Alex Rikess
Mr. Trombetta
Grade 11, Honors U.S. History
October 1, 2012
The Impact of Jewish Americans in the Early 1900’s
At the beginning of the 20th century people in America where changing. They changed lifestyles, fashion, ideas, and culture. There where people coming from all parts of the world, leaving their homes behind in hope of achieving the American dream. So many people where coming over that The United States had to make a limit of how many foreigners could become citizens. Prior to the Immigration Act of 1924, close to two million Jews were moving to America per year before this law. The act allowed less than 10,000 Jewish people to enter the U.S. per year ("Consequences of the Act of 1924").
Jewish Americans have had all the same rights as any other American. They could pursue any lifestyle they wanted. Many of them did become very successful such as Albert Einstein (Physicist), Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis), Jonah Salk (discovered cure for Polio), and Hank Greenberg (amazing Jewish Athlete). But they were targeted during hard times such as wars and the during depression. Henry ford wrote a book called, “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem” which depicts Jews to be evil.
I believe that Henry Ford was wrong, because one of the smartest and most respected men of all time was Jewish. That man was Mr. Albert Einstein. Most known for his discovery of the equation E=MC2, the Theory of Relativity, he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 He was a man of peace as well being quoted as saying “I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. . . . Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe, such as war?” (“Albert Einstein.”)
Another brilliant mind the Jewish population gave birth to is Sigmund Freud. Apart from being in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, Freud dug into the minds...