The Russian Revolution in New York, 1917–19

Abstract

The events of 1917 exerted strong influences on immigrant Jews in the United States of America, who, over the previous three decades, had cultivated ties with various Russian-Jewish and Russian political parties. With the lives of friends, relatives, and comrades hanging in the balance, immigrant Jews felt a deep investment in a successful outcome of the Russian Revolution. This article seeks to uncover the broad climate of opinion – the mix of perceptions, emotions, and ideas – toward Bolshevism as it coalesced among immigrant Jews in New York City and found extreme political manifestation in the Communist movement.