minority groups in american society - topic 8: jewish americans

the jewish diaspora is historically unique

• the majority of a whole people live outside their historic homeland

  • that homeland was lost to other peoples

• the pattern of dispersion is ever-changing, with the largest concentration of jews in the world being at one time in eastern europe, at another time in islamic countries, and today in the US

world jewish population

15.8 million

the judeo-chrisitian tradition

introduced religious intolerance into the roman empire and, through it, into western civiliation

in the 15th century

spanish christians designated jews and muslims as a race, as people with an innate, permanent, and negative essence

jewish emigration from russia

• 1820-1920: over 3,250,000 people emigrated from russia to the united states

• the 1920 census showed that 392,049 american citizens had been born in russia

• 1880-1924: 2.2 million russian jews immigrated to america

• the 3rd wave of jewish immigrants to america was from russia

zborowski and herzog, 1962

the rapid upward mobility of jewish immigrants was the result of a favorable fit between their learning-oriented culture and educational opportunities existing in the US at the time of the greatest jewish immigration

covello, 1967

the cultural patterns of italian immigrants proved inappropriate in the US

steinberg, 1974

the superior economic positions of jewish immigrants in the US reflected their superior economic and social positions in eastern europe

perlmann, 1988

the “jewish head start” in america was the result of both factors:

• their social positions in russia and portland

• their cultural values of hard work and study