Opening Doors
The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary untold story of how Irish and Jewish immigrants worked together to secure legitimacy in America.
Popular belief holds that the various ethnic groups that emigrated to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century regarded one another with open hostility, fiercely competing for limited resources and even coming to blows in the crowded neighborhoods of major cities. One of the most enduring stereotypes is that of rabidly anti-Semitic Irish Catholics, like Father Charles Coughlin of Boston and the sensationalized Gangs of New York trope of Irish street thugs attacking defenseless Jewish immigrants.
In Opening Doors, Hasia R. Diner, one of the world’s preeminent historians of immigration, tells a very different story; far from confrontational, the prevailing relationships between Jewish and Irish Americans were overwhelmingly cooperative, and the two groups were dependent upon one another to secure stable and upwardly mobile lives in their new home. The Irish had emigrated to American cities en masse a generation before the first major wave of Jewish immigrants arrived, and had already entrenched themselves in positions of influence in urban governments, public education, and the labor movement. Jewish newcomers recognized the value of aligning themselves with another group of religious outsiders who were able to stand up and demand rights and respect despite widespread discrimination from the Protestant establishment, and the Irish realized that they could protect their political influence by mentoring their new neighbors in the intricacies of American life.
Opening Doors draws from a deep well of historical sources to show how Irish and Jewish Americans became steadfast allies in classrooms, picket lines, and political machines, and ultimately helped one another become key power players in shaping America’s future. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism and xenophobia today, this informative and accessible work offers an inspiring look at a time when two very different groups were able to find common ground and work together to overcome bigotry, gain representation, and move the country in a more inclusive direction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Irish and Jewish immigrants to America around the turn of the 20th century often made common cause, despite today's popular misconception that the two groups were at loggerheads, reveals NYU historian Diner (We Remember with Reverence and Love) in this sweeping account. Notwithstanding a few early gang clashes, the Irish, who had arrived first and achieved hard-won positions of relative power in many American cities, usually took the Jewish newcomers under their wing, Diner finds. The Irish helped Jews combat the kinds of bigotry they themselves had faced: they taught newly arrived Jews how to acculturate, fought antisemitism alongside them, and recruited them into the labor movement so they could battle for better working conditions. Both groups saw the relationship as mutually beneficial, Diner writes, since they felt themselves to be natural allies against white Protestant elites. The author shows that antisemitism did not become common among Irish Americans until the 1930s—but that even then, Irish Americans were also among the most vocal in denouncing the global rise of bigotry against Jews. A fascinating thread of Diner's many-stranded narrative is the importance of women labor organizers to the mentor-mentee relationship between Irish and Jewish Americans, especially the ties they forged when they worked together to challenge male labor leaders. Readers will be fascinated by this kaleidoscopic and invigorating view of American immigrant solidarity.
