Your challenge is to trigger a massive Jewish exodus from Europe to the United States in the 19th century. Extra points if you can get this to occur pre-ACW.
there wouldve been a massive exodus if it wasn't for the Immigration Laws banning Eastern Europeans and the Irish coming to the US.
There was a massive Jewish migration from Europe to the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. So massive, in fact, that the US became one of the countries with the largest Jewish populations.Your challenge is to trigger a massive Jewish exodus from Europe to the United States in the 19th century. Extra points if you can get this to occur pre-ACW.
Immigration quotas didn't happen in the U.S. until the 1920s. During the period in question, it was more an issue of countries limiting emigration than anyone putting restrictions on immigration.
That was the idea.There was a massive Jewish migration from Europe to the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. So massive, in fact, that the US became one of the countries with the largest Jewish populations.
Do you want this to happen earlier?
Your challenge is to trigger a massive Jewish exodus from Europe to the United States in the 19th century. Extra points if you can get this to occur pre-ACW.
Not quite.
The initial immigration act of 1875 strongly restricted Asian immigration - especially asian women. It is true that quotas per se werent imposed until 1921, and later strengthened, but there was a Chinese Exclusion Act of, hmmm, 1885 I think it was.
It is true that strong restrictions on southern and eastern Europeans didnt get implemented until 1924 - but that was in response to rising immigration from those places.
If a significant number of Jews tried coming in, you betcha thered have been restrictions.
Napoleon for some reason adopts Jewish liberation as a cause.
(Minor historical point: the Archbishop of Mainz became a supporter of Napoleon. As the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and German petty states were consolidated, he became Grand Duke of Frankfurt, formerly an Imperial Free City. One of his acts was to strike down the laws confining the Jews of Frankfort to a ghetto and imposing special taxes on them; the city fathers opposing this strenuously.)
He gains some support from the Jewish communities in Poland and Russia. Some Jews become prominent in his entourage. But after his defeat the Jews are demonized as traitors in Russia. The Russsians extend this to the Jews of Poland, a campaign joined by some Poles who blame the Jews for Napoleon's defeat, and for either his failure to liberate the serfs of Poland or for subverting the Polish nobility by liberating the serfs. (Doesn't matter which policy Napoleon actually followed; those who don't like it can blame the Jews.)
So increased anti-semitism in Poland and Russia.
This is not a single massive outbreak, but rather a long-term ratchet upward in the continuing persecution of Jews, which leads to a large stream of emigration starting in the 1830s (50,000-200,000 per year, of which 20,000-50,000 go to the U.S.
Bear in mind that the wave of Irish immigration which freaked out many Americans and spawned the Know-Nothings was about 1.5M over 10 years IIRC.
I like this scenario.
Would the Jewish emigrants in question be carrying diseases? To be fair to the Know-Nothings, at least one outbreak in New York was caused by sickly Irish immigrants.
If they're coming in a more organized fashion and they're not half-starved to death coming in plague ships, there might not be so much upset.