In the late 19th century, Russia had large-scale anti-Jewish programs and policies that left the people poor and desolate. Jewish people were banned from rural areas and small towns. By 1891, most Jews were expelled from Moscow. Between 1880 and 1920, more than two million Jews fled Russia. Most of them to the United States. Here is an excerpt from "Distress in Russia" (an eye witness account)
"The famine is real, not imaginary ... The peasantry is compelled to eke out an existence that would make an honest laboring man in the United States shudder ... Nearly every fifth person in Nijni was a cripple, and such would crawl around the streets begging pitifully for help ... Among the Jews, none but the merchants of the "front rank" are allowed to remain in Moscow ... A Jew in Russia is never certain how long it will be before he will have to leave the country. Most of them look to America as their refuge."
President Benjamin Harrison denounced the anti-Semitic policies of Russia, but feared that such a large-scale immigration of Jews to the United States would be neither good for the country, nor for the Jew. His message seems to be directed towards Russia to improve the conditions for the Jews, and was not a rejection of the Jews coming to America. In his annual address to congress in 1891, Harrison described the plight of the Jews:
"By the revival of antisemitic laws, long in abeyance, great numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon their homes and leave the Empire by reason of the impossibility of finding subsistence within the pale to which it is sought to confine them. The immigration of these people to the United States--many other countries being closed to them--is largely increasing and is likely to assume proportions which may make it difficult to find homes and employment for them here and to seriously affect the labor market. is estimated that over 1,000,000 will be forced from Russia within a few years. The Hebrew is never a beggar; he has always kept the law--life by toil--often under severe and oppressive civil restrictions. It is also true that no race, sect, or class has more fully cared for its own than the Hebrew race. But the sudden transfer of such a multitude under conditions that tend to strip them of their small accumulations and to depress their energies and courage is neither good for them nor for us."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). Benjamin Harrison: Third Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29532 [Accessed 7 Feb. 2018].Distress In Russia. (1891). THE PECULIAR PEOPLE: A Christian Monthly Devoted to Jewish Interests, Volumes 4-5(American Sabbath Tract Society.), p.185.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Russian_jews_being_examined_by_a_doctor_before_emigration_fr_Wellcome_V0020304.jpg
Very informative. Thank you
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