in a land thousands of miles from home. The immigrants, mostly Ashkenazi Jews, settled in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, but also sought refuge in other major cities and far less populated towns. Over a 70-year period beginning in 1820, the European Jewish population in the United States soared from fewer than 6,000 men, women, and children to an astonishing 300,000 people—all determined to call the United States home.
Survival in the new world wasn’t easy. Most new arrivals faced social, religious, ethnic, educational, and language barriers. The majority were overwhelmed by insurmountable housing, economic, and health care needs. And it was difficult to locate help if doing so meant venturing outside one’s own tiny, insular network that typically included only handful of relatives and friends. What evolved in the United States though was a support system that possessed the ability to respond to residents who had run out of options and literally had nowhere else to go. The value of these mutual aid societies, according to author Samuel Koenig who wrote about them in 1939, was that they existed chiefly for the purpose of helping these people survive.
This presentation will explore the rise of mutual aid societies in the United States as it pertained to the survival strategies of Eastern European Jews in America during the peak years of immigration—the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. It will discuss the origin and history of these societies. It will delve into the rationale behind these groups, the acceptance of mutual aid societies, their internal operations, their priorities and specific services, their funding, staffing, achievements, and philanthropic support. Briefly, it will compare Jewish-oriented services with those offered by other ethnic communities that established roots in the United States. In addition, it will investigate any controversies these groups engendered. The material will be presented in both words and photos, and where possible, personal testimony, to illustrate the value of this service in terms of Jewish survival.