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Jewish Migration in the Early Twentieth Century


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Untitled Document

Among the motivations for this emigration – both Jewish and non Jewish – one can count the fast demographic growth in East Europe and the economic hardships created as a result thereof. The demographic growth in Russia and Ireland was more evident than in other countries. The Irish population, which counted in the early nineteenth century 4.5 million people, nearly doubled itself in less than fifty years and exceeded 8 million. The severe famine which was created in the island during the second half of the nineteenth century resulted in the immigration of multitudes Irishmen to the USA. In Czarist Russia the population grew from 67 million in mid-nineteenth century to 171 million on the eve of World War I. The Jewish population in the world grew by rates that were even higher. From 2.5 million Jews in the early nineteenth century, their number reached on the eve of World War I to over 15 million. Such growth, of six times and more had a tremendous impact on all spheres of Jewish life. In Russia itself the number of Jews increased five times: from one million in 1800 to more than five million in the beginning of the twentieth century. The Galicia Jewry was also growing by considerable rates – from around 250,000 in the early nineteenth century to about 870,000 in 1910. The natural reproduction created surplus of populations which could not be absorbed in the economic structures of their home countries and forced masses to leave and seek sources of livelihood in other countries.
The deep poverty suffered by Jewish society formed another factor leading to the great Jewish emigration. However it should be mentioned that poverty alone was not enough to cause the massive emigration process of 2.5 million Jews. Throughout the nineteenth century East European Jews also suffered from discrimination. But it is interesting that despite the harsh and intolerable situation in the East, the Jewish emigration in the early nineteenth century – similar to the general emigration – actually started in Western and Central Europe, areas which were undergoing an accelerated process of modernization and urbanization. The use of machinery and mass production methods uprooted many people from the sources of their traditional livelihood and in fact formed the major cause of immigration to overseas countries. Initially an internal migration started from the village to the city, and when no work was to be found in cities, the phase of transfer to overseas countries started. A similar process occurred in the Jewish society as well. In East Europe the industrialization process started only in the early seventies of the nineteenth century – hence the “delay” in emigration compared to West Europe. Typical Jewish sources of income – peddling and craft – were not in much demand in the cities. The developing urban industry was unable to absorb the thousands of new labor seekers. Many found themselves eking out a living. When hope ceased, the mass Jewish migration started.

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