JEWISH IMMIGRANTS AND WORLD WAR I A STUDY OF AMERICAN YIDDISH PRESS REACTIONS

454 Pages·020.805 MB·English

by  RAPPAPORT, JOSEPH

Copyright by
Joseph Rappaport
1952
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JEWISH IMMIGRANTS AND WORLD WAR I
A STUDY OF AMERICAN YIDDISH PRESS REACTIONS
by
Joseph Rappaport
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Faculty of Political Scionce
Columbia University
1951
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
To Ifeoml
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE................................................ ii
Chapter
I. THE EAST EUROPEAN BACKGROUND............ * 1
II. THE IMMIGRANT JEW IN AMERICA .................... 33
III* DESCENT INTO TEE MAELSTROM..................... 66
IV, ATTITUDES AND VIEWPOINTS: 1915-1916 ............. 1©1
V. SUBMARINES AND SENTIMENTS: 1914-1916............ 14©
VI, "EE KEPT US OUT OF WAR" ........................ 174
VII, KLAL YISROEL: 1914-1917........................ 212
VIII. AMERICA GOES TO WAR......................... 248
IX. "THE YANKS ARE COKING!" ................. 284
X. THE YEAR OF THE MESSIAH: 1918 .................. 337
CONCLUSION ................. 378
BIBLIOGRAPHY....... 390
i
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PBSTACB
Thin Is a study of the war reactions of the Bast European
Jewish immigrant element in the United. States* The largest part of
this groap settled in this country in the first decade of the
Twentieth Century; thus at the time of the outbreak of Zuropean
hostilities in 191^, immigrant Jews were in the main un-asslmilated.
Yiddish-speaking, and relied largely on the Yiddish press as a source
of information and ideological expression* Old Yorld backgrounds,
the desire for the political and economic emancipation of the Bast
European Jewish community, the Zionist impulse, the Impact of
Socialist ideology, and the character of immigrant accommodation to
American urban environment were all vital factors in the shaping of
Jewish war attitudes* It is the purpose of this study to define
these influences, to trace the impact of diverse Jewish ideologies
upon war attitudes, and to reconstruct the pattern of these outlooks
from the time of the commencement of European hostilities to the
armistice* This volume underscores Yiddish press reactions to the
European belligerents as well as Wilson*s foreign policy during the
period of American neutrality; it emphasizes the role of Jews in the
peace movement prior to and after the United States* entry into the
war, and studies Jewish reactions to the revolutions in Russia, the
Treaty of Brest—Litovak, the Balfour Declaration, Wllson*s war**
aims program*
11
A study of the war years appears to he particularly important
in the field of American-Jevish history as it vas fraught vith such
deep significance for these people hoth as Jevs and as Americans.
The first World War vas a major turning-point in the Jevish. immigra­
tion into the United States* halting the movement entirely in 191^*
and leading to its enforced restriction a decade later* She conflict
hastened Jevish accommodation to the American scene hy weakening ties
to var-torn European Jewish communities, hy making the United States
the center of leading Jevish ideological movements, hy strengthening
established and giving rise to nev Jevish communal institutions,
hy giving fresh impetus to the Jevish trade union movement* Also,
the vartime patriotic movement vas significant in strengthening
American loyalties amongst Jevish immigrants* As Jevish Socialists
and unionists occupied a central position in the American radical
movement, a survey of Jevish radicalism during its vartime crescendo
makes a contribution to the study of American political and labor
extremism* The reaction of American radicals to the Russian Revolu­
tion is given special attention in this volume* The vriter believes
that Jevish history cannot he studied flln confinement8 find that
non-Jevish influences must continually he underlined if the story
of the JevB in a Gentile vorld is to he properly told*
A study of the vartime Yiddish press is the main approach in
this vork* References are also n&de to the Anglo-Jevish press
American Socialist publications* For sake of comparison, German—
American and general American press reactions are stressed* Primary
iii
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source materials emphasize the role of the Jews in. the Socialist
movement, and deal with the progress of the Zionist, Congress* and
Jevish war relief movements* Sources relating to the war reactions
of Jevish national and fraternal organizations are also included*
Other primary sources, Including autobiographical material, deal
vith the Jevish immigration into this country* Government publica­
tions deal vith Jewish immigration and radicalism,
I wish to thank Or* Joshua Sloeh of the Hew York Public
Library for his constant interest and assistance in "nVH»g available
to me the facilities and resources of the Jevish Division; Mr*
Abraham Berger of the Jevish Division, who continually vent out of
his way in the search for materials on my behalf, and who clarified
for me the concept of "the year of the Messiah" (1918); the assis­
tants in the Jevish Division; Dora Stelngl&es, Marie Coralnik, e**
Fanny Splvack; Mr* Mendel Elkin, librarian of the Yiddish Scientific
Institute; and Miss Leah Veitman of the library staff of the Jevish
theological Seminary*
I wish to thank Dean John A* Hr out of Columbia University
for his constant guidance and inspiration* Dean Harry J* Carman of
Columbia University for hie kindly interest and help in the organi­
sation of the volume; and Professor Salo Vf* Baron of Columbia
University for his sympathetic interest and advice* Shanks are
due to Professor Henry Steele Commager, Dr* Philip Friedman,
Professor Oscar I* Janowsky, Dr* Jacob Shatsky, Mr* Louis 3* Boudin,
Iv
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Professor Joseph H. Greenberg, Mr, Abraham G, Duker, Mr, Frank N,
Trager, and Dr. Leon L* Watters,
I am particularly indebted to my sponsors Professor Allan
Kevins and Dr, Jacob C. Hurewits of Columbia University for the
reading of the manuscript and their constructive suggestions.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge my deep indebtedness to my
wife, Naomi Chaitman Bappaport, whose encouragement, devotion,
and sacrifices helped make this work possible.
v
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1
CHAPTEH I
TBB HAST EUBOPBAH BACKOBOUKD
The concentration of Jews la Eastern Europe dates back a half
milleniua, and in that span of time* the dominant forces in modern
Jewish life have been shaped* In the Middle Agee (before their
eastward migration)* the Jews were a comparatively prosperous* urban­
ized* and western people* subject to Latin and Germanic social and
cultural influences* The decline of feudalism, the rise of modern
capitalism* the Protestant Seformation* the rise of modern national­
ism* and the efforts of the Catholic Church to maintain itself in
power generally had an adverse effect upon the welfare of Vest
European Jewry* Thus the beginnings of the modernity of western
civilization brought increasing Jewish persecution, and in contrast
to the growing worldliness of European society, the Jewish mass re­
treated into an East European shell*^
The Sixteenth Century saw a growing concentration of Jews
in Poland, while the several partitions of that nation in the
Eighteenth Century marked the expansion of the Hus si an go log (the
Diaspora, or the scattering of the Jews through the world after the
Exile)* The Austrian acfuisltion of Galicia at the same time brought
a large Jewish element under that country’s flag* From Galicia, there
1* E* M« Kulischer, Jewish Migrations: Past Experiences and Post-
War Prospects. Few York, 19^3* PP* 17-19o
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2
was r\ movement into eastern Hungary, Bukovina, and into the provinces
of Vallachia and Moldavia, which vere united in 1861 under the
Roumanian crown* The Jews in the former Polish province of Posen
fell under Germanic rule as a result of the partitions* Thus hy
the beginning of the nineteenth Century* East European Jewry was
divided by national boundaries which remained generally unaltered
for over a century down to the outbreak of the first World War*
The Nineteenth Century was the most dynamic period in Jewish
life since ancient tines* It witnessed the greatest Jewish popula­
tion Increase of any century* the most wide-spread migratory move­
ments, and saw the most basic chaxges occur is. Jevish economic life
as a result of the creation of an industrial proletariat* In this
century there occurred the most diverse types of Jewish acculturation
in varying national and cultural settings throughout the world as a
result of the Great Migration from the East European focal point*
The main Jevish ideological currents of the Twentieth Century all
had their origins in the previous century* Eastern Europe, then,
vas the seedbed for the flowering of those ideac and outlooks which
the Jev transported with him as part of his cultural baggage wherever
he turned in the world* In relation to the scope of inis disserta­
tion, it must be emphasized that the East European background vas
basic in the shaping of the war attitudes of immigrant Jews in
America* It is therefore necessary to consider the broader aspects
of Jewish life in Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Eoumania.
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