What was the appeal of America to the German Jews and was America receptive to the
immigrants and their culture?
Americans between 1933 and 1945 were hostile to, and negative about, all immigrants. If they had more negative views about Jewish immigrants as opposed to all other potential immigrants, is not clear, but certainly until the U.S. entered the war in 1941 the country was still in a depression and immigrants were viewed as competitors for scarce resources. After 1941 immigration was just impossible as the oceans were battlefields and shipping nonexistent. The United States Congress passed an immigration law in 1924, the National Origins Act (or, the Reed-Johnson Bill) which severely limited the number of immigrants and assigned quotas to the nations of the world based on national (or racial) designations. Most Jews who wanted to leave their countries because of the rise of Nazism and then because of the German occupation received very low quotas, making it very difficult for any individual to get a visa and be able to immigrant. Jews were not denied visas or immigration privileges because they were Jews but because of the quotas based on the nations or countries they lived in. No president --after 1924-- issued any kind of executive action to admit refugees above the quota system nor did Congress ever pass any refugee legislation which circumvented the quota system. About 150,000 Jews from Germany and Austria did come to the United States. This was not a small number but obviously not all the Jews who sought to flee. It was easier for German and Austrian Jews to get into British mandatory Palestine or some of the countries neighboring Germany. This came to an end in 1939 with the outbreak of the war. German Jewish immigrants were highly skilled and quite educated and over time adjusted fairly well to life in America. Many of them did have a hard time regaining their professions and their economic status and had to take jobs in different fields, but they managed to for the most part settle down, raise their children, and form organizations and clubs which they found meaningful. Many lived in New York's Washington Heights area, but large numbers went to Los Angeles, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and other cities. They were assisted by family already in the United States and by American Jewish organizations like HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the National Council of Jewish Women. They learned English and most became citizens. Their children went to American schools and those who were old enough joined the U.S. Army to fight in World War II. They did not "assimilate," in the sense that they retained strong bonds to their German backgrounds through language, clubs, foods, and social groups, and they participated in synagogues maintaining their Jewishness. There is little evidence that they faced much anti-Semitism. They did face barriers endured by all immigrants. For example, German Jews who came as doctors found it very hard to overcome the barriers set by local medical associations which wanted to keep out all foreign doctors. But many of them --and I am not sure we have the numbers-- did manage to learn English and get American medical licenses by passing exams and they could resume their careers. Many of these immigrants became professors and teachers at the college level and therefore shared their cultural knowledge with Americans. A few of them went to
Hollywood and became screenwriters, composers, directors, and shaped American