Ten Per Cent of European Jews Emigrated to U.S. in 17 Years, is Assertion

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

The assertion that one-tenth of the Jewish population of Europe emigrated to the United States from 1908 to 1925, the period of largest Jewish emigration to the United States, was made by the statistician, Jacob Lestschinsky.

In the period from 1881 to 1925 3,648,500 Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, according to the figures compiled by Mr. Lestchinsky. Most of these, 2,975,000 (81.6 per cent) emigrated to America, 415,000 (11.4 per cent) went to the West European countries, 155,000 (4.2 per cent) to Asia, 85,000 (2.3 per cent) to Africa and 18,000 (.5 per cent) to Australia.

During 1900 to 1925 the stream of Jewish emigration reached its highest point. In these 25 years 1,810,752 Jews emigrated to the United States, 125,133 to the Argentine and 98,828 to Canada. Palestine took 82,922 Jewish immigrants between 1919-1925.

Among the peoples of Europe, the Jews had the highest rate of emigration. The rate of emigration to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century was for the Jews 20.6 per cent, for the Poles 8.7 per cent, Lithuanians 6.4 per cent, Germans 2.3 per cent, French 1.3 per cent. Re-emigration among the Jews has been very small Between 1908-1925 only 5.2 per cent of the number of Jews who had emigrated that year to America re-emigrated. Among other peoples, the rate of re-emigration was much larger. For Roumanians it was 76 per cent, Italians 55.8 per cent, Russians 50.6 per cent, Poles 40 per cent, and British 19 percent.

Between 1908-1925 a tenth of the whole of European Jewry emigrated and settled permanently in the United States of America. For Poles the figure was only 3 per cent, Germans 1.1 per cent, Lithuanians and Latvians 2.8 per cent, and Ruthenians and Russians 3 per cent of their total populations in Europe.

In recent years there has been a severe decrease in the emigration possibilities for Jews. In 1925 only 10,292 Jews emigrated to the United States, 4,500 to Canada, 6,920 to the Argentine, and 33,801 to Palestine. In all the number of Jewish emigrants during 1925 was about 60,000, as against a need to emigrate on the part of about 300,000 to 350,000 Jews annually. During the present year Jewish emigration is not likely to reach 60,000. On the other hand, the need to emigrate because of the economic crisis in Eastern Europe has become even more urgent than in previous years, Mr. Lestschinsky declared.