From the beginning of this immigration movement, there were attempts to
counter the demographic and economic trends of this immigration movement
by settling Jews outside of industrial cities and finding them other jobs. Jacob
Schiff, a wealthy Jewish financier, funded the Galveston Project, a settlement
initiative that created an absorption center in Galveston, Texas, as a way of
diverting Jewish settlers from New York City and the east coast to the
Southwest. Many of the present-day Jewish communities along the Mississippi
were founded by Jewish immigrants who landed at Galveston. The Am Olam
Movement, which started in Odessa in 1881, aimed at settling Jews on agrar-
ian settlements, but ultimately managed to establish only four such
settlements: two in South Dakota, one in Louisiana, and one in Oregon.
In contrast to the previous wave, who maintained strong ties to German
culture for several generations, Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe
arrived as American culture was coming into its own. They were greeted with
a powerful appeal to embrace American culture. This impulse was intensified
by the mentality within American society: the melting pot.
The native-born Jews (called uptown Jews in reference to New York City)
regarded the immigrants (downtown Jews) with a certain ambivalence. On
the one hand, they distanced themselves from new immigrants, insisting, in
the words of Kaufman Kohler, that “Judaism in America not be ghettoized.”
On the other, they attempted to Americanize them as quickly as possible.
Education Alliance, for example, was founded by uptown Jews to teach
Jewish immigrants English, and prepare them for their citizenship exam.
Within the immigrant community, there was a substantial generational
difference in the attitudes toward American culture. Within the first genera-
tion, some Jews tried desperately to hold on to Old World traditions, while
others were determined to make it in America and become Americans. Jews
in the latter group, in particular, often sacrificed themselves and their own
happiness for the sake of their children’s advancement and education. The
crowning achievement of these Jews was a child who graduated from high
school and was admitted to college. The second generation, schooled in
American public schools, immersed itself into American culture.
Prior to 1914, there were several attempts at organizing this large immi-
grant Jewish community. First, there was the Jewish labor movement. Starting
as a series of local neighborhood organizations, Jewish workers eventually
organized several of the largest and most powerful labor unions, notably the
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. There were also attempts to
organize an American branch of the Bund, led by Chaim Zhitlowski. The
Jewish labor movement did not last for more than a generation. As second-
generation immigrants left the workforce and became self-employed or
professionals, the labor movement lost much of its constituency.
The American Zionist Movement had the opposite experience. Until
1913, it had few members. Most Jewish immigrants, after all, had opted for
America over Israel. The pressure of the melting pot, moreover, dissuaded
200 Anti-Semitism and Jewish responses, 1870–1914