Emerging Metropolis New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, 1840 – 1920 CITY OF PROMISES was made possible in part through the generosity of a number of individuals and foundations. Th eir thoughtful support will help ensure that this work is aff ordable to schools, libraries, and other not-for-profi t institutions. Th e Lucius N. Littauer Foundation made a leadership gift before a word of CITY OF PROMISES had been written, a gift that set this project on its way. Hugo Barreca, Th e Marian B. and Jacob K. Javits Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Malkin, David P. Solomon, and a donor who wishes to remain anonymous helped ensure that it never lost momentum. We are deeply grateful. CITY OF PROMISES A HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF NEW YORK GENERAL EDITOR: DEBORAH DASH MOORE Volume 1 Haven of Liberty New York Jews in the New World, 1654 – 1865 Howard b. Rock Volume 2 Emerging Metropolis New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, 1840 – 1920 Annie Polland and Daniel Soyer Volume 3 Jews in Gotham New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920 – 2010 Jeffrey S. Gurock Advisory Board: Hasia Diner (New York University) Leo Hershkowitz (Queens College) Ira Katznelson (Columbia University) Th omas Kessner (CUNY Graduate Center) Tony Michels (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Judith C. Siegel (Center for Jewish History) Jenna Weissman-Joselit (Princeton University) Beth Wenger (University of Pennsylvania) CITY OF PROMISES A HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF NEW YORK EMERGING METROPOLIS NEW YORK JEWS IN THE AGE OF IMMIGRATION, 1840–1920 ANNIE POLLAND AND DANIEL SOYER WITH A FOREWORD BY DEBORAH DASH MOORE AND WITH A VISUAL ESSAY BY DIANA L. LINDEN a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS ■ NEW YORK AND LONDON NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2012 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data City of promises : a history of the Jews of New York / general editor, Deborah Dash Moore. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. Haven of liberty: New York Jews in the New World, 1654 – 1865 / Howard B. Rock — v. 2. Emerging metropolis: New York Jews in the age of immigration, 1840 – 1920 / Annie Polland and Daniel Soyer — v. 3. Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a changing city, 1920 – 2010. ISBN 978-0-8147-7632-2 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8147-4521-2 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-8147-7692-6 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-8147-1731-8 (boxed set : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8147-2932-8 (e-set) 1. Jews — New York (State) — New York. 2. New York (N.Y.) — Ethnic relations. I. Moore, Deborah Dash, 1946 – II. Rock, Howard B., 1944 – F128.9.J5C64 2012 305.892'40747 — dc23 2012003246 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ■ To Mike and Lily (AP) and To the Soyer, Futterman, Chassner, and Wilson families — Jewish New Yorkers in three centuries (DS) This page intentionally left blank CONTENT S Foreword by Deborah Dash Moore, General Editor xi General Editor’s Acknowledgments xxv Authors’ Acknowledgments xxvii ■ Introduction: Th e Emerging Jewish Metropolis 1 1 ■ Neighborhood Networks 11 2 ■ “Radical Reform”: Union through Charity 45 3 ■ Moorish Manhattan 73 4 ■ Immigrant Citadels: Tenements, Shops, Stores, and Streets 103 5 ■ Capital of the Jewish World 137 6 ■ Jews at the Polls: Th e Rise of the Jewish Style in New York Politics 173 7 ■ Jews and New York Culture 207 ■ Conclusion: Th e Jewish Metropolis at the End of the Immigrant Era 245 ■ Visual Essay: An Introduction to the Visual and Material Culture of New York City Jews, 1840–1920 255 Diana L. Linden Notes 289 Bibliography 325 Index 341 About the Authors 365 ix This page intentionally left blank FOREWORD “[O]f all the big cities,” Sergeant Milton Lehman of the Stars and Stripes affi rmed in 1945, “New York is still the promised land.”1 As a returning Jewish GI, Lehman compared New York with European cities. Other Jews also knew what New York off ered that made it so desirable, even if they had not served overseas. First and foremost, security: Jews could live without fear in New York. Yes, they faced discrimination, but in this city of almost eight mil- lion residents, many members of its ethnic and religious groups encountered prejudice. Jews contended with anti-Semitism in the twentieth century more than German Protestants or Irish Catholics dealt with bias, perhaps; but the Irish had endured a lot in the nineteenth century, and Jews suff ered less than African Americans, Latinos, and Asian New Yorkers. And New York provided more than security: Jews could live freely as Jews. Th e presence of a diverse population of close to two million New York Jews contributed to their sense that “everyone was Jewish.”2 New York Jews understood that there were many ways to be Jewish. Th e city welcomed Jews in all their variety. New York Jews saw the city as a place where they, too, could fl ourish and express themselves. As a result, they came to identify with the city, absorbing its ethos even as they helped to shape its urban characteristics. When World War II ended in Europe with victory over Nazi Germany, New York’s promises glowed more brightly still. New York’s multiethnic diversity, shaped in vital dimensions by its large Jewish population, shimmered as a showplace of American democratic dis- tinctiveness, especially vis-à-vis Europe. In contrast to a continent that had be- come a vast slaughterhouse, where millions of European Jews had been ruth- lessly murdered with industrial effi ciency, New York glistened as a city Jews could and did call their home in America. Th e famous skyline had defi ned urban cosmopolitanism in the years aft er World War I. Now the city’s thriving ethnic neighborhoods — Jewish and Catholic, African American and Puerto Rican, Italian and Irish — came to represent modern urban culture. New York’s economy responded robustly to demands of war production. By the end of hostilities, its per capita income exceeded the national average by 14 percent. xi xii ■ Foreword But as a poster city for immigration, with a majority population composed of immigrants and their children, the city had to contend with negative percep- tions. Considered undesirable by many Americans, Jews and other foreigners in the city contributed to impressions that New York seemed less American than other cities with large percentages of native-born residents.3 As the city fl ourished during and aft er the war, it maintained its political commitments to generous social welfare benefi ts to help its poorest residents. Jews advocated for these policies, supporting eff orts to establish a liberal ur- ban legacy. In modeling a progressive and prosperous multiethnic twentieth- century American city, New York demonstrated what its Jews valued. Versions of Jewish urbanism played not just on the political stage but also on the streets of the city’s neighborhoods. Its expressions could be found as well in New York’s centers of cultural production. By the middle of the twentieth century, no city off ered Jews more than New York. It nourished both celebration and critique. New York gave Jews visibility as individuals and as a group. It provided employment and education, inspira- tion and freedom, fellowship and community. Jews reciprocated by falling in love with the city, its buildings’ hard angles and perspectives, its grimy streets and harried pace. But by the 1960s and ’70s, Jews’ love aff air with the city soured. For many of the second generation who grew up on New York’s side- walks, immersed in its babel of languages and cultural syncretism, prosper- ity dimmed their aff ection for the working-class urban world of their youth. Many of them aspired to suburban pleasures of home ownership, grass and trees that did not have to be shared with others in public parks. Yet New York City remained the wellspring of Jewish American culture for much of the cen- tury, a resource of Jewishness even for those living thousands of miles west of the Hudson River. Jews had not always felt free to imagine the city as their special place. In- deed, not until mass immigration from Europe piled up their numbers, from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands, had Jews laid claim to New York and infl uenced its politics and culture. Its Jewish population soared from fi ve hundred thousand at the turn of the twentieth century to 1.1 mil- lion before the start of World War I. On the eve of World War II, Jews, over a quarter of New York’s residents, ranked as the largest ethnic group.4 Demog- raphy both encouraged many outsiders to perceive New York as a Jewish city and underwrote local cultural productions, such as a thriving theater scene, a Foreword ■ xiii fl ourishing popular music business, and extensive publishing in several lan- guages. Jews were used to living as a minority in Europe and the Middle East. New York off ered life without a majority population — without one single eth- nic group dominating urban society.