Shtetl on the High Seas: The Jewish Emigration from Eastern Europe and the Cross-Oceanic Experience

The mass migration from Europe to America at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century has been accorded extensive historiographical discussion. This was an exodus that changed the face of human society and led to far-reaching social changes both in the countries of origin and in the countries of immigrant absorption. Many books and articles have traced the causes for this migration and tried to understand the character traits of the migrants and their demographic composition, examining the ways in which the migrants were accepted by the surrounding society and their integration into the country of destination. On the other hand, the process of transference to the new country and the difficulties involved have been given less attention in historiography and has been perceived as a marginal stage of no special importance. As compared with the pangs of absorption in the new country and the attempts of the immigrants to integrate with the surrounding society, decision-making and realization have hardly been seen as significant. All that was required from the migrant was to reach the port of exit and to sail to the country of his destination. His transitional stage and his arrival in that country have been shunted aside in the research and was hardly dealt with in the historiography.