Cultural Persistence: the Jews of New York

Résumé du document

New York is probably one of the most famous cities in the world because of History but also from the fact that it is the symbol of USA, the country of Liberty, capitalism, the self-made-man... New York is a bit like a compendium of American values and a study of this town is very interesting to understand the issue of the whole country. One of the characteristics of New York is the presence of a big Jewish community and its weigh in the History of the city. In 1654, twenty-three Jews arrived in New Amsterdam from Recife, in the province of Pernambuco, Brazil. That coastal area of Brazil had been in the hands of the Dutch since 1633. Some Jews therefore migrated to that part of the world because they had already lived in the Netherlands, a Protestant country, where they have been persecuted.

Extraits

[...] In 1880, approximately 60,000 Jews lived in New York City. By 1914, the Jewish population of the city exceeded 1.5 million. Hundreds of thousands of these immigrants initially settled in New York City's "Lower East Side." To meet the needs of the growing numbers of East European Jews, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) was formed in New York City in 1884. The community of the community kept increasing during the XXth century. Now Brooklyn has the greatest concentration of Jews with 456,000, followed by Manhattan, which has 243,000 Jews. [...]

[...] But during the following years the influence of the Tammany went down. Its influence loss was the consequence of expectations of the new generation of Jewish politicians. They did not want to have a secondary role in the administration of the town anymore. They organised themselves in association and though groups and claimed reform and other policies which were supposed to be, from them, more ambitious. They would like a more progressive policy. In the same time, the Tammany Hall supported the conservative wing of the Democrat party. [...]

[...] There are religious aspects to the Jewish experience in New York. Unlike any other American city, New York has numerous synagogues readily within walking distance of anyone living there. New York City is widely viewed as both the organizational and cultural "capital" of the American Jewish community with the majority of major American Jewish organizations maintaining their offices in Manhattan. Indeed, New York City has played such an outstanding role in American Jewish history that it is often difficult to separate local New York Jewish history from the larger national picture. [...]

[...] Some Jews therefore migrated to that part of the world because they had already lived in the Netherlands, a Protestant country, where they have been persecuted. In 1730, Congregation Shearith Israel built its first synagogue on Mill St. just south of Wall Street. Until 1825, Shearith Israel was the only Jewish congregation in New York. Today that congregation continues at Central Park West and 70th Street. New York State is the location of both the oldest and largest Jewish community in North America. [...]

[...] Yiddish culture in New York was rich and diverse. The leading Yiddish theater district in the world developed along Second Avenue in Manhattan. Numerous Yiddish daily newspapers were popular including "Der Tog" and Abraham Cahan's "Forward." Sholem Aleichem, perhaps the greatest Yiddish writer of all time, died in New York in 1916. His funeral was one of the largest public Jewish events in New York Jewish history and is the proof that the feeling of being a party of a community is maybe stronger than the nationality. [...]