Book Review

Canada and the United States

American immigrant history has often revolved around basic questions concerning the balance between retention of ethnic culture and adaptation to American norms. Whereas a previous generation of scholars stressed the disruption of migration and the pressure of assimilation, more recent historical works emphasize the ways that immigrants adjusted to American life on their own terms, using the blueprints of their particular cultures and institutions.	1
Into the mix of these newer trends in immigrant historiography comes Daniel Soyer's thorough analysis of immigrant associations in New York's Jewish community. In a carefully researched and highly readable account, Soyer presents a detailed discussion of Jewish landsmanshaftn (hometown associations) from their origins in East European Jewish communities to their development and transformation in New York City during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.	2
Soyer's examination of New York's landsmanshaftn demonstrates convincingly that the maintenance of these distinct ethnic associations not only coexisted with but actually facilitated immigrant acculturation. During the early twentieth century, New York Jews created thousands of landsmanshaft organizations, with a collective membership in the hundreds of thousands. Landsmanshaftn provided a foundation for communal life, offering religious services, mutual aid, sick and death benefits, and insurance, as well as a host of social, cultural, and recreational activities. Far from being nostalgic, backward-looking associations, landsmanshaftn focused most of their energies on helping immigrants adjust to American life. To be sure, concern for their European homelands remained a constant preoccupation of members, expressed primarily though fundraising efforts that regularly sent money to their hometowns. Yet, the activities and programs of landsmanshaftn were principally directed toward the needs of Jewish immigrants in the United States, addressing practical economic and social issues and reflecting the cultural and political interests of an immigrant generation.	. . .