Ziomkostwa Żydów polskich w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Studium przypadku landmanszaftów Bielska Podlaskiego i Orli (1888-1993)
Polish Jews’ Place-of-Origin Associations in the United States. Case Study of Bielsk Podlaski and Orla Landsmanshaftn (1888-1993)

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to show the history and impact of the phenomenon known as migrants unions (Yid. landsmanshaftn) of Polish Jews in the USA, from their emergence in the closing decades of the 19th century to their falling into oblivion in the latter half of the 20th century. These organizations were formed in the wake of the influx of millions of Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. They organized persons coming from the same locality. Over a short period of time, thousands of such Jewish migrants organizations were formed their membership going into hundreds of thousands of members. The key objectives of them were to provide mutual assistance and the preservation of identity in the New World. The unions maintained contacts with their place of origin, especially in the interwar period and immediately after the Holocaust, when one of their main goals was to send aid to fellow Jews who remained in Europe. In addition to showing the broader context of the activities of the organizations, the author chose organizations set up by Jews from Bielsk and Orla, two localities in the Polish Podlasie region as a case study.The subject of the organizations of Polish Jews in the United States remains little known. At best, one can hope to come across one of the few articles on minor aspects of their activities or brief notes about the landsmanshaftn. Meanwhile the records of over a thousand such organizations kept at New York’s YIVO are a valuable and with regard to some matters the only preserved source material for the study of the Jewish history of many Polish localities.

• Details
• Contents