Zionism in New York: A Jewish home

[saint polype]

The aspiration for a nation-state was not central in the Zionist movement before the 1940s

- Hebrew University historian Dmitry Shumsky

Since we are on AH, here is a thought experiment. Consider Zionism never becomes what it was in OTL, but instead, the idea of a Jewish home gained traction. The idea of Jewish people worldwide establishing safety in numbers by migrating to a single place and building a cultural and demographic- rather than a strictly political center.

For starters, consider New York, City and state.
Even shortly after WWII, it already had a large Jewish community. 2 million by 1950.
Suppose that without Israel, there is a pseudo-Zionist movement launched by the New York community inviting refugees and all of the diaspora to immigrate there.
If it gains traction, then it seems achievable to have at least a New York City proper housing the single largest Jewish community in the world, making up over 40% or even the majority of the population.

- Is this achievable with an early 20th century or post WWII POD?
- What political and cultural impact would this have had?
- Would Jewish people have been safe? Because that is really the whole point. Would Jewish culture have thrived? And most of all, would they, within the framework of the United States, and outnumbering all other ethnic groups in their province, have been safe from pogroms and another Holocaust?

 

[Neoteros]

Yeah, I don't think any kind of ethnic takeover of any kind of pre-existing city or region would've gone well.

One thing you could do, is to have a significant number of Jews settle a place that was nearly empty and quite underdeveloped IRL, basically what Zionists thought Palestine was, with the assent of their host country's authorities. Some places in mid-20th century America might qualify (a Jewish Nevada right next to the very Mormon Utah would be fun), but early 20th century Arabia's another candidate, if the Arab Revolt is at least partly successful.

 

[saint polype]

Yeah, I don't think any kind of ethnic takeover of any kind of pre-existing city or region would've gone well.

Then again, is that not the reality in many places in the US?

If we assume a "base" population for any given part of the US to be white aglo-saxon christian colonists, are there not entire neighbourhoods or even cities who became dominated by different ethnicities over time?

The midwest, for instance, is made up mostly of people who claim to be of german origin.

How would post WWII Jewish immigration have been stopped, and what would have kept those immigrants from moving to a place like New York? Especially with a snowball effect, the bigger the community, the more newcomers it attracts.

Even if we say NYC itself would resist, what would keep the communities from establishing satellite suburbs all around it, eventually forming a proper Jewish belt?

 

[joho6411]

Why only NYC? Miami & Dade County, Florida want to know?

 

[Jürgen]

New York is the wrong city, but the idea of a Jewish city state have always been an interesting idea. I have myself played with the idea of a Jewish Walvis Bay, it have the right climate, a good port and (limited) access to fresh water, it also have the benefit of being as close to empty as any place realistic could.

Of course the question is where could you make a similar town in USA? Las Vegas was not a bad suggestion, the problm is that Las Vegas exist for pretty unique reason and heavily depend on other states to exist at all.

 

[Declan]

I don't think it is possible, barring some drastic timeline adjustments.

There would be opposition from the groups already living within NYC. It would not even be fully driven by explicit antisemitism, but general anti-immigration sentiment as well. So NYC's then leaders would lobby hard against it. I don't think this would be a hard sell to the US Congress, especially since the US had stricter immigrations laws then. As such, either Truman or the Congress, put a harsh maximum quota for jewish immigrants and absolutely gut the idea of a jewish New York.

 

[French Frog]

NYC might not be the place but plenty of other groups emigrated and created new "Homelands' right across the Americas.

 

[Leonidas]

Even if we say NYC itself would resist, what would keep the communities from establishing satellite suburbs all around it, eventually forming a proper Jewish belt?

This has actually happened IOTL with the establishment of Hasidic communities like Kiryas Joel, but I don’t know the scale of the trend.

 

[Thugsta4Life]

How about Puerto Rico for the Jewish community to move to?

 

[saint polype]

the idea of a Jewish city state have always been an interesting idea.

It is, though again, the premise does not even require a Jewish majority, just a very large plurality, as the focus of a "home" is more on the cultural than the political.
One could, for instance, consider a New York State where all Jewish communities combined make up close to half of the total population, without outright being the majority on any major political level (being, however, a massive electoral block no local politician can ignore, though this is bound to be relativized for the likely huge diversity of political views).

Why only NYC? Miami & Dade County, Florida want to know?

The cultural and demographic center of the Jewish people being in and/or around New York City is not mutually exclusive with other and in fact other large Jewish communities existing in the US.
Maybe another spot in the US would be more suitable, but then again, New York IS by a large margin the winner in OTL, and we'd have to put in a little more effort into explaining why it would be different in our ATL.

 

[Nivek]

It is, though again, the premise does not even require a Jewish majority, just a very large plurality, as the focus of a "home" is more on the cultural than the political.
One could, for instance, consider a New York State where all Jewish communities combined make up close to half of the total population, without outright being the majority on any major political level (being, however, a massive electoral block no local politician can ignore, though this is bound to be relativized for the likely huge diversity of political views).


The cultural and demographic center of the Jewish people being in and/or around New York City is not mutually exclusive with other and in fact other large Jewish communities existing in the US.
Maybe another spot in the US would be more suitable, but then again, New York IS by a large margin the winner in OTL, and we'd have to put in a little more effort into explaining why it would be different in our ATL.

Just like otl just bigger

 

[Jürgen]

It is, though again, the premise does not even require a Jewish majority, just a very large plurality, as the focus of a "home" is more on the cultural than the political.
One could, for instance, consider a New York State where all Jewish communities combined make up close to half of the total population, without outright being the majority on any major political level (being, however, a massive electoral block no local politician can ignore, though this is bound to be relativized for the likely huge diversity of political views).

I think the main problem compared to Zionism, is very much about establishing a Jewish nation, not just a homeland. The reason why the Zionist movement focused on kibbutz was because they didn’t just wanted a place where Jews lived and had political power, but they wanted Jews to stop being just merchants and artisans, but instead also being farmers.

 

[Rickdukulous Rex]

I think a western agricultural Jewish colony on a much larger scale, like Utah or the Ukrainians in Canada, makes a lot of sense but a more Jewish New York is also very easy to achieve.

 

[PGSBHurricane]

The question is, would the USA be willing to accept so many Jews after World War 2? IOTL they were reluctant to accept many until after Israel declared independence. Most of the 190,000 Jews or so that came to America between 1944 and 1959 did so after 1948 once most Jewish refugees from Europe and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East ended up in Palestine. Most Western countries were reluctant to bring in many Jewish refugees to start with even after the revelation of the Holocaust. Without Israel being part of the equation, I'm still not sure the US or many other countries would be willing to open their doors to much more than how many came IOTL. Anyway, while New York City itself seems to be a bit of a stretch for this question since there are already millions of people, there's quite a few suburbs of New York that have at least a 20% Jewish population (with Kiryas Joel, NY and Deal, NJ having 90%+) so that may work. As far as out west goes, I think it's important to note that most Jews from Europe were not farmers so there'd be less incentive to settle the Great Plains or elsewhere that is empty like the Mormons did in Utah or Ukrainian immigrants did in the prairie provinces in Canada.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

There was actually an attempt to resettle European Jews in Alaska OTL!! The Yiddish Policeman's Union uses this as its AH Setting. Attempts by the Coen Bros. to make a movie died in Development Hell, likely because it touches some third-rail issues.

New exhibit tells little-known story of a plan to settle Jewish refugees in Alaska during WWII

As millions of people around the world are displaced from their homes, some are looking to the past for insight on the refugee crisis. A new museum exhibit in Anchorage tells the story of a plan to relocate European Jewish refugees to Alaska during World War II. Listen now

alaskapublic.org

OTL they couldn't overcome anti-Semitic resistance in the Congress and public, but it's a fascinating What If and a fun novel too. Not entirely sure how plausible Chabon's vision is here, and it may offend some with its plot, but it's a great neo-Noir.

 

[jacob ningen]

I think the main problem compared to Zionism, is very much about establishing a Jewish nation, not just a homeland. The reason why the Zionist movement focused on kibbutz was because they didn’t just wanted a place where Jews lived and had political power, but they wanted Jews to stop being just merchants and artisans, but instead also being farmers.

one reason was early Zionists were either aware of how farming was "respectable" and thus less likely to be reversed or bought into the romantic pastoralism myths

 

[Jürgen]

one reason was early Zionists were either aware of how farming was "respectable" and thus less likely to be reversed or bought into the romantic pastoralism myths

It was not that it was respectable, farmers have historically been looked down on. But nationalism is very much a blood and soil ideology and in that context farmers and fishermen are ideologically important, farming is what connect you to the land you live on.

 

[French Frog]

Without any evidence, I find it hard to believe that none of the Jewish communities in eastern Europe did not include farmers ...or at least agricultural workers. I understood that a lot of these places were very rural.

 

[jacob ningen]

It was not that it was respectable, farmers have historically been looked down on. But nationalism is very much a blood and soil ideology and in that context farmers and fishermen are ideologically important, farming is what connect you to the land you live on.

precisely and Zionists wrongfully blamed the lack of soil for the conditionality of emancipation

 

[jacob ningen]

Without any evidence, I find it hard to believe that none of the Jewish communities in eastern Europe did not include farmers ...or at least agricultural workers. I understood that a lot of these places were very rural.

in fact the most famous fictional one was a dairy farmer.