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3.1.discuss a brief history of Jewish Immigration to U.S. Anti-semitismJazz Singer (1927)Bread Givers (1922)Jewish people in North America since colonial era, small numbers of largely Sephardic Jews from Spain, then several thousand German Jews migrated with the German immigration waves of the 19th century, “Jewish population growth in America exploded in 1880 through 1924 with close to two million Jews coming from Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary and Romania. Pushed out of Europe by overpopulation, oppressive legislation and poverty, they were pulled toward America by the prospect of financial and social advancement. Between 1880 and the onset of restrictive immigration quotas in 1924.After their arrival at Castle Garden in New York and later Ellis Island, the immigrants often settled in some of the poorer neighborhoods of major cities and lived in conditions similar to the ghettos of Europe. By the 20th century, Jewish sections formed in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. Living conditions in these neighborhoods were often cramped and squalid. The immigrants found work in factories, especially in the garment industry, but also in cigar manufacturing, food production, and construction.Many Jewish workers supported the labor movement’s struggle for better working conditions and the plight of the immigrant worker was a common cultural theme in Jewish popular culture. Many of the workers supported socialism or communism as a means of securing economic and social equality. And in this way just being Jewish made you a target of political scapegoating and suspicion, and a reason for exclusion. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 limited immigration from the largest sending countries. The quotas for German citizens wanting to immigrate to the United States was 27,370 in 1939, and 300,000 German refugees had applied for US visas in 1938. Until late in 1942, many in the United States did not believe reports of the murder of millions. Holocaust survivors were allowed to immigrate to America thanks to the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 which allowed 200,000 Jews to enter.In the 1960s, the Jewish population increased with Israelis, Cubans, and Near Easterners immigrating. Other post WWII immigration happened from Canada and Latin America where refugees had fled. Most recently, the Jewish immigrants have been primarily Israeli and from the Soviet Union. There are 13.3 million Jews in the world; 6.5 million of them are in North America. Anti-semitism: Matthew Frye Jacobson in his book argues that Jews were considered White by the standards of the 1790 Naturalization Law, but also considered a separate and lesser white race. While the definition of Judaism was largely religious and culture, by the mid-19th century with the rise of scientific racism, it was thought that Jews were a different race from other so-called white races. They may be white, but what kind of white were they? They were both white and other. With the rise of scientific racism, categories of races were widely accepted and even Jews propagated this idea that the Jewish race was of a separate biology. In terms of immigration, this idea of separate biology raised the question of whether Jews could ever truly assimilate into American culture. This question of assimilation is central to much of Jewish literature and cultural production from this period and really offers an important context for understanding many immigrant narratives embedded in texts. As we can presume from the “The House I live in” film featuring Frank Sinatra, anti-semitism was considered a problem and one that needed to be addressed by 1945. It’s important to think about the forms of anti-semitism. Academia: Nativism and intolerance among segments of the white Protestant population were aimed at both Eastern European Jews and Southern European Catholics. In higher education, Jews were particularly resented. By 1919, about 80% of the students at New York's Hunter and City colleges were Jews, and 40% at Columbia. Jews at Harvard tripled to 21% of the freshman class in 1922 from about 7% in 1900. Ivy League Jews won a disproportionate share of academic prizes and election to Phi Beta Kappa but were widely regarded as competitive, eager to excel academically and less interested in extra-curricular activities such as organized sports. Non-Jews accused them of being clannish, socially unskilled and either unwilling or unable to“fit in.”In 1922, Harvard's president, A. Lawrence Lowell, proposed a quota on the number of Jews gaining admission to the university. Lowell was convinced that Harvard could only survive if the majority of its students came from old American stock.Lowell argued that cutting the number of Jews at Harvard to a maximum of 15% would be good for the Jews, because limits would prevent further anti-semitism. Lowell reasoned, “The anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews. If their number should become 40% of the student body, the race feeling would become intense.” Immigrant NarrativesWhat’s interesting about both of the texts we will be discussing this week which are largely seen as Jewish immigrant narratives of the 1920s which were produced by Jewish immigrants or the children of immigrants and directed toward a mainstream White American audience. Both Bread Givers and the Jazz Singer were popular when they came out. Even in spite of the widespread anti-semitism, there was a growing interest in the 1920s in “so-called ethnic narratives” particularly among a growing urban and cosmopolitan consumers who were interested in authentic versions of cultural difference. The Harlem Renaissance, while demonstrating the expressive cultures of African Americans, most of whom migrated to New York City during the great migrations of the 1910s and 1920s, was heavily patronized by white patrons who went to Harlem for an authentic experience of jazz that was not blackface minstrelsy, but minstrelsy nonetheless. Harlem was popular because it was where you could experience a jazz club in mixed company and in the middle of prohibition (1920-1933), you could drink in underground speakeasies. As you can see in the first few opening shots of the film the Jazz Singer, the film begins with ethnographic shots of city life in New York, in particular Orchard Street and the Lower East Side which was considered the Jewish Ghetto. It works to create a sense of authenticity to the narrative… you’ve heard of this place, let’s give you an inside perspective on the lives of these people. Rather than engaging with racism or anti-semitism, these ethnic narratives worked as a kind of glimpse, a form of tourism into the world’s of these groups for whites who were not part of them. Also, in their focus on white audiences, they were both challenging convention, but also might be considered to have promoted stereotypes themselves. Discuss Jazz SingerAbout the Jazz Singer, Jacobson argues that it appropriates blackness to constitute Jew’s whiteness. “By doning blackface, the Hebrew becomes Caucasian” Masks Jack’s Jewishness while it unites Mary and Jack--How do you think this happens? What are the immigrant narratives here and how do they play out? Classic Immigrant Narratives about the transition between old world and new worldGenerational DifferencesLanguage vs. EnglishBreakdown of familyConsumerismHeritage vs. choiceGender Differences, patriarchy, women’s power and earning potential, independenceArranged marriage—vs. romantic marriageIdeological Differences importance of religion, importance of money, importance of family, importance of individual happiness and self-realization, In the case of these two texts, the conflicts are based in Judaism and religious practice which transforms in the American context. Through the context of a kind of Orthodox Judaism, between the conflict between Old World and New World ................
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