Browsing tag

immigration

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“Yours very respectaly, M. Blum”: Correspondence between a New Jersey Jewish Farmer and the Industrial Removal Office, 1902-1905

By Lauren Gilbert, Director of Public Services, Center for Jewish History

“Yours very respectaly, M. Blum”: Correspondence between a New Jersey Jewish Farmer and the Industrial Removal Office, 1902-1905

In response to the massive waves of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century, leaders of the German-Jewish community in New York City founded the rather forbiddingly named Industrial Removal…

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When Herschel Became Harry: How to Find your Ancestors’ Original Names

By Moriah Amit, Senior
Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Coordinator

Although the notion that our immigrant ancestors’ names were changed by clerks at Ellis Island has been debunked time and again by noted scholars in Jewish genealogy (see References below), this myth remains pervasive in the stories that American Jews tell about their family history. The truth, that most of our immigrant ancestors chose…

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All images: Collection of Yeshiva University Museum

A sizeable portion of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who streamed into New York at the turn of the 20th century found work in the city’s expanding garment industry. Although only about 10% were actual trained tailors, many Jewish immigrants held experience in both producing clothing–since the garment industry in Russia was one of the only businesses open to Jews–and…

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Your Family History, Our Incredible Archives: A Story in the New York Press

A human-family tree stands by the renovated genealogy institute at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan. Photographs of couples, children, families, molecular matter, and, atop the trunk, Rosalind Franklin—the British Jewish scientist whose work helped Watson and Crick imagine the double helix—adorn the branches. (Description via the New York Press.) 

We’re thrilled to see today’s

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Reuniting Families
by Sarah Ganton, Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History

A few days ago, the Senate passed a major overhaul of immigration policy. The bill, should it pass in the House of Representatives, would offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, enhanced legal avenues for immigration, and a greater emphasis on reuniting families separated in the immigration process….

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