The emigration of the Jews of the Russian Pale of Settlement (which included most of the Ukraine) occurred for the most part in the time period commencing in 1881, after the assassination of Czar Alexander II, and ending with the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. In this span of 33 years, fully one third of the entire Jewish population of Eastern Europe (that is, the Russian and Austro Hungarian empires) abandoned a life of oppression and grinding poverty and headed westwards to North America.
The principal factors that catalyzed the Jewish exodus from the Russian Pale included:
The gradual, legislated emasculation of the Jewish communal authorities (known as the kahals);
Discriminatory military conscription of Jewish male children;
The May Laws of 1881, which introduced discriminatory economic and tax burdens against the Jews;
Government inspired and encouraged outrages, known as "pogroms", which involved murder and rape of the Jews and the looting of and damage to Jewish property;
The general political instability of the Czarist regime;
The gradual rise of a Christian middle class in the Ukraine and its growing demands for anti-Jewish economic legislation;
Legislated restrictions against the entry by Jews into Russia's advanced educational institutions and liberal professions except in accordance with strictly enforced quotas;
Government ordered expulsions of Jews from villages, rural districts and borderlands;
Economic opportunity and political and religious freedom available for all in North America.
The widespread anti Jewish sentiment of the general population in the Ukraine was shared by the army and police. Moreover, the Jews were in reality legal pariahs in the Russian empire. They did not possess even the minimal rights of citizenship enjoyed by the other nationalities that made up the peoples of Russia.
No doubt there were many Jews who joined revolutionary movements in Russia seeking to change the status quo, but many more simply gave up on the country and sought a new, better life abroad. The blatant discrimination, together with the poverty, unemployment and ubiquitous squalour, aggravated by the pogroms, was simply too much. America, a hospitable land that promised opportunities to live in peace and material comfort, also offered religious freedom.
The three major ports of entry in North America for Jewish emigrants from the Ukraine were New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Between 1881 and 1910 there were 1,119,059 Jewish emigrants from the Russian Pale to the United States.
While they represented less than 5% of the total population of the Russian empire, Jews constituted almost half of the emigrants from Russia in this time period. In 1907, for example, 114,937 Jews arrived in the United States from Russia; in 1909, there were 39,150 and, in 1910, there were 59,824.
The same was true in Canada. Forty one (41%) percent of the Russian immigrants to Canada from 1900-1914 were Jewish. Half of them arrived from the United States rather than through Canadian ports. As a result of immigration, Canada's Jewish population in the first 20 years of this century increased by 86,169.
More than a quarter of the Jewish emigrants from the Pale were illiterate. Occupationally, the vast bulk were skilled labourers: tailors, hat and cap makers, milliners, watch and clock makers, tobacco workers, barbers, hairdressers, shoemakers, weavers, spinners, tanners, curriers, furriers, fur workers and book binders. Most of them came from small towns and villages. Objective observers regarded these newcomers as being generous, hospitable and hardworking, though uneducated.
When a Jewish family decided to emigrate from the Pale, the husband/father typically left first without his family. When he had earned and saved as much money as possible, or could borrow money from a relative or friend, who was usually a landsman, he would arrange passage for the rest of his family to join him.
To leave Russia legally, an emigrant had to obtain a passport. Because they were expensive, difficult and time consuming (about 3 months) to obtain, the overwhelming majority, likely 90%, of the emigrants left illegally. With whatever they could carry with them, they travelled by horse drawn wagon from their hometown to the nearest town that had a train station. There they would board a train that would carry them to the nearest town that was also closest to the Austrian border (at that time, the Austro Hungarian empire comprised almost all of the lands west and south of the Podolian border).
From the Russian border town, the emigrants would again travel by horse drawn wagon or on foot towards the actual border, usually with the assistance of special agents skilled in smuggling illegal emigrants into Austria. Waiting until dark, in barns or farmers' fields, groups of emigrants led by these agents would sneak across the border, wading through, or travelling by boat over, the river which typically was the actual boundary.
The agents who smuggled emigrants across the Russian Austrian border were often also employed by the steamship line's brokers. For example, the North German Lloyd steamship line, which transported emigrants across the Atlantic from the German ports of Bremen and Hamburg, used F. Missler as its exclusive broker to sell passage to prospective emigrants from the Russian empire. F. Missler employed many agents to promote emigration via German ports and to assist emigrants in stealing across the Russian border. Pamphlets and leaflets in fact circulated widely amongst the Jews in the Ukraine describing transit conditions through Austria and Germany, costs of railway and steamship tickets and offering guide books to Canada.
Emigrants from Podolia either travelled southwards into Austrian Bukovina or westwards into Austrian Galicia. Reaching Bukovina meant crossing the Dneister River; entering Galicia meant getting over the Zbruch River.
Some of the towns on the Russian side of the border with Bukovina included Zhvanets and on the Austrian side included Khotin. As for Galicia, some of the Russian border towns were Smotrich and Zarichanka and on the Austrian side were Skala (Podilska) and Chortkiv.
As soon as the Jewish emigrants were on the Austrian side, they felt safer. They had escaped Russian oppression and most of the Austrian border towns had large, hospitable Jewish communities ready, willing and able to help them while they awaited trains to take them further along their journey. These communities were supported in their efforts by Jewish relief organizations with international funding. Together, they helped the emigrants en route.
Either on the Austrian side of the border or on crossing into Germany, the emigrants were bathed and their clothing and possessions disinfected before they were permitted to travel further. They were then put aboard special emigrant trains which took them to Berlin and, from there, onwards to either Hamburg or Bremen, the principal German ports from which they would travel overseas. These special trains were little more than cattle transport trains into which the emigrants were herded and crowded together. All along the way from the Russian Austrian border to and including their port of disembarkation overseas, the Jewish emigrants received food and medicine from various Jewish aid committees. Also, all along the way, particularly in Germany, the emigrants were prevented from having any contact whatsoever with the local population.
The train trip from the Russian Austrian border to Berlin typically took anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. Those emigrants who crossed into Austrian Bukovina and made their way to Khotin usually travelled from there by train to Czernowitz and then to Vienna and Berlin. Those who crossed into Austrian Galicia at or near Skala would typically board a train there to Tarnopol and then to Berlin. During their brief stay in Berlin, the emigrants were usually again inspected and, if necessary, disinfected; afterwards, they were quickly despatched to their port of disembarkation. They were not usually permitted any freedom of movement during their brief stop in Berlin.
In the period 1905-1914 alone, some 700,000 Jews passed through Germany from Eastern Europe en route to North America.
Travelling by train from Berlin to either Hamburg or Bremen took approximately 24 hours. The wait in Hamburg or Bremen normally ranged from a few days to a week before the emigrants were able to board the first available ship for either England or North America. The emigrant ships did not depart daily.
During their wait, the emigrants were housed in special barracks and again medically inspected. Specially organized local Jewish committees in the port cities assisted them pending their departure.
The barracks in both Bremen and Hamburg were fairly primitive. Men and women were separated from each other. There were no tables or chairs, just a bench along the walls for people to sleep on. The emigrants were expected to keep these barracks clean themselves. The yard outside was enclosed by barbed wire to control entry and exit. Representatives of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society were on hand to ensure correct treatment by the German officials administering these facilities.
By 1906, kosher meals and a synagogue were available at the emigrants' facilities in both Hamburg and Bremen. Moreover, the emigrants, once they had passed medical inspection and disinfection, were permitted limited access to the city.
England often played a role as a land of transmigration for hundreds of thousands of East European Jewish emigrants. These emigrants would depart Germany, very much like those other emigrants travelling directly to North America, and they would cross the North Sea, disembarking at the port of Grimsby on the east coast of England's midlands. There, they would board a train and cross England to Liverpool, where they would board another ship for Canada or the United States.
A trans Atlantic journey was cheaper via Liverpool than directly from Hamburg or Bremen. Small but strong Jewish communities in Grimsby and Liverpool lent much appreciated assistance to these transmigrants.
Travel across the Atlantic was frightening and extremely unpleasant for the emigrants. The vast majority travelled in the lowest class, known as steerage. Typically, steerage passengers were accommodated in portable berths in large dormitory like rooms. There were no public or dining rooms; they ate their meals on open deck after lining up with their mess tins. Sea water was used for washing. Mattresses were often made of straw and no pillows were provided. During the crossing, which usually took 12 to 14 days, the crew did very little in the way of cleaning and housekeeping. No soap or towels were provided and the condition of the bathrooms, which were used indiscriminately by both sexes, was deplorable. There was no privacy whatsoever. Steerage quarters could be generally described as foul smelling, poorly ventilated and filthy.
The steerage class was invariably overcrowded and many of its passengers were often seasick. The food was usually rotten and inedible, the crew usually rude and disrespectful. Jewish passengers were often segregated from the other nationalities, as much because they preferred it that way themselves as for any other reason.
By the last decade of this wave of emigration (1905-1914), the Jewish passengers were often accompanied aboard ship by a "guardian" appointed by one of the Jewish emigrant aid organizations. This "guardian" was there to help curb the unfair treatment often given the passengers by the captain and the crew.
My great uncle, Menasha Bikman, left Bremen for Baltimore in 1907 aboard the SS Gera, built in 1890 for the North German Lloyd line. My great uncles, Max (Mordko) and Louis (Leib), left Bremen in 1909 for Baltimore aboard the SS Koln, built in 1899 for the North German Lloyd line. My grandfather, Sam (Zelman), and Max's wife, Tuba (Tillie), departed Bremen for Philadelphia in 1910 on the SS Brandenburg, built in 1901 again for the North German Lloyd line. In 1913, Leah, my grandmother, and Avrum (Abe, my father), took the SS Canada, built in 1896 for the Dominion line, from Liverpool for Quebec City after having taken the SS City of Leeds from Hamburg to Grimsby, England. Canada, at this time, was a cheaper destination and less stringently enforced her immigration laws.
On arrival at their North American port, the emigrants were once again examined by doctors prior to being allowed through customs and immigration. If the immigrant passed medical inspection, he would then be directed towards one of several lines of immigrants, divided according to nationality, to be interviewed. Jews, considered to be a nationality, had their own line. Representatives from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society were on hand to assist the immigrants with the questions they were asked in the interview.
The process of arrival, inspection and interview usually took an entire day. The bustle, confusion, rush and the sheer size of the arrival facilities overwhelmed the average immigrant. Feelings of fear, anxiety and despair were typical. While they were universally glad to be away from Russia, they feared what lay ahead. Moreover, of all the nationalities of immigrants from Russia, the Jews were typically the most materially impoverished on arrival in North America.
From the interview conducted on arrival, the immigration authorities determined that the Jewish immigrants, like all the other nationalities from Eastern Europe, were generally poorly educated and often illiterate. Unlike the others, however, the Jews were obviously intending to stay and, more often than other nationalities, brought their families with them. Also unlike the others, they had support from local Jewish aid organizations and communities to help them in adapting to life in America.
Most of the Jewish immigrants were young people who were skilled labourers in their former country. In the latter decade of the period of mass emigration from Russia, a larger proportion of the arrivals came from the more educated classes.
Without a doubt, what distinguished the Jewish immigrants from the others more than any other factor was that they viewed themselves as permanent settlers in the New World. By 1914, there was, as a result of this massive emigration, a dramatic shift westwards in the centre of gravity of Jewish life. What began with Russian, and then Soviet, oppression culminated in the mass slaughter by the Nazis. By the end of World War II, Jewish life in the Ukraine had ended.
Jews are first known to have reached Alberta in the 1880's, little more than 10 years after the arrival of the Mounted Police to bring law and order to the territory. The Lethbridge News, on July 6, 1893, reported that "several thousand Jews...will settle shortly in the North West Territories, principally in Alberta,...." The article went on to say that "representations should be made to the Government at once against encouraging or even permitting the entry of people whose filthy habits and usurious character have made them detested in the country from which they come...."
The Macleod Gazette, on July 14, 1893, reported that "the government has (sic) decided to make further enquiries before distributing these hordes...on the devoted settlers of this country...."
Notwithstanding local sentiments, many Jews came to Alberta in the period of 1881-1914, establishing strong communities in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Smaller communities were also organized in Vegreville and other farm towns in east central Alberta.
By December, 1911, Lethbridge's newspaper of the time, the Lethbridge Daily, reported that the Jewish community there had engaged a rabbi to conduct religious services and instruct the community's children in Jewish religious beliefs and practices. The Lethbridge Herald reported on September 30, 1912 that the 25 members of the Jewish community had met recently and raised $1200.00 towards the construction or acquisition of a synagogue.
The Canadian Jewish Times, published in Montreal, reported in its December 20, 1912 issue that the Jewish community of Lethbridge met earlier that same month to raise money to help the Jews of Turkey who were suffering as a result of the Balkan War. Amongst those who attended this meeting was my great uncle, Max Bikman.
The same newspaper again reported in its February 20, 1914 issue about the Jewish community in Lethbridge, this time advising that a new Zionist society had organized itself in the town, with a membership of forty one persons.
Lethbridge's Jewish community peaked in the late 1950's and early 1960's, when it boasted of a membership of nearly 300 men, women and children. Today, the community would not total 50. Most of its members today are senior citizens. The larger cities of Alberta and British Columbia have drawn the Jews of the smaller cities of both of these provinces, offering better religious and communal facilities together with greater educational and employment opportunities.
Today, Alberta's Jewish population is probably close to 20,000, half of whom live in Calgary, and another 40% of whom live in Edmonton. The rest are scattered throughout the province.