Leaving Mother Russia: Practical Organization of Jewish Emigration from the Tsarist Empire, 1881-1914
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Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies
The Professor Bernard Choseed Memorial Fellowship and the Natalie and Mendel Racolin Memorial Fellowship Admission: Free |
Between 1881 and 1914, about two million Jews left the Tsarist Empire and departed westwards, primarily for the United States. What were the logistics of this often difficult process? This presentation will highlight the complex decision-making and border-crossing processes that individual Jews went through on their journeys to America. Jewish residents of the Pale of Settlement learned about potential destinations from the Jewish press, printed travel brochures, and word of mouth. Official representatives of emigration agencies and illegal smugglers played a key role in the physical relocation of Jewish emigrants across Russia’s western border. However, using the services of official emigration organizations entailed complicated bureaucratic procedures of the Russian government. Therefore, despite the dangers a majority of Jewish emigrants preferred to work in the shadows with smugglers and cross the border illegally. This lecture will take you through the journey that East European Jews made more than a century ago, from learning about emigration options and weighing risks to arrival at Ellis Island.
About the Speaker
Anastasiia Strakhova is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Emory University (Atlanta, GA). Internationally trained in Jewish Studies and History, she completed her undergraduate degree at International Solomon University in Ukraine, and then earned a master’s degree at Central European University in Hungary. At Emory, she studies the impact of mass Jewish emigration from the Late Tsarist Empire on the Jewish population remaining in Russia. This year she is the Professor Bernard Choseed Fellow and the Natalie and Mendel Racolin Fellow in Eastern European Jewish Studies at the YIVO Institute and the graduate research fellow at the Center for Jewish History.