THE JEWISH NEWS Page Twelve Friday, July 31, 1942 The Story of the Jews in the United States An Historical Analysis of Jewith Contributions to the Development and Defense of America The Jews in Our Time Adjustment to America OMING as they did, so quickly, in such great numbers, these children of starvation were faced C with problems that had never troubled the Spanish and German Jews whose immigration was slow and leisurely, who could hence establish themselves first and then lend a helping hand to the newcomers. But the Jews from Eastern Europe had less chance to adjust themselves; scarcely had a hundred landed, thr a thousand more came. Speaking a foreign lan- guage, limited in experience and contacts, these men Concluding Installment The post-war period in America was a golden era. It saw great industrial expansion and a generally high EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third and final installment of "The Story of the Jews in the United States" presented by The Jewish News in collaboration with the National Jewish Welfare. Board and the American Association for Jewish Education. level of prosperity. To this economic development and expansion. Jews as individuals made important contri- butions. To Americans, this high standard of living The Jewish News is indebted to the Institutional Synagogue of New York for photographs which accompany this installment. Readers who have missed one or both of the previous installments of this fascinating history may obtain reprints from The Jewish News office, 2114 Penobscot Bldg. and corner of the land. Their communities are dynamic parts of American culture. They have built their syn- agogues, their schools, their charities, their fraternal and philanthropic organizations. Their part in the building of America led to common sympathy and mutual understanding between themselves and their fellow Americans. This, broadly speaking, is the relatively secure and peaceful situation in which they found themselves at COLONEL ISAAC FRANKS WAS AIDE-DE-CAMP TO 06N. 6.E0R&E WASHINC, TON AND SERVED WITH DISTINCTION THROU&HOUT --- 410 ■0 `-"0•0= THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR- the outbreak of the first World War. and women could not go off each by himself. They naturally felt safer together in the great settlement which formed the "ghetto . ' of New York's east side and Chicago's west side, among their fellows who could understand their language and help them in their difficulties. / To keep themselves alive, they found employment in the garment trades, factories and sweatshops. They ISRAEL JACOBS struggled and slaved and sweated. In a way. their privations were as heavy as those of the pioneers of the wilderness. True, they found in Ainerica freedom to earn their bread in peace; but America was not the tsolchers under the Stars and Stripes. • • • r To Jews in America, their country and its ideals are precious because they never took them for granted. For them they embody the Promised Land, the actu- tility of freedom, of security and of growth. The eikrlier immigration has produced many loyal . kcaraNz w "-Wr fended their freedom and their way of life with their blood and now leaned back , to enjoy the fruits of the battle. But the battle for freedom and economic security must be won anew by each generation, and it is not always a battle of guns and armor. Sometimes it must be fought on the home front, such as the battle of the depression which followed the prosperity period of the 1920's. True to its ideals, America solved the problems of the depression in its own characteristic. manner, typified by the fact that the 1930's, a time of severe stringency and suffering, saw tremendous advances in social leg- islation and other measures leading to greater economic democracy. How unlike the solutions sought by some European governments faced with similar problems. Not democracy, but totalitarianism, not greater oppor- tunity for the average man, but suppression was the order of the day. Not freedom and equality, but fear built on oppression, prejudice and racial strife was fostered by Nazism and Facism. Necessarily, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party to power in Germany had its reflection on the American scene, especially since the Nazis deliberately spread their race theories and planned anti-Semitic campaigns as a screen to hide the Hitler conspiracy against the peace and freedom of the world. Jews, being in the first line of attack, were perhaps the first to realize _ that Nazi anti-Semitism was in reality not an attack upon Jews alone, but on all democratic society. It was therefore natural that in the face of these totalitarian' attacks upon democratic society, American Jews were among the most effective preachers and defenders of the democratic system. WAS THE FIRST JEWISH MEMBER Or CONGRESS- PENNSYLVANIA 1791-93 ]and of milk and honey that they had dreamed of in Europe—it was a land that demanded much. Like earlier immigrants; the Jews from Eastern Europe had to fight their way with little help. When a ruthless Germany launched the First World War, more than a fifth of a million of them were counted among the seemed a just reward of victory. Americans had de- ;Vlore than 200,000 Jews were in the American armed forces during the first World War. The armies of Napoleon were smaller. The forces Washington corn- manded in the American Revolution never exceeded 30,000. Some of the greatest engagements in the Civil War were fought with less than 200,000 men as the total for both sides. The number is well worth contem- plation. It means that, after two thousand years of persecution, a fifth of a million Jews stood up to fight in the cause of the greatest democracy the world had ever known. Indeed, these Jews in the armed forces of their country numbered more than the total Jewish population of the United States during the Civil War. Half of them were in the infantry, although the infantry numbered less than half of the total forces. Ten thousand Jews were commissioned officers. Almost three thousand Jews died in service, and thousands more wete wounded in battle. Very few bodies were returned to the United States for burial. They did their duty—no more, no less than any other American in the service. They received eleven hundred citations for valor, three Jews were' decorated A VOLUNTEER CORPS or INFANTRY COMPOSED CHIEFLY Of JEWS UNDER THE COMMAND, OF CAPTAIN LUSHIN6TON WAS I ORiANIZED IN 1779 TO R6HT FOR AMERICAN ISDETEHDENCE The Nazi drive for power inevitably led to World War II and today Americans once more are engaged in a war to defend their heritage and a world order which will vouchsafe to all men the Four Freedoms set forth by President Roosevelt—freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of worship and freedom of -cech. American Jews have responded loyally to the call to arms and have joined their fellow citizens of the great- est and oldest republic in the fight against an enemy whose wanton aggression assaults the liberty of the world. • • E have come a long way from the tiny fleet of Columbus that sailed into the west and the un- known so bravely, from the little band of wanderers whom Asser Levy led to New Amsterdam so many hundreds of years ago, from the bold adventurers who went out into the wilderness to trade with the Indians, from the Jews who fought and suffered and froze with Washington, from the forty-niners and the pioneers. THE PORTUGUESE ACADEMY AT SAYRES- 2,1 • • • The First World War cZ The new immigrants absorbed American culture, and in themselves they held the seeds of a new and energetic generation of Americans. They spread out from the few large cities in which they had originally Congregated, and now make their homes in every nook • W THE MAPS USED BY COLUMBUS WERE DRAWN UP BY JEHUDA CRESQUES, KNOW AS THE "MAP JEW," WHO WAS DIRECTOR OF Citizens—statesmen, writers, merchants, doctors, law- yers, and soldiers. But now, to these, the generations deriving from the Jews of Eastern Europe have added painters, poets, actors, playwrights, musicians, and scientists. They have brought their share—many auth- orities say, more than their share—of enduring excel- ,- lence to the spiritual and cultural life of the country. • A to CoLumaus Prof. Herbert B. Adams, the noted historian, is credited with the quotation that "Not jewels, but Jews were the fin- ancial basis of the first expedition of Columbus." with the supreme American award, the Congressional Medal of Honor; the famous Seventy-Seventh Division of New York City was composed of over forty percent Jews;--and so was a good part of the Loat Battalion in the Argonne wood.- We have tried to picture for American Jews, their place in America, to see and understand how it has come about that they may stand up and say, "This is my own." It is because the life of this land and the life of its Jewish citizens are so woven one into the other that they cannot be separated. It is because the lives of Jews in America have been identical with the lives of other immigrants who have built America—they have made the same sacrifices and shared the same blessings with all other citizens. It is because the land has been- nurtured with their blood in all its wars. It is because their spirit lives and moves and has its being in the spirit of freedom and justice. Thus,- knowing the value of freedom and justice, Jews are willing to die to preserve these ideals in America and in the world.