Language:
English
Year of publication:
1987
Titel der Quelle:
American Jewish History
Angaben zur Quelle:
77,1 (1987) 27-86
Keywords:
Jews History 1500-
;
Jews, East European
;
Antisemitism History 1500-
;
Jews
;
United States Emigration and immigration
;
Europe, Eastern Emigration and immigration
Abstract:
Part of a larger research project conducted in 1979-86. Analyzes relations between Jewish and Gentile immigrants in Johnstown and in the surrounding coal towns. Finds that patterns of the old-country relationship were replicated to a significant extent based on complementarity of economic positions and social roles. Pp. 31-54 survey relations between "shtetl" Jews and peasant populations in Eastern Europe (mainly Russia), where a mutual strangeness and distance between the two groups prevailed despite frequent daily contact. Mentions peasants' anti-Jewish attitudes, based largely on Church teachings, and Jewish contempt for the "goy." Pp. 54-86 deal with relations in Western Pennsylvania, where all Eastern European immigrants were looked down upon by the native American community. Discusses the process of ethnicization of peasant-immigrants, which enhanced negative perceptions of the Jews. The prolific foreign-language press, mostly run by members of the insecure "ascending" lower classes, fostered antisemitism.
Note:
In Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
URL:
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