Abstract

Abstract

An Agenda of Caution: The Influence of Productivization on the Integration of East European Jews in North America During the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Howard A. Gontovnick, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2012

This dissertation begins with the premise that there was a growing sense of anxiety throughout the North American Jewish community over the increasing number of Jewish immigrants flowing in from Eastern Europe after 1880. This concern emanated from fears that these Eastern European Jews (1) will be unable to adjust to the North American way of life; (2) that the non-Jewish North American population will misunderstand the lifestyle and practices of these Jews, leading to a negative perception of all Jews; and (3) that the increasing numbers of East European Jews could result in an escalation of incidents of anti-Semitism. As a consequence of these concerns, this dissertation proposes that certain Jewish philanthropic and community groups adopted and promoted a series of responses influenced by a model of “productivization”. Productivization was a strategy of increasing the “productivity” of a group (in this case East European Jews) so as to improve how they were seen by non-Jews and Jews alike. This strategy influenced how these immigrants were relocated and depicted in public. The goal was to present this group in a better light, while discouraging any form of anti-Jewish activity that could arise from one or more of these concerns.