The “reforming Tsar” Alexander II of Russia was assassinated in 1881, and with him died the hopes of many Russian Jews that life would improve in the near future. Many turned to emigration, particularly to America. The massive increase in the Jewish population of NYC, and in the USA more generally, between 1881-1914 was a direct result of mass Jewish emigration from Russia.

In 1880, Imperial Russia was home to the largest Jewish population in the world. More than 4 million Jews lived there, in a territory that includes modern-day Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. For the millions of Jews living there, life was limited by restrictive laws, including the existence of the so-called “Pale of Settlement”, an area along the country’s western border which Jews were restricted to living within. Pale of Settlement Map Major economic hubs, like Moscow, were outside this zone, as was the capital city St. Petersburg. At various times, Jews were also forbidden from owning farm land, the professions they could take up were restricted, and attendance at universities was limited as well. Under Tsar Alexander II, however, changes in the Empire had begun. Most famously, serfdom was abolished. Military service was also revamped, in a way that particularly benefitted Jewish men (who had been eligible for conscription at the incredibly young age of 12 prior to the reform, much earlier than most Russian boys).

After Alexander II was assassinated (by a group that thought he wasn’t reforming fast enough), his much more conservative and antisemitic son, Alexander III took the throne. As a response to the unrest and uncertainty of the death of the Tsar, and because some people blamed Jews for the assassination, a wave of pogroms swept across Russia. Non-Jews looted Jewish shops and homes, beat Jewish men and sexually assaulted Jewish women. These pogroms began in 1881 and lasted through 1882. Though the new Tsar was informed about them, he did little to stop the pogroms or prevent them from spreading. Hundreds of cities and towns had pogroms. This wave of pogroms was a new experience for Russian Jews – though specific cities had experienced anti-Jewish riots before, nothing on the same scale had ever taken place before.

Up to 1881, many if not most, Jews living in Russia believed that life was slowly but surely improving within the Empire. There had been a series of incremental improvements granted over previous decades, and discussions about how Jews could be better included in the wider social and political life of the Empire had taken place in print. Many people expected positive change to come soon. At the same time, there was a desire for more rights and opportunities—particularly opportunities for upward mobility—within the Jewish community. For those with a hopeful outlook, 1881 was a deeply unpleasant shock. It was in the wake of the pogroms that many Russian Jews decided they were not welcome in the Empire, and never would be.

In 1882, Emigration rates began to rise steadily, with the immigrant-friendly USA being the most popular destination. This wave of emigrants continued fairly steadily, then peaked after another series of pogroms, which followed the Russian Revolution of 1905. At that point, it seemed clear that any political unrest in the Empire would result in violence against Jews, and many Russian Jews no longer felt safe.

Between 1881 and 1914, approximately 3 million Jews left the Russian Empire, most for the USA. So many Jewish immigrants arrived to New York City that by 1900, Yiddish (the language of Eastern European Jews) was the second most common spoken language in Manhattan.

Emigration was one Jewish response to the rise in anti-Jewish violence that began in 1881—and it created a significant and lasting change to Jewish life around the world—but it was not the only response. In addition to emigrating, some Russian Jews embraced late-nineteenth-century nationalism by turning to Zionism, while others turned to revolutionary politics. Zionism was also founded in the late nineteen hundreds, and gave voice to the idea that Jews would always be disadvantaged if they were a minority in a country. According to Zionism, only by having their own country where they could be the majority would Jews cease to experience persecution. An underground Zionism movement sprang up in Russia, and was popular among some of the Jews who chose not to emigrate.

The third Jewish response was to embrace radical politics. The Jewish Labour Bund (usually called simply “the Bund”) was a socialist political party founded at the end of the 1890s in order to advocate for better living conditions for Jews remaining in the Russian Empire. Prior to 1905, when all political parties were illegal in the empire, it remained an underground organization. After elections became possible, it ran as a political party to represent Jewish workers. Other Jews embraced even more radical ideas, joining one of the many revolutionary parties that existed throughout authoritarian Russia, including the Social Democrats—who later split into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. While Jews in all these parties supported roughly similar socialist or communist politics, the key disagreement was about how they should go about organizing to achieve the future they wanted. The Bund believed Jews should stick together and advocate for particular Jewish needs as they made change, while Jews who joined the Bolsheviks or Mensheviks believed that Jews and non-Jews ought to work together for shared goals. Once the government was upended, Jews would be freed from the restrictive laws governing their lives, as would all Russian residents.

There was yet more emigration as a result of pogroms during World War I and the Russian Civil War, but on a smaller scale--the majority of Russian Jews who would leave had already left before WWI broke out.

Emigration (first and foremost to America), Zionism and embracing radical politics were the three key ways that Russian Jews dealt with the massive upheaval and increased violence they faced within the Russian Empire between 1881—1914.

Sources:

Jewish Virtual Library – Pogroms; Pale of Settlement

YIVO online - Pogroms

Ed. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Anti-Jewish Violence Jonathan Frankel- Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917 Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence John D. Klier - Imperial Russia's Jewish Question, 1855-1881 Benjamin Nathans- Beyond the Pale