Photos I’ve seen of Eastern European Jews emigrating to New York in the early 1900s rarely depict people dressed as conservatively as modern-day Orthodox Jews. Is this because they weren’t Orthodox in the modern sense, or was there an increased emphasis on distinctive dress after the Holocaust? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Photos I’ve seen of Eastern European Jews emigrating to New York in the early 1900s rarely depict people dressed as conservatively as modern-day Orthodox Jews. Is this because they weren’t Orthodox in the modern sense, or was there an increased emphasis on distinctive dress after the Holocaust?

by redooo

tanktango

it is because New York was New York and didn't appeal to that specific demographic, as opposed to, say, the early 1900s Jerusalem.