Jewish Americans

Subtopic

Most early Jewish immigrants came to Atlantic coast colonies in the 1600s seeking economic opportunities denied in Europe. (Book pg. 115)

The first community dates from the arrival in 1654 f twenty-three Jews who fled the Catholic Inquisition in Brazil. (Book pg. 115)

Over the next one hundred years, small numbers of the descendants of those called Marranos (Jews who were forced to convert publicly to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition under threat of death, but who privately maintained allegiance to Judaism) came to North American colonies. (Book pg. 116)

The immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from England, Germany, and Poland began in the 1700's. Many were attracted by reports of American prosperity. (Book pg. 116)

After 1820: economic conditions and increasing Anti-Semitism in Europe, as well as in response to economic expansion. (Book pg. 116)

1870s-Eastern European Jews came from Russia-controlled areas where Anti-Semitism and lack of economic opportunities were push factors. (Book pg. 116)

New group of Jews from areas in the Soviet Union(Russia) come to the U.S. Many emigrated because of anti-Semitism or societal crisis in Russia. (Book pg. 116)

Jewish groups have been scapegoats for the hatreds of the dominant peoples in various countries for thousands of years. (Book pg. 115)

From the Egyptian and Roman prosecutions in ancient times to massacres in Spain in the 1400s to brutal pogroms in Russia in the 1880s to German Nazi massacres, Jews might be regarded as the most widely oppressed racial or ethnic group in world history. (Book pg. 115)

Jews across the globe have forged strong cultural traditions. (Book pg. 115)

Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein were Jews. (Book pg. 115)

Jews have made enormous contributions to the United States. (Book pg. 115)

Pioneers in commerce.

Industrial workers

Professionals

Scholars

Government officials

Entertainers

By tradition, Jewish ethnicity has been based on matrilineal ancestry: A Jew is one whose mother is Jewish. (Book pg. 115)

Some Jewish Americans focus their identity on their religion; others define their Jewishness primarily in terms of group membership. (Book pg. 115)

1880s: Jewish American merchants in the U.S. South suffered violent attacks from non-Jewish farmers who blamed them for economic crisis. (Book pg. 118)

1890s: Farms and homes of Jewish merchants were burned in Mississippi. (Book pg. 118)

1900s: Riots erupted against Jewish factory workers in New Jersey. (Book pg. 118)

1920s - 1930s: The Ku Klux Klan was revived and waged violence against black, Jewish and Catholic Americans. Crosses were burned on Jewish properties and synagogues were vandalized. (Book pg. 118)

1950s - 1960s: Jewish businesspeople contested local "blue laws" that required businesses to close on Sundays. They argued that such laws violated their First Amendment right. (Book pg. 120)

Jewish Americans have been socially defined by non-Jewish outsiders on the basis of physical and/or cultural characteristics. (Book pg. 116)

Considered to be biologically inferior "race". (Book pg. 116)

Have been cursed as "Christ killers" (Book pg. 117)

Often seen as too intelligent and devious. (Book pg. 117)

Portrayed as social climbers in the media. Clumsy Jewish figures speaking oddly inflected English were depicted as being out of place in high-society positions. (Book pg. 117)

As of 2008, Jewish Americans held numerous important positions in the U.S. House (30) and Senate (13). (Book pg. 123)

The most recent (2000-2001) National Jewish Population Survey estimate median annual income for Jewish households (including both families and single individuals) to be $54,000. (Book pg. 126)

In the 2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, most Jewish Americans felt that anti-Semitism in the U.S. and overseas was still very serious, nearly half felt it would increase in the future. (Book pg. 126)

Jewish Americans remain significantly differentiated in identity, history, and experience from other White Americans, yet for the most part they are now accepted as "white". (Book pg. 135)

One 2000 survey of 1010 Jewis adults found that an extraordiniary 86 percent had secured some college education, with 60 percent reporting at least a college degree. (Book pg. 128)