This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by UMI. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in UMI's Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. Dissertation Services From: ProauestCOMPANY 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web www.il.proquest.com Printed in 2004 by digital xerographic process on acid-free paper INFORMATION TO USERS 'This was produced from a copy of a document sent to us for microfhing. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily depndent upon the quality of the malerial submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markine or notations which may appear on lhis reproduction. I. The sign or "target" for pagesaearently lacking from the document photographed is "Mining Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the mining page($ or section, they are spliced into the fdm along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure you of complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark it is an indication lhat the film inspector notid either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, or duplicate copy. Unless we meant to delete copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed. you will fmd a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is par: of the material king photo- grapiri Iiar p:~otographer has followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand comer of a large sheet and to continue from lei1 to right in equal sections with small overlaps. If necessary, sectioning is continued again-beginning below the fist row and continuing on until complete. 4. For any illustrations that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by xerography, photographic prints can be purchased at additional cost and tipped into your xerographic copy. Requests can be made to our Dissertations Customer Services Department. 5. Som pages in any document may have indistinct print. in all cases we have filmed the best available copy. In- 310N LEE8 ROAD. ANN AABOR.MI 48106 I0 BEDFORD ROW. LONWNWClA 4El. ENGLAND KAPLANI HELGA EUGENIE 1 CENTURY OF ADJUSTMENT: A HlSTORY OF THE -AKRON JEYlSH COMMUNITY. 1065-1915. - KENT STATE UNlYERSlTV~ PH-0.9 1978 . .. .. @ 1979 i-EILA EUGENIE KAF'LREI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CEillllRY OF ADJUS'IllENT: A HISTORY OF THE AKRON JEWISH C~#IU.\RINITY,1865-1975 A dissertation submitted to the Kent State University Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by flelga. Euganie Kaplan Deceabcr, 1978 Dissertation written by Helga Eugenie Kaplan B.A., Nichigan State University, 1956 N.A., University of Chicago, 1957 Ph.D., Kent State University, 1978 Approved by ~ - , Chairman, Doctoral Dissertation Committee , tlembers, Doctoral Dissertation Committee &RM, l.iL&L7 / .x,f,., .' ,N .). <, <!& itl; iJ( ,A~Afl,-&, Accepted by , Chairman, Department of History , Dean, Graduate College ii To my father and mother. They too made the journey, PREFACE In his classic work, The Uprooted (1951), Oscar Handlin stopped looking at the impact of immigration on American society and focused instead on the immigration experience as it affected the participants themselves. In the past two decades, students of Jewish immigration have probed more deeply into this adjustment process, studying Jews in their local communities across the country. As one Jewish scholar re- marked, " . before the definitive history of the Jews of the United States . is to be written . the lacunae of local, communal, and regional histories must be written--the empty gaps must be filled in.'" Efforts in this direction have been atteqted with varying degrees of scholarship and by variously qualified researchers--from local merchants to historians--and range from brief narrative accounts to extensive team-supported research. A major undertaking in this field of communal study has recently emerged in :hc .:cgionzl History Series of the American Jewish History Center of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Under the distinguished editorial direction of Salo Baron. t.loshe Davis. and Allan Nevins, six diverse and significant Jewish communities were selected for study, among them Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland study, in process until :his manuscript was vir- tually complete, joins such other recent historical work on Ohio Jewry as a dissertation on the Jews of Toledo and an oral history project in ~olumbus.~This study, then, is an.attempt to fill in some of the remaining gaps in the emergin: story of Jewish life in Ohio. The Jewish community of Akron was selected for special attention for several reasons. Its manageable size (no estimate ever exceeded 8,000 members] permitted fairly wide coverage over a long time period, pro- viding an overview of a total community experience. Akron also appeared to offer a distinctively different environment from most of the urban communities where Jewish immigrants settled. Instead of an arena where many diverse immigrant groups juggled for access to America's ladder of social mobility, Akron presented an environment predominantly midwest- ern, white, Protestant. The city's unusual historical mix as a Nestern Reserve community, one-industry town, magnet for Appalachian resettle- ment, and center of Klan and Evangelical Christian activities further contributed to the special character of Akron's social environment. Finally, for the local Jewish community, Akron's geographical proximity to Cleveland provided opportunities for ready access to a major center of American Jewish communal life which were unavailable to many other small and middle-sized Jewish communities. As the title suggests, the underlying concern of this particular Jewish community study revolves around the question of immigrant adjust- ment, namely, what important life choices were made over a century to permit a satisfactory adjustment to life in Akron. Significant choices obviously had to be made in many areas of life and had to be reassessed under new conditions an3 in different times. As the data accumulated. it scemed most amenable to an overriding topical organization (note chapter headings relating to religious, institutional, social, and interactional decisions). In turn, the topically defined chapters were chronologically subdividcd based on a four-part periodiration scheme V reflecting major identifiable shifts in both national and local his- torical circumstances (1865-18RS; 1885-1929; 1929-1945; 1945-i975). Given these topical and chronological parameters, three basic adjustment scenarios seemed possible and open to investigation: total assimila- tion, complete self-containment, or some admixture of these two posi- tions. It is a hypothesis of this study that the overall adjustment of Akron Jewry was characterized by the last mentioned option--"a little 'bit of each." While this history is primarily a local study, the matter of relationships--to the American historical experience, to Jewish national and international events, to theories of immigration--is central to its intent. The question thus becomes the extent to which major external events and national adjustment patterns can be observed'in Akron. Was Akron a special case, isolated and demonstrably unique, or did it reflect the apparent norm of the American immigrant and/or the American Jewish experience? Chapter I summarizes the external data and concepts to which the Akron Jewish experience can be related. Its detail and organization are such as to permit either background introductory read- ing or "flashback" points of reference for subsequent chapters dealing with directly parallel content on the local level. This framework also forms the basis for the main thesis of this study (elaborated in Chapter I), namely. that throughout its history the major forces of American and Jewish history did reach Akron and furthermore that, despite some ex- ceptions, the local Jewish community co!~sistently responded to these pressures with adjustment patterns typical of the American Jewish com- munity as a whole (which in turn conformed to known theories of immi- gration adjustment). The more immediate external environment of the Akron Jewish community, of course, is the city of Akron itself and the first part of Chapter I1 describes that important context. By way of compariscn, a demographic profile of the local Jewish community is included as well. Chapters 111. IV, and V have an essentially parochial orientation, focusing on local Jews in a local Jewish context as they initiate and implement the structureand content of their religious, organizational, and social life. Chapter VI represents a shift in emphasis to a more interactional f;ame of reference as it probes Jewish-gentile contacts in the economic, civic, political, social, and religious arenas and raises the issue of the extent of local anti-semitism. The final chap- ter attempts to summarize and integrate the above material, proposing generalizations and speculations about Akron-Jewish adjustment which transcend specific topical and chronological headings, and suggesting possible implications of this study for American-Jewish immigration history. I would like to end this beginning with an acknowledgment of those who got me this far. So many individuals from the Akron Jewish community, both in their official and private capacities, provided fascinating data and personal recollections. In this regard special thanks go to the staffs of the Akron Jewish Federation and the Akron Jewish Center. Iaile all the individuals involved can not be named here, special thanks go to Gloria Reich, Nathan Pinsky, and Leslie Flaksman. The taped oral histories, writrep records, and hours of personal time which they made available were invaluable.