Immigration of Jews from Russia
The mass-movement of the Russian Jews to the United States began in the first year of Alexander III's reign. Though in this year the number of Russian Jews entering this country amounted to a little over three thousand, the immigration grew so rapidly and in such proportions that at the end of thirty years, more than a million Russian Jews had been admitted to the United States.
An examination of the figures of the Russian Jewish immigration for the thirty years[63] reveals that it is a movement of steady growth. The Russian Jewish immigration falls practically into two periods; the first culminating in 1892, the second culminating in 1906. Considering it by decades,[64] we find that the movement is one of geometrical progression. In the first decade, from 1881 to 1890, 135,003 Russian Jews entered the country, 12.1 per cent of the total Russian Jewish immigrants. Between 1891 and 1900, 279,811 Russian Jews entered, constituting 25.0 per cent of the total. In the last decade, from 1901 to 1910, there entered 704,245 Russian Jews, or 62.9 per cent of the total.
The annual variations are, nevertheless, considerable and largely explainable by the special conditions in Russia that have influenced the lives of the Jews throughout this period. At the beginning of this period, in 1881, the immigration of Russian Jews was small. The pogroms of 1881-2 were reflected in the sudden rise in 1882 to 10,489 immigrants, more than three times the number of the preceding year. The immigration of this year was rather a flight than a normal movement. The great majority of the immigrants were refugees, fleeing from massacre and pillage.[65]
In this year Russian Jewish immigration began its upward course. Another high point was reached in 1887 with 23,103 immigrants, when the educational restrictions and the expulsions that followed a strict application of the May Laws indicated a renewal of the policy of the Russian government.
The rumors of new restrictions that marked the beginning of the nineties, and the opening of the second decade of Alexander III's reign, were followed by the wholesale expulsions from Moscow. The immigration in 1891 of 43,457 and in 1892 of 64,253 Russian Jews—the latter the highest number reached in two decades—reflects this situation. Nearly a tenth of the total immigration entered in these two years.
The direct effect of the administrative activity of this year and especially of the Moscow expulsions upon the Russian Jewish immigration is seen in the number of Russian Jews who entered New York during the months closely following these expulsions.[66] For the first five months of 1891, the immigration averaged approximately 2,300, evidently a normal figure for this decade. It reached its lowest in May, when 1,225 Jews entered the country. In June, two months after the order of expulsion, the number of immigrants jumped to 8,667—a six-fold increase—which up to this year was the largest number of Russian Jews entering this country in one month. This figure was surpassed in the immigration of August and September. Out of a total of 60,261 Russian Jews who entered in 1891, 11,449 came the first five months from January to May, and 40,706, or more than three times the previous immigration, came the next five months from June to October. The following five months there came only 16,832, less than half the number of immigrants of the months of June to October. And, finally, taking the year as a whole, there came over 60,261 Russian Jews in 1891, the year of the Moscow expulsions, as compared with the 28,834 Russian Jews who entered in 1892, when no exceptional circumstances occurred to affect their immigration tendency.
The six years from 1893 to 1898 were relatively mild years for the Russian Jews. The change of rulers in Russia and the comparatively lenient attitude shown by Nicholas II toward the Jews in the beginning of his reign resulted in a less stringent administration of the special Jewish laws. The financial depression in the United States which began in 1893 and embraced this period, was an additional influence in diminishing the flow of Russian Jewish immigrants. The fall, however, was not as large as the existence of unfavorable economic conditions in this country might lead one to expect. For in spite of it, Russian Jewish immigration resumed the rate it maintained in the years before 1891. From 1893 to 1898 there entered this country 110,815 Russian Jews as against the 107,378 Russian Jews who entered in the six years from 1885 to 1890.
Another rise began in 1899. Economic depression, revolutionary terrorism and anti-Jewish propaganda paved the way for a great inpouring of Russian Jews to the United States. The Kishineff massacre of 1903 sent thousands of Jews in veritable flight to the United States, a fact which is reflected in an immigration of 77,544 Russian Jews in 1904, the greatest number up to this year. With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war, the outbreak of the revolution and, above all, of the Jewish massacres the immigration rose in 1905 to 92,388. In 1906, a year of pogroms, it reached the number of 125,234, the highest in the entire period—and in 1907, 114,932, the second largest immigration. The diminution in the numbers in 1908 reflects largely the relative change for the better that took place in the situation in Russia, with the beginning of parliamentary government, as well as the panic conditions in the United States of the preceding year. How great still was the impulse to leave is shown by the fact that in spite of the panic of 1907, the number of immigrants for 1908 was 71,978. The great rise of the immigration from the United Kingdom during these years was also due to the number of Russian Jews that came to the United States by way of England. In all, during these five years which form an epoch in contemporary Russian Jewish history, there streamed into the United States half a million Russian Jews, constituting more than two-fifths of the total immigration for the entire thirty years.
Of special significance is the part the Jewish immigrants play in the total Russian immigration to the United States.[67] By far the largest group of immigrants coming from Russia are Jews. For the entire thirty years they constituted 48.3 per cent of the total Russian immigration.