1850–1875
Industrialization and Lufthmenschen
As Jews ventured West, the poverty rate of Jews in Europe increased. Industrialization spelled trouble for many Jewish craftsmen and traders. Those who found jobs in factories worked long hours, and women’s pay was even worse than men’s. An emphasis on efficiency and relentless production was a struggle for religiously observant workers. In Łódź, by contrast, a Polish center of textile production, Jews often found work in the less mechanized factories, which allowed them to observe Shabbat. While a few Jewish entrepreneurs were successful, the Jewish population overall was worse off. The term Luftmenshn, literally “air people,” referred to people so poor that they were reduced to living on air alone.
1875–1900
Pogroms & Imigration to the Anglo-American World
The Eastern European Jews who were able to leave fled deteriorating conditions, especially a series of violent pogroms that began with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Jews suffered intimidation, destruction of their property, mutilation, rape, and murder. Although not orchestrated by the state, authorities didn’t prevent the violence and often failed to stop it. When a Jewish pickpocket was blamed for a stampede in a Warsaw Catholic church on Christmas in 1881, authorities didn’t curb the looting of Jewish property for three days. To supporters of the idea of Jewish integration into Christian society, this signaled the failure of their dreams.
1900–1925
War & Revolution
Pogroms continued as the Russian Empire was shaken by two disastrous wars and three revolutions—one in 1905 and two in 1917. The Russian military regarded Jews as unreliable, and Jews were accused of German sympathies during World War I. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were driven from their homes. At the same time, many German Jews considered the war on the Eastern Front as an opportunity to free European Jews from Russian oppression, where they had no equal rights until the 1917 Bolshevik October Revolution. But during the civil war that followed that revolution, antisemitic violence continued. Many emigrated to the U.S. because of these upheavals.