1907 - Plan your move to Galveston, Texas

 When one thinks of the throngs of Jewish immigrants arriving in the United States in the early 1900s, images of the Statue of Liberty and pushcarts on the Lower East Side generally come to mind. While New York clearly attracted the largest portion of the arriving Jews, there was a concerted effort by several Jewish Organizations over the years to divert the flow from the horrid conditions, poverty and crime, often found in the Lower East Side tenements to other cities and states further West.

One such short lived movement, that achieved a level of success, was known as the Galveston Movement, a plan by several Jewish organizations to divert immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe and Russia to Galveston, Texas. Between 1907-1914, ten thousand Jewish Immigrants went through the entry port in Galveston, at a time when the entire population of Galveston was 37,000 people and the entire state was home to less than 400,000 people. The New York businessman and philanthropist Jacob Schiff was a leading figure behind this idea, and he supported it with nearly $500,000 in donations (Approx. $13 million in today's terms). The Jewish Territorialist Organization, established in 1901 by the United Hebrew Charities of New York, the B'nai B'rith and the Baron de Hirsch Fund coordinated the efforts and assisted travelers all along the journey from Eastern Europe as well as helping them settle once they arrived in Texas. A Local Rabbi in Galveston, Rabbi Henry Cohen would welcome each ship that would arrive at the port and was instrumental in helping the new arrivals find housing and employment.

Many of these immigrants who found their way to Galveston continued on to the numerous small towns and outposts in the area and founded stores or peddled their goods. Not everyone though shared Schiff's belief in this mission. Particularly in Texas, many of the established Jews feared that the many new immigrants will harm their livelihood by intense competition. In addition, the various organizations involved had disagreements regarding the immigration methods. Coupled with the outbreak of WWI and the resulting slow of immigration to the US, this put an end to the Galveston Movement.

A book I got in recently serves as a reminder of these tumultuous times, when mass immigration caused the World Jewish Immigration to tip from East to West. in Yiddish, titled hoypt yedies vegn emigratsye in galveston (shtot teksas), it contains relevant information and promotional material about the opportunities and success that can be found by moving to Galveston. Published in Zhitomir, Ukraine in 1907, it gave the reader all the information necessary to plan the move, from filing the paperwork, planning the voyage and opportunities that awaited upon your arrival.