The Jewish Migration Experience

Immigration is a central feature of Jewish history, and perhaps even more so in modern times. From the late 19th century through today, nearly ten million Jews have moved between continents, shifting their spatial distribution from Eastern Europe, Asia, and North Africa to Western countries and to Israel. These migrations are an expression of the desire to improve legal status, to take advantage of economic opportunities, and to fulfill nationalist and religious aspirations. Indeed, Jews have not always been able to realize their wishes to move, whether because of prohibitions on leaving their places of residence or restrictions on settling in new destinations. Of course, the establishment of the state of Israel had a decisive impact on the choice of Jews and their family members, even if some of the latter were not Jewish according to religious law. Still, the physical transition did not mark the end of the immigration process, and in their new country Jews had to obtain citizenship, acquire the local language, find work, secure housing, and adjust to the culture of the host society. Today, at the end of a long process of migration, settlement, and re-migration, Jews are concentrated in a small number of highly developed countries, where they have achieved extraordinary educational and economic attainments and enjoy full rights. The symposium in this volume of Studies in Contemporary Jewry brings together a dozen original essays, each of which tackle, in one form or another, Jewish migration, covering different sub-periods, broad areas across the globe, and diverse disciplines including art, literature, film, history, and sociology.