On the Trail of the Immigrant

by Edward Alfred Steiner

The Jewish population may be divided into four large groups, some of which are subdivided. I. The Sephardic or Spanish-Portuguese Jews, who have not retained their native speech, but who have preserved certain peculiarities in their worship, and distinctive ritualistic forms which are dignified and stately. The Hebrew language which they use in their service is pronounced in a peculiar way and in better harmony with the spirit of the language than one hears elsewhere. They are the real aristocracy among the Jews; rarely poor, with much of old time Spanish pride remaining in their bearing and expressed in their attitude towards the other Jewish groups. They are centred almost entirely in the Eastern cities, where they are found in the upper world of finance and in business and professional life.[2] The second group, the “Ashkenazim” or German Jews, has most quickly adjusted itself to the life in America and has developed what might be called an American Judaism, in which liberal tendencies have prevailed and have played havoc with the traditions of the past, very often at the expense of the spirit of Judaism. Some of these congregations have made Sunday the Sabbath of their week, and the service is conducted in the English language with the Hebrew almost entirely eliminated. Out of this group have come most of the prominent Jews in the United States, and in nearly every community of any size we find German Jews, engaged in reputable business, most often owning dry goods or clothing stores.[3]

The third group is composed of Austrian and Hungarian Jews many of whom have remained orthodox without being slavishly attached to Rabbinism; while their congregations are usually upon what is called the “Status Quo” basis, which is neither extremely orthodox nor reformed, and consequently is sterile.

They are apt to be more clannish than the German Jews, grouping themselves into centres according to the districts from which they come, strongly retaining the characteristics of the races among which they lived so long, and bringing with them many of the antagonisms engendered in that conglomerate of nationalities, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. This is especially true of the Hungarian Jews who have become convivial, like the Magyars, and are not over fond of work. The coffee houses of “Little Hungary” in New York, draw their revenue largely from these Jews, to whom life without the coffee house would not seem worth the living, and for whom each day must hold its pause for a friendly game of cards or billiards, and a pull at a long and strong black cigar. Among them are shrewd traders, pawn-brokers and a very small proportion of peddlers; although the occupation of peddler entails a position not agreeable to their proud spirits. In a larger degree than the other groups mentioned, they are engaged in mechanical labour, being wood and metal workers, and makers of artificial flowers and passementerie. In these trades they have attained real proficiency. They are not so well distributed as the German Jews, and are found largely in New York with a slowly increasing number in Chicago and St. Louis. They have brought with them many of the looser ways of such cities as Vienna and Budapest; therefore they are less thrifty than the Russian Jews and less intelligent than those from Germany. Their Judaism is apt to sit very lightly upon them, as they have neither the spiritual vision of the first group, nor the ethical conception of religion which the second group possesses. Racially they are also less conscious of Judaism, and easily intermarry with Gentiles or lose themselves among them where their physique does not betray them. A Hungarian Jew usually prefers to be called a Magyar; yet I know of many instances where that fact was stoutly denied, though undoubtedly the Magyar spirit was grafted upon Semitic stock.

The last and largest group, the Russian Jews, the youngest army of the immigrants, is ultra orthodox, yet ultra radical; chained to the past, and yet utterly severed from it; with religion permeating every act of life, or going to the other extreme, and having “none of it”; traders by instinct, and yet among the hardest manual labourers of our great cities. A complex mass in which great things are yearning to express themselves, a brooding mass which does not know itself and does not lightly disclose itself to the outsider.

More broken into individualistic groups than the Austrians and Hungarians, they have the strongest racial consciousness, and perhaps are also the depository of the greatest Jewish genius. The synagogue is the centre of each provincial or village group gathered in some Ghetto and, being subject to no ecclesiastical law outside of itself, is thoroughly Congregational. These synagogues vary in size and untidiness as the services vary in monotony and disorder. Each man prays or chants as fast or as slowly, as high or as low, as he pleases. Naturally, the effect is not harmonious, neither is there much harmony in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs.

Rabbi, Cantor and Shochet (the official slaughterer) are usually out with each other and with various members of the congregation, and quarrels during service are not unknown. While the worship seems fervent, it is often spiritless, and only a small portion of the Russian Jewish population works seriously at the business of its organized religious life. The younger generation has much unsatisfied longing for the real spiritual life, and there are a few Jewish Endeavour Societies entirely apart from the synagogues, in which this spirit expresses itself. A still larger number of the young people have slowly but surely drifted into complete antagonism to the faith of their fathers, and here lies the great conflict as well as the great problem.

Nothing in the whole story of immigration is so pathetic as this growing breach between the old and the new; this ever widening gulf which is not being bridged.

The Ethical Culture Society has a hold, although not a very vital one, upon a small number; and here and there one or the other of the young people drifts into a Christian church, but this makes no serious impression upon the mass.

Zionism has become the strong rallying point for many of them, and has gathered into its various lodges much of the radical element, which is coming back to the law and the prophets by the way of an awakened consciousness.

The Russian Jews are the busiest of our alien population, and although at first among the poorest, a respectable middle class is growing up, and is marching towards wealth, if not as yet enrolled among the millionaires.