A Study in American Jewish Leadership

5

In Search of a Refuge

The American Solution: Unrestricted Immigration

As long as the persecution of Russian Jews persisted, the flow of emigrants
continued to swell. Jewish leaders in the Western world were forced to
admit that the alternative, the rehabilitation of Jewry under the czar, was a
losing proposition. In terms of sheer economic and physical survival, the
exodus from eastern Europe could not be stayed. The need for havens of
refuge was imperative, and it nagged incessantly at Schiff. Although he was
prepared to consider other solutions, the United States still ranked highest
of all possible options.
The ambivalent and even negative attitude on the part of American Jews
toward the entry of large numbers of eastern Europeans in the 1880s and
early 1890s gradually changed to one in defense of free immigration. Ulti-
mately a “constant” in American Jewish history, it mustered overwhelming
support within the community. In pre–World War I days, when new arri-
vals customarily earmarked part of their meager earnings for the purchase
of passage to America for relatives in Europe, the issue transcended relig-
ious and political differences and united Orthodox with freethinkers, Zion-
ists with anti-Zionists, and uptown with downtown. Even Jewish Socialists,
breaking with classic socialist dogma, refused to ignore Jewish problems in
eastern Europe and the need for safe havens. The early arrivals themselves
contributed to the change in the stewards’ attitude. Their rapid American-
ization, economic mobility, and assumption of responsibility toward the
succeeding waves of newcomers significantly abetted the leaders’ efforts at
alleviating the ghetto problems. Downtown as usual was not privy to strat-
egy formulated by the stewards, but it registered its support of free immi-
gration in the Yiddish press and in elections. Differences with the stewards
over tactics persisted. When, for example, uptown opposed the govern-
ment’s classification of Jews as a separate race, Zionists, who defined Jews
as a discrete people with national interests, disagreed. To avoid more serious

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