more proof Lynchburg’s Swabian Jewish Entrepreneurs in War and Peace 1 by Richard A. Hawkins uring the mid-nineteenth century a wave of German Jewish immigrants swept into the United States. Articles in Eric E. Hirshler’s anthology suggest that this migration wave had a number of characteristics. It was especially heavy in the period 1840 to 1848, when only about one-twentieth of German immigrants were Christians. 2 During the same years the Jewish population in the United States is estimated to have increased from fifteen thousand to fifty thousand. 3 The newcomers were mostly poor, 4 and, although they had had some elementary education, they lacked knowledge of the English language on arrival. Probably two-thirds still did not understand English during the 1850s. Most, however, endeavored to accultur- ate and integrate in their new home. Their typical occupation after arrival was that of peddler. Surprisingly, given their lack of civil rights in their ‘Heimat’ [homeland] and the fact that many had preserved distinctive cultural traits, including the use of Judeo-German, many appear to have remained ardent German nationalists even after attaining American citizenship. 5 The immigrants displayed a pattern of chain migration not only from Germany to America but also within the United States. Extended family networks provided an indispensable support network for the migrants. Rather than being provincials, 6 these Jews were cosmopolitan. Southern Jews with German roots went on to lead northern and national Jewry in the same fashion D 46 S OUTHERN J EWISH H ISTORY Memorial to the former synagogue, Hürben, Krumbach, Bavaria. (Copyright © Richard Hawkins, 1999.) that their northern brethren migrated southward to build families, congregations, and businesses. The view that the typical German Jewish immigrant in the 1840s started out in the United States as a peddler is supported by the business historian Elliott Ashkenazi. 7 This article suggests that some of the German Jewish immigrants in the 1840s were fortu- nate enough to skip this step on their road to success. They arrived with sufficient capital to found businesses immediately or very soon after their arrival. To document this interpretation, the experiences of two of the leading Jewish families from 1840 to 1870, the Guggenheimers and Untermyers, will be traced from Swabia to Lynchburg, Virginia, and used as a case study. In the early 1840s, Swabian Jews were subject to the notori- ous ‘Matrikel’ [literally, register or roll] paragraph of the Bavarian
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:14:35 +0000
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