Many different social and ethnic groups have migrated to America to start new lives. The Jewish people, like other ethnic groups had to struggle to achieve the most out of life. Not only did they come here as aliens to this country, but they also had to endure treacherous living quarters, rise above religious and ethnic prejudice, adapt to unfair social conditions, and customize and take advantage of economic opportunities that make the Jewish race a strong one in today's society.

The Jewish people came to The United States in three separate migrations. The first wave of Jewish immigrants came from Spain and Portugal and other places like Jamaica, Barbados, Curcao, South America, and the West Indies. These are the Sephardic Jews, and spoke Spanish. They arrived in the United States in the 1800's and since they were the first Jews to come to America they got the name of they American Jews. During this group's migration, Rabbi Lee Levinger states that " the number of immigrants varied from 8,000 in 1820 to 84,000 in 1840." ( 142). The increase of Jews did not keep up with America's population. At this time Jews were a minority in this

The social conditions that these immigrants faced were outrageous. From living in a ghetto to prejudice acts against them, they had a great deal to endure. The housing conditions for Jewish immigrants earlier in the century who lived in the Lower East Side of New York and the Jewish ghettos of Chicago and Philadelphia were abysmal. They had nearly 700 people per acre; the Lower East Side was more crowded than the worst slums of contemporary Bombay, India. Tenement fires were common because of the outhouses, cooking, and industrial activities. The polluted environment was described as "the eyesore of New York...the filthiest place in the Western continent"(Gold 4).Because of these horrible conditions, the Jewish people suffered from a number of health problems such as tuberculosis, venereal disease, mental health problems, and diabetes. Despite the low quality, their housing was expensive; therefore, thousands of families were evicted because they could not pay their rent. The Je!

Since the turn of the century, large amounts of Jews have moved to Sunbelt locations in California and Southern Florida. In 1997 the Los Angeles Population Survey revealed that 21 percent of Jewish Angelenos were foreign-born, and 45 percent are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Reflecting their recent derivation, only 12 percent of Los Angeles Jews had American-born grandparents (Gold 2).

ion, this is why employers hired them with little on-the-job training. Jews all but monopolized garment jobs, driving out natives and other immigrant groups until they abandoned those jobs for more desirable positions. During the 15-year period from 1899 to 1914, the garment industry absorbed 400,000 workers. Immigrant Jews, when they first came here preferred to enter the garment industry since it was primarily a Jewish workplace. They thought likelihood of facing anti-Semitism was very slim. Much of the actual garment assembly was done in apartment-based sweatshops, since the cost of setting up one's own business was extremely low. The low cost led many employees to save up enough money to start up their own businesses. This allowed for more workers and more jobs for friends and family members to have job openings for more Jewish immigrants to come to America.

The Jewish race through hard work and togetherness rose above all negative barriers that tried to defeat them. They molded themselves into a solid productive group of people that are now, for the most part, successful and happy.

Jews that immigrated to the United States in the late 1980's and today are much different than their ancestors. They are highly educated and skilled, and have access to coethnic networks and American Jewish communal services. Despite adversity, they tend to prosper. Like the native- born Jewish population, they are active in professions and entrepreneurship According to the 1990 census, over 50 percent of both Russian and Israel-born persons in New York and Los Angeles, age 24-65, had one or more years of college, and over 30 percent of both nationality groups were college graduates (Gold 9-10) Thus Jewish migrants are much better educated than the United States population at large, which has a 20 percent rate of college graduation.( Wertheimer 72). Reflecting their high levels of education recent Jewish immigrants experience rapid economic mobility. According to the 1990 census, established that Jews residing in New York City and Los Angeles were making more than $32,000 annu!

Lawrence Lowell decried the college's "Jewish problem" and limited the fraction of Jews in attendance to 15 percent in order to "reduce anti-Semitism" and protect Harvard's reputation. A study made two decad

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