Despite the restrictive immigration laws in effect, the United States still is the most important country for Jewish immigrants. During the year 1929, there arrived here 16,347 Jewish aliens hailing from all parts of the world. This represents a larger number of Jews than are going to any other country, and is approximately one-third of the total number of Jewish arrivals in the whole world during the last year.
The new arrivals, men, women and children, coming on 946 steamers, to the various ports of entry, were met and received by representatives of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America, and their needs attended to. Those discharged at the piers, and for whom relatives were waiting, were immediately transferred to the latter and the others were brought to the Hias Building, where contact was established with their relatives and subsequently they were entrained for their destinations. Of the latter there were 1,517. The immigrants sent to Ellis Island were taken care of by the Ellis Island Bureau of Hias.
Practically all of the new arrivals passed through the various foreign offices of Hias—in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Roumania, Danzig, Harbin, Germany, France and elsewhere. Of the 16,347 Jewish arrivals, 12,883 were qualified as immigrants and 3,464 as non-immigrants.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.