CHAPTER XXIX.
THE INFLUX AFTER THE ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS IN RUSSIA IN 1881.
The country itself is well prepared for the reception of a larger number of Jewish immigrants—Absence of organized or political Antisemitism—Increase in general immigration in 1880 and 1881—Arrival of the “Am Olam”—Imposing protest meetings against the riots in Russia—Welcome and assistance—Emma Lazarus—Heilprin and the attempts to found agricultural colonies—Herman Rosenthal—Failures in many States—Some success in Connecticut and more in New Jersey—Woodbine—Distribution—Industrial workers and the new radicalism.
The favorable economical and political conditions of the country itself were, however, the best preparation for the reception of a larger number of Jewish immigrants from Russia, who came as the result of the greatest Jewish migration since the exodus from Egypt. The strong congregations, the well-organized charities and the considerable number of wealthy Jews who were able and willing to assist the refugees, as well as the numerous able, energetic and tireless workers who did their best to alleviate the sufferings of the new arrivals and to help them to find their way in the new surroundings—all these were necessary and to some degree indispensable to solve as much of the problem as circumstances would permit. But all would have been useless if there was not room for new immigrants to settle here, and work for them to do. It would also have been well nigh impossible to take full advantage of the opportunities which this country offers to willing workers, were it not for the absence of that organized or official anti-Semitism which is found in one form or another in almost all civilized countries outside of the English-speaking world. Individual instances of social antipathy and personal dislike, or even hatred, of Jews, were not rare in the United States, at that period or at any other. But the Jew baiter was never encouraged, or even approved, by the all-powerful public opinion of the country at large; sympathy for the suffering Jew was easily aroused, and those who pleaded the cause of the victim of persecution were not hampered by open opposition or by covert political influences.
There was a sudden increase in immigration in the two years preceding the Russian influx. The country was recovering from the panic of 1873 and from the effect of the contraction of the currency which was incident to the resumption of specie payment by the government at the beginning of 1879. The number of immigrants who came here in 1876 was 169,986; in 1877 it fell to 141,857; in 1878 to 138,469. There was a slight rise in 1879 to 177,826; but in 1880 it jumped to 457,257 and in 1881 (in the fiscal year ending June 30, when there was as yet no increased immigration from Russia on account of the riots) to 669,431. The people who came were needed, as is the case with the million or more who had come here in the three years preceding the panic of 1907 and again in the last two or three years, which is proven by the fact that they are easily absorbed. Not only the general conditions, but even the times, were favorable for an increased Jewish immigration. There was neither economic nor national or racial cause for abstaining from giving those who fled from the pogroms the best public and open-hearted welcome that Jewish refugees ever received when coming in masses from one country to another.
The first of the anti-Jewish riots of that period took place in Yelisavetgrad, on April 27, 1881. Another outbreak in Kiev followed on May 8, and there were “over 160 towns and villages in which cases of riot, rapine, murder and spoliation have been known to occur during the last nine months of 1881” (Joseph Jacobs, “Persecution of the Jews in Russia, 1881,” p. 13). These riots, and the relief which was afforded to its victims, and especially to those who left Russia by way of Germany and Austria, have created a small literature of their own; but the subject in general belongs rather to the history of the Jews in Russia than to the present work, which can only be concerned with the emigrants after their arrival here. The first to arrive as a direct result of the riots, and among whom the new tendencies which were called forth by the calamities were prevalent to an appreciable degree, were included in a group of about 250 members of the “Am Olam” (“Eternal People”) Society which came to New York July 29, 1881.
Unlike the time of the Damascus affair in 1840 (see above, [p. 193]), the Jews of America not only took the leading part in arousing public opinion against the outrages, but they could do much more than enlist the sympathies of their non-Jewish fellow-citizens: they collected money to aid the sufferers and bade them welcome to these shores. A call for “A meeting of the citizens of New York without distinction of creed, to be held on Wednesday evening, February 1st, 1882, ... for the purpose of expressing their sympathy with the persecuted Hebrews in the Russian Empire,” was signed by about seventy-five of the most prominent non-Jewish citizens of New York, headed by ex-President U. S. Grant. The memorable meeting was held in Chickering Hall, and was presided over by Mayor William R. Grace; it was addressed by distinguished men in various walks of life, including three Christian clergymen, and had a marked effect on public opinion. It was on the same day that a similar meeting, at which the Lord Mayor presided, was held in London, at the Mansion House. Two weeks later (February 15) a meeting of the same nature with the same excellent moral result was held in Philadelphia, where four clergymen, two of them Protestant Bishops and one representing the Roman Catholic Archbishop, were among the speakers. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society collected over $300,000 for the new arrivals, and nearly two-thirds of that sum was contributed by residents of this country, the balance coming from Germany, England and France. Some groups of immigrants were given a public welcome; temporary quarters were built for their accommodation on Ward’s Island and at Greenpoint, L. I., where several thousand were housed and maintained until they found employment.
Emma Lazarus.
There was one other voice raised at that time in behalf of the Jew and of Judaism, only to be prematurely silenced forever a few years afterwards. The most gifted poet which American Jewry has produced, Emma Lazarus (b. in New York 1849; d. there 1887) was aroused, and her noble spirit reached its full height, by the stirring events of the martyrdom of the Russian Jew. Like so many other intelligent Jews in various countries, Emma Lazarus, the daughter of an old Sephardic family of social position, the friend of Emerson and other noted literary men, was up to that time mainly interested in general and classic subjects, and devoted to them her poetical and literary talents. “She needed a great theme to bring her genius to full flower, and she found that theme in the Russian persecution of 1881.... Her poetry took on a warmer, more human glow; it thrilled with the suffering, the passion, the exaltation of a nation of the Maccabees.”[44] Her family, though nominally Orthodox, had hitherto not participated in the activities of the synagogue or of the Jewish community. But contact with the unfortunates from Russia led her to study the Bible, the Hebrew language, Judaism and Jewish history. She suggested, and in part saw executed, plans for the welfare of the immigrants. The fruit of her latter literary activity include “Songs of the Semite” (1882); “An Epistle to the Hebrews”; poems like “The Banner of the Jew,” “The New Ezekiel,” and “By the Waters of Babylon: Little Poems in Prose” (1887), her last published work. A collection of her works, in two volumes, appeared after her death (1889), and in 1903 a bronze tablet commemorative of her was placed inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. (See Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Lazarus, Emma, by Miss Henrietta Szold.)