Immigrant Jew in America, The.
A Definitive Study
Of The Immigrant Jew
In America
[Judaica]. [Szold, Henrietta]. The Immigrant Jew in America….Issued by the National Liberal Immigration League…New York: B.F. Buck & Company, 1907.
8vo.; frontispiece photograph of the “Home of the Educational Alliance-Jewish-New York;” other photographs of Jewish New York landmarks and people throughout; blank after copyright page torn out, with some evidence of page remaining, not affecting text; endpapers lightly sunned; red cloth, stamped in gilt, covers heavily worn.
First edition. A compilation surveying the status of Russian Jewish immigrants in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia; edited by Edmund J. James but written “with the collaboration of” a select group of writers including Henrietta Szold, Charlotte Kimball, Walter Scott Andrews, Charles S. Bernheimer, and others. The collection of unsigned essays is interesting both for its content and for the participation of Szold, a major figure in Jewish women’s history.
No survey of this subject which approaches this investigation in compass has heretofore been attempted. The sustained effort is clearly for the thorough probing of existing social conditions and accuracy of reporting, irrespective of possible effect. This characteristic thoroughness of examination and faithfulness of portrayal make this exhibit of the Russian Jew in this country a compendious text-book for all students of our complex sociology, and a reference work indispensable to all who are called upon to discuss or write or legislate on the subject of immigration and social conditions in this country. (p. 4)
This extremely detailed volume includes 12 chapters, each presumably written collaboratively by the small cadre of writers, including Szold, listed above. The subjects of these chapters include: “Elements of the Jewish Population in the United States;” “The Jew in Russia;” “Philanthropy;” “Economic and Industrial Conditions;” “Religious Activity;” “Educational Influences;” “The Jew in Politics;” “Health and Sanitation;” “Law and Litigation;” and other topics.
Henrietta Szold’s biography in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia is nearly two pages long and her write up in Notable American Women stretches for a good four pages, a tribute to the tremendous contributions Szold made to the modern Jewish and feminist worlds. Born in Baltimore in 1860, Szold would grow up to be, most famously, the founder of Hadassah – but she had many other accomplishments to her name worth detailing.
The daughter of a Baltimore rabbi, Szold (1860-1945) early on acquired a strong sense of Jewish identity and of dedication to the cause of the Jewish people. She was well educated and she worked early on as a teacher both to children and to returning adult learners. In 1888, in reaction to the persecution of Russian Jews both in their homeland and in the U.S., Szold formed a school – one of the first of its kind – for adult immigrants whose aim was to help them to become “Americanized” and assimilated. This school, which started off modestly with only a handful of students and teachers, grew to encompass some five thousand students within ten years and became a model for similar programs all across the country.
Concurrently, Szold was involved with the Jewish Publication Society, serving as editorial secretary of the society from 1893 until 1916. During this time period – the time when the present volume was published – Szold was involved in a hands-on capacity with scores of publication projects dealing with the condition of the Jews and Jewish women in particular. Among the books she had a major part in translating and editing were Heinrich Graetz’s History of the Jews, the first two volumes of Louis Ginzberg’s The Legends of the Jews, Moritz Lazarus’s The Ethics of Judaism, and Nahum Slouschz’s The Renaissance of Hebrew Literature. In addition, for many years Szold did most of the production work for the American Jewish Yearbook and was
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