The Rest of Us The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews by Stephen Birmingham (1999)

My Post on Our Crowd The Great Jewish Families of New York City by Stephen Birmingham

Patterns of Jewish Immigration to the USA (from Ancestory.com)                                                                   

Dates	Period	Number of Immigrants
1654–1838	Colonial/federal	Fewer than 15,000
1838–80	German emigration	250,000
1881–1924	Eastern European emigration	2,000,000
1924–44	Pre-Holocaust	100,000
1945–60	Holocaust survivors	250,000

The first big wave of Jewish immigrants to America were from Germany.  In Our Crowd The Great Jewish Families of New York City Stephen Birmingham  (1932 to 2015, USA) chronicled the accession of German Jews, often coming with little more than the clothes on their backs, to great wealth.  One thing I have learned in reading the works of writers like Joseph Roth, Stefan Zweig, Iréne Nemirosky is that German, so called European Jews meaning largely those from Germany and the Austro-Hungrain Empire were a bit embarrassed by Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia, who often spoke only Yiddish and Bimingham certainly confirms this attitude.

The fate of Jews in Russia, as documented by Birmingham, rose and fell with the changing attitudes of the government, often brought on my a new Czar.  At times Jews, confined to living only in certain parts of Russia, were left relatively alone, at times they were subject to terrible restrictions and bloody pograms.  In 1881 Russia entered into a very anti-Semetic period.  To migrate out of the country, leaving all you knew, was a terrible gamble taken by most Russian Jews only when life was intolerable in their home country.  Between 1881 and 1915 about two million Russian Jews immigrated to the USA, most all came in through Ellis Island and stayed in New York City.  Jews settled in the Lower East Side of the city.  Soon their were Yiddish newspapers, theaters, and stores catering to their needs.

Birmingham's books concentrate on the rich but he does a good job of bringing the rough poor streets of the lower East side to life.  He tells the story of the Russian immigrants through focusing on individuals who through hard work, determination, luck and pluck became very wealthy.  

The first mode of business for a Russian Jew, a man would often come alone and bring his family when he could pay their passage, was often the pushcart.  It was a business you could start with just a little capital.  

Soon many vendors had fixed stalls then the more sucessful had small stores some of which grew into giant department stores.  

One of the focus of Birmingham is on the role of the Russian Jewish immigrants in the entertainment industry. Here he focuses on David Sarnoff.   We learn of the rise of early motion picture moguls Louis Meyer and Samuel Goldwyn.

There is a fascinating chapter on the role of Russian immigrants in the alcohol business.  I learned how Seagrams Seven was named!  In any place like the Lower East Side where people are from a culture that did not put much faith in or even feared the police, gangsters stepped up to provide protection. Birmingham focuses on the career of Meyer Lansky.  

I was happy to see he mentioned Helena Rubenstein.  She migrated from a Polish shtetl to Australia but became very rich selling her beauty cream in New York City with the help of Russian Jewish backers,  I not long ago read and posted on a very good biography of Rubenstein and everything Birmingham said about her was in accord with her biography.  This made me feel he probably had most of his other facts right.

The Rest of Us is very well written and a pleasure to read.  It does focus on Russian Jewish immigrants who became rich but all those interested in Jewish and American history will profit from this book.

This book is published by Open Road Media.  The next time you are looking for something to read, especially if you prefer E reading as I do, take a look at their very well done webpage.  They have on offer books by over 2000 authors, all very well described and fairly priced.

They offer all of Stephen Birmingham's books.

http://www.openroadmedia.com/

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Our Crowd The Great Jewish Families of New York by Stephen Birmingham(1967, 412 pages, issued as an E Book 2016 by Open Media Publishing)

Our Crowd The Great Jewish Families of New York by Stephen Birmingham elegantly and fascinatingly  tells the story of how  German Jewish immigrants who came to America starting in the 1840s or so with little more than the clothes they wore and a bit of money if they were lucky ended up founding financial and retail empires that shaped the development of the nation. This book is not just the story of how a a few German Jewish immigrants got wealthy in America, it is very much the story of the development of America into an International financial power.  This book should be read by all into American history and of course Jewish history, and for sure by all teachers of American history.  

The story begins on a boat to America.  German Jews were subject to many restrictive laws, for example in most cases they could not own farm land.  Many men supported their families as traveling peddlers.  When they arrived in America, through the New York port, the founders of great families became traveling peddlers, carrying heavy packs of goods to families in places where there were no stores.   Immigrants began to spread out around the country, as they prospered they bought wagons and set up stores.  One of the big goals of the men, who in most cases came alone to America, was to bring their wives over, then all of their extended family.  The extended family was then used to open branch stores all over the country.  One of the first big successes of a family came when they had the foresight to set up a store in San Francisco as soon as the gold rush began.  The story of how two members of a family made it from New York City to California and set up shop was very exciting.

Soon some  families had enough capital to set up merchant banks, dealing in government bonds, financing railroads, entering into partnership with the Rothchilds and J. P. Morgan.  As the families became very rich they became very clannish, marriage could be sanctioned only with some one from "Our Crowd".  I was fascinated to learn that if no suitable bride could be found among the families, a young man would go back to Germany in search of a suitable wife from among wealthy German Jewish families.  The wealthier the families became, one would have to say tne more elitist became their  attitudes.  The grandson of a traveling peddler would not deign to dine with the owner of a huge store.

There is a lot to be learned about the history of American finance from this book.  The banks of the families were heavily involved in development of American railroads.  We meet a lot of interesting people in this book.  I was so intrigued when I learned that a family bank helped the Japanese finance their defeat of Russia in the Russian Japanese war.  This defeat helped cause tne eventual collapse of Czarist rule in Russia.  In a kind of deep irony, we can see this as payback for the vicious anti-Semticism and pograms of Czarist Russia.  

At first most Jewish immigrants to New York City were Germans, as time went on many thousands of Russian, Yiddish speaking Jews began to arrive.  I have read in the works of Joseph Roth, Iréne Nemirovsky, Stefan Zweig and numerous Jewish histories of the very mixed attitude of commonly called European Jews from Germany and the old Austro-Hungarian Empire toward largely Polish and Russian Jews, some times referred to as "Yids". The families felt an obligation to help them but they also did not want "real Americans" to see them as related to the Russian immigrants.  By the time the Russians took over the tenements of New York, the families were in grand mansions on Long Island.

As time went on, most male family members stayed in the business,  women married others in "Our Crowd".  Big families were the norm.  Jobs were often found for in laws as well.  

There is a lot more in this wonderful book.   It reads like an exciting novel, with the immigrants brought vividly to life.  Our Crowd The  Great Jewish Families of New York City is an very  informative book.  For fiction readers, I think it will help us understand the many literary works set in New York City by writers like Edith Wharton, Henry James, and numerous others.  I see it as must reading for those into the economic and social history of America and for sure for those interested in Jewish history.

I was kindly given a review copy of this book by Open Road Media Publishing.  

I hope to read this year Biringham's The Rest of Us The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews.

Stephen Birmingham is an American author of more than thirty books. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1932, he graduated from Williams College in 1953 and taught writing at the University of Cincinnati. Birmingham’s work focuses on the upper class in America. He’s written about the African American elite in Certain People and prominent Jewish society in Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York, The Grandees: The Story of America’s Sephardic Elite, and The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s Eastern European Jews. His work also encompasses several novels including The Auerbach Will, The LeBaron Secret, Shades of Fortune, and The Rothman Scandal, and other nonfiction titles such as California Rich, The Grandes Dames, and Life at the Dakota: New York’s Most Unusual Address. Birmingham lives in southwest Ohio.  - official bio

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