INDUSTRIAL REMOVAL

INDUSTRIAL REMOVAL, American movement to disperse Jewish immigrants throughout the United States, 1900–17. Founded and financially supported by the baron de hirsch fund with the collaboration of B'nai B'rith , the Industrial Removal Office sought to persuade and assist Jewish workers to leave the congested immigrant districts of Boston, Philadelphia, and above all New York, for smaller cities where Jewish communities existed and a variety of jobs were available. Approximately 75,000 Jews were thus assisted to resettle in such cities as Grand Rapids, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; Cleveland; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Cincinnati; and others. Many of these migrants, besides bringing their families, drew other friends and relatives. Their experience of Jews in these smaller cities differed markedly from that of Jews who remained part of the very large concentrations of immigrants. The former were far lonelier and forced to acculturate more rapidly, especially linguistically. The peak of the movement was reached about 1910–13. The World War I period brought about its discontinuation (see galveston plan ). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Joseph, History of the Baron de Hirsch Fund (1935), 184–205; L.J. Swichkow and L.P. Gartner, History of the Jews of Milwaukee (1963), 157–9; M. Vorspan and L.P. Gartner, History of the Jews of Los Angeles (1970), 111–2. (Lloyd P. Gartner)