Next Year in America: A Family History of Eastern European Jews in the Old and New Worlds

Between 1880 and 1924, about two million Jews left the Russian Empire. Matching the description on the Statue of Liberty, they arrived in America as tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Few, if any, spoke English, most lacked the work experience to garner a living wage.

Unfettered by oppression and tyranny, they took advantage of the freedoms given to every person in the New World. Within a generation, though Yiddish could still sometimes be heard, the typical Jew had become...