Happy July!

A quick pre-July 4th (and Canada Day!) fix for ya: according to This Day… In Jewish History, here’s what makes July 1st so special:

1907: The SS Cassel entered the port of Galveston, Texas with 87 Russian Jews aboard, heralding the start of the Galveston Movement – an organized attempt to bring Jews to less populated parts of the US.

Apparently, around the turn of the century, the Jewish Immigrants’ Information Bureau was worried that if the waves of Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution continued to crowd into American east coast cities (remember learning about the Lower East Side tenements in American history class?), an increase in American anti-Semitism and immigration restrictions might follow. They therefore attempted to divert Jewish immigrants to cities like Charleston, New Orleans, and, most of all, to Galveston, TX. In total, ten few thousand Jews came through Galveston between the years 1907 and 1914.

If you’re curious about this lesser-known piece of American Jewish history, check out the JPS book Zayda Was a Cowboy (I still think that title is hilarious).  There’s also the cleverly (though more seriously) titled Galveston: Ellis Island of the West.

-Naomi