Part 2 — CHAPTER IToC
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CHAPTER IToC
Determination of Number of Jewish Immigrants
In a study of Jewish immigration to the United States the first problem is to determine the number of Jews who entered this country during the thirty years from 1881 to 1910, and their nationality, or their countries of nativity. The determination of these figures meets with the difficulty that prior to 1899, immigrants were classified in the official statistics by country of nativity or residence, and not by race or nationality. Thus the figures regarding Jewish immigration are obtainable from official sources only from 1899. Those relating to previous years have to be sought for elsewhere.
The main sources that have been used to obtain the figures before 1899 are the reports of three Jewish societies which were concerned with the care of the Jewish immigrants arriving at the principal ports of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. These were the United Hebrew Charities, of New York; the Association for the Protection of Jewish Immigrants, of Philadelphia; and the Hebrew Benevolent Society, of Baltimore. Each of these maintained an agent who, besides his other duties, collected statistical information concerning the sex, age, country of nativity, occupation, destination, etc., of the Jewish immigrants, partly from the ships' manifests and partly through personal inquiry. The statistical information thus obtained was regularly included in the annual reports of these societies. These records were begun by the New York and Philadelphia societies, in 1884, and by the Baltimore society, in 1891.
As the yearly statistical tables of these reports were made to correspond with the annual meeting of these societies,[48] it was found advisable to rearrange them from July to June, in order to have them correspond with the fiscal year, and thus allow for a proper comparison with the official data furnished by the immigration authorities.
As rearranged, the tables presented the number of Jewish immigrants entering the ports of New York and Philadelphia from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 1898, and the number of Jewish immigrants entering the port of Baltimore from July 1, 1891, to June 30, 1898.[49] As these three ports were, up to recent years, the places of entry of all but a very small number of Jewish immigrants, the figures thus obtained represent practically the total Jewish immigration to the United States from 1886 to 1898.
To ascertain the nationality or country of nativity of the Jewish immigrants from 1886 to 1898, it was necessary to redistribute in accordance with the fiscal year the monthly arrivals found in the tables of the United Hebrew Charities, which contain the figures for each nationality.[50] As the reports of the Philadelphia society gave only the totals of arrivals of each nationality for each year but not distributed by months, the following method was employed. The percentage the immigration of each nativity constituted of the total immigration from November to October (the society's year) was used as the basis for calculating the annual immigration of each nativity from July to June.[51] There being no essential difference between Baltimore and Philadelphia, so far as Jewish immigrants of each nationality are concerned, the same percentages were used as for Philadelphia.[52]
The discrepancy between the official figures of the total immigration from Roumania from 1886 to 1898 and those of the Jewish societies for the Jewish immigrants from Roumania for the same period is worthy of note. In each of four years the number of Jewish immigrants from Roumania as reported by the Jewish societies exceeded the total immigration from Roumania as reported in the official statistics. For two years, 1892 and 1893, the official statistics do not report any immigrants from Roumania, whereas the Jewish societies report,[53] respectively, 740 and 555 Jewish immigrants from Roumania, which represented a normal number from this country, as the other years indicate.[54]
The total number of immigrants of each nationality arriving from July 1, 1886, to June 30, 1898, was thus obtained. The total number of Jewish immigrants arriving from Russia, Austria-Hungary and Roumania, at each of the principal ports, for each year from 1886 to 1898, are summarized in table V.[55]
The figures of Jewish immigration before 1886 were not obtainable either from the official or the Jewish sources, there being only an estimate of the number of the Jewish immigrants from 1881 to 1884 in the American Jewish Year Book of 1899-1900 (as 74,310), and in the Jewish Encyclopedia (as 62,022), without any indications as to how these were obtained. To secure a fairly accurate statement, the proportion the Russian Jewish immigration from 1886 to 1898 bore to the total Russian immigration was used as the basis for calculating the total number of Russian Jewish immigrants from 1881 to 1885.[56] This was distributed yearly according to the proportion of each year's contribution to the five years' total. By a similar calculation the number of Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary was obtained.[57] For Roumania, the proportion of Jews being more than ninety per cent, and at this period practically the entire Roumanian immigration being Jewish, the figures were taken in toto. The results for each year added together constituted the total Jewish immigration for the year.
The general tendency among writers on the subject of Jewish immigration has been to exaggerate the magnitude of this movement. In a discussion in the Jewish Encyclopedia regarding the dimensions of the Jewish immigration before 1899, exact figures were given that are on their face erroneous.[58] The inaccuracy of these figures is explained by the fact that the writer committed a gross error in making his table. The total Russian immigration to the United States from 1880 to 1898 was designated as the Jewish immigration from Russia, though it should have been evident that the number of other peoples coming from Russia and included in these figures must have been very large. Another column gave as Jewish immigrants coming from countries other than Russia, the totals of the Jewish immigrants entering the United States from 1885 to 1898, as reported in the American Jewish Year Book of 1899 (the latter figures of which included Russian Jews as well as those of other nativities), thereby doubling the number of Russian Jewish immigrants for this period. The result has been to more than triple the numbers of the Jewish immigrants. These figures have been widely used and quoted, and have generally created the impression of a Jewish immigration larger by several hundred thousands than is really the case.[59]
The results of the foregoing are summarized in Table VI, which gives the number of Jewish immigrants arriving in each of the thirty years from 1881 to 1910, and the principal countries of nativity of these immigrants. We are thus in a position closely to study the movement of Jewish immigration for practically the entire period since it became a significant part of the recent immigration to the United States, and thereby to throw light upon the character of this movement, in itself and as a part of the general immigration.
Table VI
JEWISH IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES, 1881 TO 1910
Year Russia Austria-Hungary Roumania United Kingdom Germany Brit. N.A. Turkey France All Others Total
1881 3125 2537 30 — — — — — — 5692
1882 10489 2648 65 — — — — — — 13202
1883 6144 2510 77 — — — — — — 8731
1884 7867 3340 238 — — — — — — 11445
1885 10648 3938 803 — 1473 — — — — 16862
1886 14092 5326 518 — 983 — — — 254 21173
1887 23103 6898 2063 — 780 — — — 200 33044
1888 20216 5985 1653 — 727 — — — 300 28881
1889 18338 4998 1058 — 758 — — — 200 25352
1890 20981 6439 462 — 633 — — — 124 28639
1891 43457 5890 854 — 636 — — — 561 51398
1892 64253 8643 740 — 1787 — — — 950 76373
1893 25161 6363 555 — 1814 — — — 429 35322
1894 20747 5916 616 — 1109 — — — 791 29179
1895 16727 6047 518 — 1028 — — — 871 26191
1896 20168 9831 744 — 829 — — — 276 32848
1897 13063 5672 516 — 586 — — — 535 20372
1898 14949 7367 720 — 296 — — — 322 23654
1899 24275 11071 1343 174 405 5 81 9 52 37415
1900 37011 16920 6183 133 337 — 114 17 49 60764
1901 37660 13006 6827 110 272 — 154 20 49 58098
1902 37846 12848 6589 55 182 — 138 9 21 57688
1903 47689 18759 8562 420 477 — 211 11 74 76203
1904 77544 20211 6446 817 669 8 313 32 196 106236
1905 92388 17352 3854 14299 734 11 173 327 772 129910
1906 125234 14884 3872 6113 979 429 461 479 1297 153748
1907 114937 18885 3605 7032 734 1818 918 306 952 149182
1908 71978 15293 4455 6260 869 2393 635 425 1079 103387[1]
1909 39150 8431 1390 3385 652 2780 690 325 748 57551[1]
1910 59824 13142 1701 4098 705 2262 1388 339 801 84260[1]
Total 1119059 281150 67057 42896 20454 9706 5276 2299 14903 1562800
[1] From 1908 immigrants were classified in the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration as "immigrant aliens," those intending to reside permanently in the United States and "non-immigrant aliens," those making a temporary trip to the United States. In the figures of 1908, 1909 and 1910, only the "immigrant aliens" are considered.
Table VII
PERCENTAGE OF ANNUAL JEWISH IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTED BY EACH COUNTRY OF NATIVITY, 1881 TO 1910
Year Russia Austria-Hungary Roumania United Kingdom Germany Brit. N.A. Turkey France All Others Total
1881 54.8 44.7 0.5 — — — — — — 100.0
1882 79.5 20.1 0.4 — — — — — — 100.0
1883 70.4 28.7 0.9 — — — — — — 100.0
1884 68.7 29.2 2.1 — — — — — — 100.0
1885 63.1 23.4 4.8 — 8.7 — — — — 100.0
1886 66.6 25.2 2.4 — 4.6 — — — 1.2 100.0
1887 69.9 20.8 6.3 — 2.4 — — — .6 100.0
1888 70.0 20.7 5.7 — 2.5 — — — 1.1 100.0
1889 72.3 19.7 4.2 — 3.0 — — — .8 100.0
1890 73.3 22.5 1.6 — 2.2 — — — .4 100.0
1891 84.6 11.5 1.6 — 1.2 — — — 1.1 100.0
1892 84.1 11.3 1.1 — 2.2 — — — 1.3 100.0
1893 71.2 18.0 1.6 — 5.1 — — — 4.1 100.0
1894 71.1 20.3 2.1 — 3.8 — — — 2.7 100.0
1895 63.9 23.1 2.0 — 3.9 — — — 7.1 100.0
1896 61.4 29.9 2.3 — 2.5 — — — 3.9 100.0
1897 64.1 27.9 2.5 — 2.9 — — — 2.6 100.0
1898 63.2 31.1 3.0 — 1.3 — — — 1.4 100.0
1899 64.9 29.5 3.6 .5 1.1 — — — .4 100.0
1900 60.9 27.8 10.2 .2 .6 — — — .3 100.0
1901 64.8 22.4 11.8 .2 .5 — .2 — .1 100.0
1902 65.6 22.3 11.4 .1 .3 — .2 — .1 100.0
1903 62.6 24.6 11.2 .6 .6 — .3 — .1 100.0
1904 73.0 19.0 6.1 .8 .6 — .3 — .2 100.0
1905 71.1 13.4 3.0 11.0 .6 — .1 .2 .6 100.0
1906 81.5 9.7 2.5 4.0 .6 .3 .3 .3 .8 100.0
1907 77.1 12.7 2.4 4.7 .5 1.2 .6 .2 .6 100.0
1908 69.6 14.8 4.3 6.1 .8 2.3 .6 .4 1.1 100.0
1909 68.0 14.7 2.4 5.9 1.2 4.7 1.2 .6 1.3 100.0
1910 71.1 15.6 2.0 4.9 .8 2.7 1.6 .4 .9 100.0
Total 71.6 17.9 4.3 2.8 1.3 0.6 0.3 0.2 1.0 100.0