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A History Of The Jews In The United States
They Came for Good is the first comprehensive series to tell the little known story of 250 years of Jewish immigration in America.From the first Brazilian Jews who landed on Manhattan Island in 1654 through the end of the 19th Century, over 250,000 Jews came to our shores.They Came For Good looks at where they settled, how they adapted, survived and helped shape our country.Thoroughly researched using letters, diaries and documents of the time, the series also brings to light the first Jewish Americans who made significant contributions to American society.Assimilating into this society while maintaining a separate group identity was an issue for Jews from the very beginning, and with our collective heritage as a nation of immigrants, the story is therefore about all Americans.
Taking Root (1820-1880)
Beginning in the 19th Century, waves of German and Central European Jews spread out across America, founding most of the Jewish communities that exist today.While the most successful of this group rose to prominence as financiers and merchants, becoming known as "Our Crowd", in fact the vast majority of the 250,000 Jews who arrived in the United States during this period earned their livelihood in small retail businesses.15, 000 Jewish peddlers were the main distribution system in rural areas for goods manufactured in the newly industrialized northern cities.Taking Root chronicles the first major split in the practice of Judaism where conservative and reform movements vied for Jewish souls, while on the battlefields of the Civil War, Jews were profoundly divided along regional lines and took up arms on both sides.
Narrated by Mason Adams
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