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Immigration Wave of Germanic Jews
German Jews begin to immigrate enmass to settle in America. Stiff commercial competition is believed to be the driving factor behind the movement. Historians believe that the American Jewish population expanded from around 3,500 Jews in 1820 to an estimated 50,000 in 1847 (Worth 27-28). -
Levi Strauss goes West
Levi Strauss, a Bavarian Jewish immigrant, travels West to profit from the mining and commercial opportunities swept into California by the Gold Rush of this period (Worth 29). -
Salomon Kohnstamm is Released from Sing-Sing Prison
Salomon Kohnstamm, a German-Jewish immigrant, becomes the first documented Jewish prisoner at the famous Sing-Sing prison in New York state. He was found guilty of "presenting false and fraudulent bills to the United States Disbursement Office in Manhattan" (Arons 21). On this date, his doct5r convinces the judge presiding over his case to pardon him for the sake of his worsening health in prison (Arons 20-25). -
Second Tenement House Act
This act sketched certain architectural requirements for buildings, which led to the development of the well-known dumb bell-shaped tenement buildings. Many newly-arrived immigrants occupied these tenement buildings (Epstein 46). -
Assassination in Russia
Tsar Alexander II is assassinated by bomb by Polish anarchists. A Jewish woman was discovered to have provided a headquarters for the assassins in her home, igniting popular opposition to Jewish existence in Russia (Epstein 8-9). This results in, for Russian Jews, a massive immigration wave to American shores that will last until immigration restrictions imposed during the 20th century stoppers the flood of immigrants (Worth 38, 58). -
Emma Goldman Immigrates
Emma Goldman passess through Castle Garden at age sixteen, an immigrant from Russia (Bausum 25). She would later become a feminist and prominent anarchist (Moreno 97); this resulted in her deportation on December 21, 1919 (Bausum 37) following her collaborative efforts to discourage young men from submitting under the military draft instituted after the United States entered World War I (30), agitated by the event of President McKinley's assassination in September 1901 (29). -
Ellis Island Opens
Following the closure of New York City's main immigrant processing center, Castle Garden, in 1889 (Epstein 30), authorities opened immigration facilities in Ellis Island to give entrance to the millions of European immigrants that would arrive until its closure in 1954 (Moreno xxiv). -
Jewish Daily Forward publishes first issue
The leading newspaper for Jewish immigrants in America, The Jewish Daily Forward, published its first issue on this date. Originally intended to be a corrier for working-class socialist Jews. Abraham Cahan was the paper's first editor (Epstein 222-223).
