Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York

An illuminating portrait of family and community life among Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, prepared in the 1930s through the WPA Federal Writers' Project, is published here for the first time. The WPA Yiddish Writers' Group, headed by I. E. Rontch, conducted an ambitious study of some 2,500 landsmanshaftn, associations of Jewish immigrants from the same hometown that played an important role in helping newcomers adjust to life in America. The results of the survey, an incomparable source for the study of Jewish immigration history, were disseminated in two Yiddish volumes in 1938 and 1939; however, the project ended before this abridged English version could be published. The WPA study discusses the social and benevolent activities of hometown associations, their constitutions and souvenir journals, the East European background of the Jewish family, preferences in reading and recreational activities, standards of living, occupations, schooling, and personality sketches of three generations. Enhanced by an introduction recounting the history of the Yiddish Writers' Group, an afterword describing the evolution of Jewish immigrant associations since World War II, and a bibliographic guide to literature on immigrant organizations, this book provides firsthand insights into an immigrant community's response to the challenges of acculturation in a pluralistic society.