[127] Cf. [table LVIII], p. 191.
[128] Cf. [table LIX], p. 191.
CHAPTER IV
Illiteracy[ToC]
The rate of illiteracy has been generally used as a rough standard for estimating the mental equipment of the immigrants. A consideration of the rate of illiteracy among the Jewish immigrants dispels the popular impression that practically every Jew is able to read and write.[129] Out of a total of 806,786 Jews fourteen years of age and over who entered this country from 1899 to 1910, 209,507 or 26 per cent, were unable to read and write. As the average rate of illiteracy among all the immigrants, from 1899 to 1910, was 26.7 per cent, the rate of Jewish illiteracy is seen to be only slightly below the average.
A number of considerations enter. One of these is the influence of sex. It is generally recognized that, as a rule, females are more usually unlettered than males. This difference of illiteracy between the sexes is also more pronounced in countries where popular education is less widely spread than in those where it is the rule. Such is the case with the countries of Eastern Europe, which are the source of the recent Jewish immigration. The contrast between male and female illiteracy is strongest among the East-European Jews, who neglect the education of their daughters as much as they strive to educate their sons. This is reflected in the relative illiteracy of males and females among the Jewish immigrants.[130] Of the 172,718 Jewish males fourteen years of age and over entering this country from 1908 to 1912, 33,970, or 19.7 per cent, were illiterates. Of the 139,283 females fourteen years of age and over, 51,303, or 36.8 per cent, were illiterates. The illiteracy of Jewish females is thus almost twice as high as that of Jewish males. As the proportion of females in the Jewish immigration is so large, the influence of the sex factor in increasing the rate of illiteracy among the Jewish immigrants is considerable. A tendency from a lower to a higher rate of illiteracy is discernible. The average rate for the first six years was 23.8 per cent, that for the last six years was 27.2 per cent. This corresponds with the increase in the latter years in the proportion of females in the Jewish immigration, which has been previously noted.
A comparison of the rate of illiteracy of the Jewish immigrants with that of the other immigrant peoples shows that the Jews occupy an intermediate position.[131] They have a relatively high rate of illiteracy, as compared with the peoples from Northern and Western Europe. In comparison with the Slavs, their rate of illiteracy is also much higher than that of the Bohemians and Moravians, and, higher also, though to a far less degree, than that of the Slovaks.