ABSTRACT
The Jewish community in the United States has experienced a remarkable economic transformation during the twentieth century, from a community of impoverished immigrants to one of suburban professionals.1 This transformation may be thought of as following two overlapping phases. In the first half of the century, most American Jews were either immigrants or the children of immigrants, born in poverty or near-poverty. Jewish men during this period focused on upward occupational mobility, acquiring high levels of secular education and moving into middle-and high-level occupations with correspondingly high wage rates. During the later decades of the century, the community’s new socioeconomic position would be consolidated as second-and third-generation suburban Jews, both men and women, attained even higher levels of education and the community shifted from business to professional occupations. While the typical Jewish male at the beginning of the century may have been a tailor or a peddler, by mid-century he was a businessman, doctor, accountant, pharmacist or lawyer and by its end he would have been a professional (often salaried) in any one of a variety of fields.
