A Time for Building

Sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society in its centennial year, this book is part of a five-volume set which chronicles Jewish life in the United States from colonial times to the present. The respective authors explore the roots of Jewish immigration, the experience of settling in America, economic and social adjustment, religious developments and educational aspirations, political involvements, and the experience from generation to generation of what it means to be at once both Jewish and American. The years between 1880-1920 marked the third great migration of Jews to the USA - including more than two million from the Russian empire. Volume three begins with the story of such individuals as Benjamin Bloomingdale and Edward Filene - who grew from peddlers to merchants and came to dominate the burgeoning department store industry. Sorin describes the experiences of Jews who stayed in the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest, as well as those who moved to the smaller towns in the deep South and the West.