Jewish Immigrant Life in New York
97 Orchard: an edible history of five immigrant families in one New York tenement by ISBN: 9780061288500Publication Date: 2010
Branching Out: German-Jewish immigration to the United States, 1820-1914 by ISBN: 9780841911529Publication Date: 1994
A Community in Spite of Itself: Soviet Jewish émigrés in New York by ISBN: 1560982004Publication Date: 1993
Daughters of the Shtetl: life and labor in the immigrant generation by ISBN: 0801419662Publication Date: 1990
The downtown Jews; portraits of an immigrant generation by Publication Date: 1969
Emerging Metropolis: New York Jews in the age of immigration, 1840-1920 by ISBN: 9780814738320Publication Date: 2013
Forward - the Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts) Newspaper: immigrants, socialism and Jewish politics in New York, 1890-1917 by ISBN: 9781845193409Publication Date: 2009- Going to America, Going to School: the Jewish immigrant public school encounter in turn-of-the-century New York City by ISBN: 0030625742Publication Date: 1986
The Great Kosher Meat War Of 1902: immigrant housewives and the riots that shook New York City by ISBN: 9781640124127Publication Date: 2020
How We Lived: a documentary history of immigrant Jews in America, 1880-1930 by ISBN: 0399900519Publication Date: 1979
Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939 by ISBN: 0674444175Publication Date: 1997
The Jewish Metropolis: New York City from the 17th to the 21st century by ISBN: 9781644694886Publication Date: 2021
My Future Is in America: autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish immigrants by ISBN: 0814740197Publication Date: 2005- The promised city : New York's Jews, 1870-1914. by Publication Date: 1962
Quarantine! : East European Jewish immigrants and the New York City epidemics of 1892 by ISBN: 0801855128Publication Date: 1997
World of Our Fathers: the journey of the East European Jews to America and the life they found and made there by ISBN: 9781504047555Publication Date: 2017
Jewish Immigrants in New York City
This section includes select resources on Jewish immigrants in New York City. Jewish immigration to New York City began in 1654 with the arrival of 23 refugees from Recife, Brazil, who were fleeing the Inquisition. They established Sheairth Israel, the city's first synagogue. The immigration of German and Polish Jews in the 1830s and 40s raised the city's Jewish population to 40,000 by the eve of the Civil War, and 80,000 by 1880.
The most substantial Jewish immigration occurred between 1880 and 1920, coming largely from Eastern Europe and in smaller numbers from the Levant. By 1920, the city's Jewish population reached a high point of 1,643,000, constituting 29% of the entire city population.
Most Jewish immigrants of this time (73%) settled in New York City, especially on the Lower East Side. The Johnson-Reed Act severely curtailed most Jewish immigration to the U.S. beginning in 1924. Later, Holocaust refugees, survivors, and displaced persons came to the U.S. and many settled in New York City. The Hart-Celler Act of 1965 allowed more immigration to the U.S. from more countries, and subsequent Jewish immigrants have come to the city from from Germany and Austria, Central and Eastern Europe; Iran; the former Soviet Union including Central Asia; Israel; Latin America; and elsewhere, adding to New York City's substantial population of immigrants from around the globe. Please see the communities section (link) for more information on specific Jewish communities in the city.
Note: Much of this information is compiled from Encyclopedia Judaica, available from home with your Library card.
We encourage you to explore the resources below, as well as this guide's sections on Communities and Neighborhoods to learn more about specific population groups and geographic immigrant communities.
Keywords:
Jewish immigrants New York
About Immigration
After They Closed the Gates: Jewish illegal immigration to the United States, 1921-1965 by ISBN: 9780226122595Publication Date: 2014I- Ein Freund in Not : das jüdische Arbeiterkomitee in New York und die Flüchtlinge aus den deutschsprachigen Ländern, 1933-1945 by ISBN: 3860771965Publication Date: 1993
Guarding the Golden Door: American immigration policy and immigrants since 1882 by ISBN: 0809053438Publication Date: 2004
Further Immigration Research at NYPL
- Genealogy Essentials (New York Public Library)This series of free online classes will help you get started on your family history with detailed classes on the research strategies, best practices, and specific records and documents that help us explore and understand our ancestors' past.
- Genealogy: Getting Started at The New York Public LibraryThis research guide is for those getting started with genealogy research. It features tips and suggestions for information resources, including links to print and digital collections accessible at The New York Public Library (NYPL), and to databases and websites that you can access anywhere with the Internet.
- Historical TravelsWhether researching details for historical fiction writing, trying to understand the life experiences of your ancestors, or uncovering mysteries and filling holes in the timelines of other people from the past, you might have a need or curiosity to figure out how a trip was made from one place to another in a different era.