ABSTRACT
In search of economic and educational opportunities, Jews left their smaller towns for expanding urban areas. Population growth and mobility shaped every aspect of Jewish life, including occupational choice, residential patterns, and emigration, as well as political affiliation and organization. In Eastern Europe, Jewish women often worked outside the home and were integral to the Jewish as well as local economy. In Germany, the Jewish community was demographically replenished only by the influx of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Jewish birth rates declined not only in Western Europe but also in Russia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The politics of antisemitism is one such case. Antisemitism, an ideology that sought to attribute contemporary social ills to the Jews, actually led them into politics, where they hoped to forge robust responses to the wide variety of accusations directed at them. The impact of anti-Jewish state policies was intensified by enormous demographic growth and rising population density among Jews.
