ABSTRACT
Friends and foes alike not infrequently exaggerate the economic position, importance and power of the American Jews. Isaac Markens, an American Jew, wrote in 1888 that "within half a century the Hebrews of this country will control the balance of trade." 1 Three years later the New York Sun wrote on the subject of the Jewish immigrants from Europe that the United States is the land of promise for their race at the present day.
"Nowhere else have they advanced so signally as here. They land on our shores poor, start out oftentimes as peddlers, with their packs on their backs, and yet in a few years the majority, of them are well to do in the world, and many of them are competitors in trade feared by their Christian neighbors. Broadway from Fourteenth Street down is lined with the signs of Jewish firms. Wall Street is full of them. They have obtained an immense place in the retail dry goods trade in New York. In the professions of the law and medicine they are numerous and powerful. Very many of the most accomplished musicians are Jews, many of the actors, and many of the caterers for public amusement and refection. In every department of activity where intellectual acuteness and keenness of perception are requisite they are forging ahead." It then added: "Of late years, also, they have become conspicuous for investments in landed property. Some of the most notable of the purchasers at the Real Estate Exchange we Jews." 2
