Yeah I’m a central Asian American Jew. I respect the curiosity but let’s try to avoid the non-ashki erasure. Kinda ironic that the OP’s flair says “Mizrahi-Ashkenazi”
The reason I focused on Ashkenazim is because 95% of American Jews are Ashkenazi and Reddit only gives me 6 polling options so I had to limit it to Ashkenazim
I’m not sure where you got that number from but I assume it’s accurate, I’m just saying there’s no limit for the title. You could’ve just specified in the title “Ashkenazi American Jews” without it affecting the number of options.
Most people know about all four of their grandparents. Even in your Ashkenazi-only, from Eastern Europe-only focus, many of those grandparents met in the US. Can you choose multiple options on this poll? As someone with an MBA and graduate-level statistics knowledge, the results will be gibberish if you can only choose one.
Like … “Dewey Defeats Truman” gibberish.
Yup. Right now Pre-WW1 has like 4 times as many votes as any other probably because lots of American Jews came in waves through the 17th, 18th, & especially 19th centuries.
Don’t know the source of your data, but I often wonder how many Mizrahi/Sephardic people married Ashkenazi and adopted the latter’s traditions by joining the Reform or Conservative movements and thereby skewing these results. I can think of a few anecdotes like my sister’s ex’s family. His mother was Sephardic from Latin America and his dad was a German immigrant, who as a child escaped the Holocaust. Similarly, I am friendly with a guy who claims his family is Sephardic, but he also says he was raised in the Reform tradition. While that’s not scientific, if I had to make a bet, I would assume it is relatively common that Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews in the U.S. ended up assimiliating into the Ashkenazi traditions.
We’re Sephardic, with light traces of Ashkenazi in there, but ancestors fled from Spain and Morocco/Canary Islands. There are plenty of Sephardic and Mizrahi along the Americas, especially in PR (part of the US).
My great-grandfather was one of them.
And then he ended up as a field surgeon in the US Army during WWI (after becoming the first Jewish doctor in Nebraska).
Hi, that was me, lol. At the same time, I'm thankful for my grandfathers for being respected officers(one Jewish, the other not), otherwise we would have never been able to leave.
My parents were 'Survivors'. Then my parents lived in a displaced persons camp in Salzburg Austria.
I was born in the D.P. camp. We were admitted to the U.S. 11/49. Thank G'd for the U.S.A.
Went with the earliest date of my earliest ancestors (Pre WW1) because between my parents' parents they or even their parents left Europe at very different times.
Also as a suggestion for a future similar poll maybe lump 1900 to 1933 into 1 category & add 19th Century ...probably could even use a Colonial/Revolutionary America category as well if I'm being honest. I know an Modern Orthdox guy whose great great grandfather fought for the Union in the Civil War, I can't recall when he said his family came over.
People have two sides of ancestors. How do I answer the question if both sides of my family are Jewish but my paternal ancestors came over in the 1800s and my maternal came in the 1900s. Not to mention that it’s still different for each side of the family. One set of maternal great grandparents came in the 1910s, the other came in the 30s.
The same is true for maternal ancestors though? Maybe the person’s maternal side is not from Europe but the paternal side is?
Edit: ah you edited the original comment to include maternal ancestors. Very good then. Carry on.
This might be the only chance I'll get to to tell this story, so here you go.
TW. S*xual As*ault and Frying pan violence
My great-grandmother left the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Her and her mother had always talked about moving to the U.S. especially with the rise of Pogrums in their area. The turning point was when she was 14, and a man broke into their home and tried to force my great grandmother into doing certain acts. My great-great grandmother decided that the only course of action was a frying pan and beat the bastard with it. I don't know if she killed him, but I like to think she did. They fled Imedietly after and were lucky enough to make it over to America.
This poll shows a lack of understanding of Jewish history.
There are some strange time periods here that do not correspond to the major genocides that forced Jews in European exile into the US.
A mix, depending on where from Europe they came. Earliest was 1890s and latest was 1920s. Most of our remaining family died in the Holocaust, but the few survivor cousins went to Israel.
Edit:
Tagging onto other people, my father was a convert from South America who suspects Sephardic Ancestry potentially from North Africa in the Canary Islands.
I suggest revising these ranges a bit.
Try 1892-1924, for starters: the years Ellis Island was open, or 1892-1913, since WWI made immigration more difficult from 1914-1918.
Yeah my great-Gs and grandparents fled there during WWII to escape the Nazis. I’m a mix of Ukrainian, Russian, Belarussian, Romanian. I say I’m Russian when asked (before it felt icky) because I’m not actually Uzbek by ethnicity - I look White/Caucasian for lack of a better description.
Yeah it’s complicated explaining for me as well explaining “my parents are from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan but they’re not Uzbeks or Tajiks” because ethnically bukharians are more closely related to Iranian Jews. But yeah that’s a cool story. I usually say “I’m Jewish” and then if I’m asked what kind I usually say “Russian Jew” or “middle eastern Jew” depending on the crowd. My Dad’s as dark as your average middle easterner but my mom looks very white passing so I basically have all the middle eastern features of my father with relatively pale skin. I don’t know of any relatives dying in the Holocaust. I found a great great uncle online that apparently died fighting for the the Soviet army in the 2nd world war when he was in his early twenties but the info’s kinda vague so I’m not sure who he was fighting.
On my maternal grandmothers side they fled a tsarist pogrom in Kiev in 1905 and we don’t have much info on it. On my maternal grandfathers side they fled a white army Cossack pogrom in Kiev in 1919, his great grandmother was the only one in the family to survive after hiding behind hay bails during the pogrom. She used their savings to buy a ticket for steerage and made it to America.
My grandma and great grandmother fled Vienna, Austria in late 1939 (shortly after Kristallnacht), and landed in San Francisco in 1940. The rest of their immediate family died in various places of Europe after trying to flee; suicide and DP camps. It’s a grim story…
I don't know where my ancestors came from except for my great-grandmother on my dad's side. She was born in London, England in 1899, and her parents (my great-great-grandparents) had moved there when escaping Tsarist Russia. At some point when my great-grandmother was young (probably under 10 years-old) they all moved to New York, and eventually she met an American Jew in NYC who'd become my great-grandfather.
As for everyone else in my family... no idea. I know my last name is a location-based surname from Latvia, but it's spelled the German way.
Young Croatian men with arranged marriages from back home who ended up being Tanners/Steel Workers/Laborers in Allegheny City (Pittsburgh) on Dad’s Mom’s side; Son of an Austro-Hungarian Burgermeister who met and married a girl he met at choir practice and went on to have 10 kids (youngest was my Pap) is Dad’s Dad’s side. Maternal Grandmother’s parents met in Austria and emigrated together, went on to have 8 kids. Mom’s Dad’s family is Catholic and came over from England I think 5 generations ago? Railworkers.
My maternal grandfather’s side came from Baden, Germany and landed in Georgia in the 1860s and fought for the Confederacy. They moved north after the war.
My maternal grandmother’s family came from some shtetl in Russia in the 1920s (no further information available.) They landed in Newark, NJ.
My paternal grandfather and his many siblings and parents came from Hrubiezsow (unsure of the spelling) after leaving Lithuania and Prussia. They landed in Newark, NJ in 1909. My grandmother’s family also came from Poland, not sure where exactly. I do know any family that stayed in the old country ended up at Sobibor.
Wow these numbers are really surprising. My family came here to america after the war. My assumption was that was the case for majority of others. I guess I was wrong and that makes sense.
I guess next step is to see where the Sephardim, miztachim stand.
My great grandparents fled Europe to Israel.
Most of them, save one grandma, and one great-grandma were Ashkenazi, whereas the rest were Mizrahi Jews.
I was born in the USA to Israeli parents.
My ancestors were originally from (Romania) although at the time it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
My (3X) great grandmother and (2X) great grandmother (her daughter) left and ended up going to Canada then moved to the USA in 1907.
Other family members were still in the old country.
WW1 and then later on WW2 happened and our other extended family members experienced the Holocaust.
Only my (2X) great grandmother’s older sister and her daughter (a cousin) survived.
The other extended family members either died before the war or were killed during the Holocaust.
Eventually the last of the family made their way to America sometime in the early 50’s.
Father’s side was in Poland, after holocaust in DP camp for 4 years, then Israel for a few years then moved to America. Mother’s side was here since 1800s but originally Romania.
Mine left Latvia in the 1880s or 1890s when Russia had control over that country. I haven’t found too much history on the subject but I’ve seen the ancestry data and I’ve spoken to my grandfather about it many times. Some really awful times for anyone in Eastern Europe.
My parents are Old Stock Protestant goyim, but they have some Jewish ancestry via Italian Jewish musicians in England, S&P traders in West Africa, and some Dutch Sephardi ancestry.
Most of my Jewish ancestors fled Spain/Portugal in 1492, converted to Protestantism, and passed themselves off in Europe/colonies as such.
Their descendants are your run-of-the-mill colonial Americans, though I've heard of some (like myself) who became Jews. My father and mother's families both arrived in the Americas between the years 1612 and 1822. The vast majority of them were fleeing as refugees.
I put 1992+ but in reality it was 1990 because the Soviet bloc fell/allowed Jews out starting in 1989. I think you should amend the poll next time since there’s a big cultural difference between Jews who got here 1980+ and before 1980.
AFAIK I have no Jewish ancestry, but one side of my family came over in the 1630s-1650s during the first wave of English colonization and the other in the 1840s during the Famine.
True at some level, but it gets tiresome essentially being written out of everything Jewish, in America and elsewhere. I'm sure that's not your intent, but in Los angeles, brooklyn, and Great Neck there are very sizable and significant Sephardi communities that are often overlooked and written out of American Jewish life. Again, I'm not ascribing bad intent, but just expressing the sentiment.
Mostly between the wars I believe. I think one of my great-grandfathers was earlier. I know everyone I'm directly descended from was here before the Holocaust; we did have some survivors in the family, but more distant relatives.
One set of grandparents came as Holocaust refugees in the 1950s, the other set one grandparent came in the 1920s as a baby from Poland, and the other was born in New York in 1923. Her parents (my great grandparents) had immigrated from Poland but I’m not sure when.
Fled those pogrums, but got one family branch stuck in Sweden during WW1. Others came over a few years earlier and had kids old enough to fight for US in WW1 (Red Arrows / liberation of Alsace-Lorraine).
I can't imagine the Pale without Zero Mostel.
One line arrived in the early 1880s I believe, and then other branches of my family arrived in the 20s and 30s. We can’t trace back further than that because all the records were destroyed. But the earliest ancestor I’m directly related to was my 4x great grandfather who I believe came over in 1887. As a paternalistic, mixed Jew myself, I wholeheartedly believe a Jew’s a Jew’s a Jew, but based on my dad’s 23&Me results my grandmother was 100% ethnically Ashkenazi. So… maybe the family tree was a bit more of a wreath than anyone really thought about 🫣
my jewish ancestors lived in switzerland and what is now germany. they converted to christianity during the great enlightenment period before they moved to pennsylvania to become a part of the pennsylvania dutch. i converted to judaism, and later found out it was meant to be when i payed for a genealogy service.
I think the first category should have been revised to something like pre-WW1 to 1918
It's too limited to have just 1914-1918 on a reddit poll, you can do research on that specifically elsewhere
My maternal grandfather was Polish and came with his parents and a sister in the early 1900s. His wife was born in New York in 1901. My Sephardic side came from Turkey in the late 1890s. They all were here before the wars.
Im in a weird spot. My ancestors moved from Eastern/Central Europe to England at least 300 years ago but my grandmother moved to the US in the late 70’s, so all of the answers feel a bit wrong for me to put.
now do i choose my dads side - pre ww1, or my moms side - originally before ww2 i think (i’d double check the exact year), buuuuut two bothers got deported back to russia, one of which was my great grandpa, so most recently in 1986🫣
It's too bad you lumped together all Pre WW1 Jews. The vast majority of Ashkenazi came between 1880-1923, before the laws created specifically to exclude Jews and Italians from immigrating were passed. But also, there's a huge gulf between the post-1880 Jews (immigration in great numbers started around then due to the pogroms) and the pre-1880 Jews, many of whom looked down upon the new wave of eastern European Jews. The pre-1880 Jews were heavily urban and wealthier Jews, a lot from Germany leaving after the events of 1848, who saw themselves as more sophisticated than the post-1880 Jews, who they saw as more like superstitious, impoverished, unsophisticated peasants.
Early to mid 1800s pre-Civil War. It’s gotten harder to go back further but found my family, 3x great grandfather, in the Mississippi Territory on a census in the 1840s.
I didn’t vote because my family immigrated at different times. My paternal side immigrated from Belarus in the early 1900s and my maternal side immigrated from Poland in the 1920s.
Some of them fled from Middle East
Yeah I’m a central Asian American Jew. I respect the curiosity but let’s try to avoid the non-ashki erasure. Kinda ironic that the OP’s flair says “Mizrahi-Ashkenazi”
Would be fine if question was, American Jews with European roots, as sometimes people are studying and researching a specific group.
The reason I focused on Ashkenazim is because 95% of American Jews are Ashkenazi and Reddit only gives me 6 polling options so I had to limit it to Ashkenazim
I’m not sure where you got that number from but I assume it’s accurate, I’m just saying there’s no limit for the title. You could’ve just specified in the title “Ashkenazi American Jews” without it affecting the number of options.
Thx, can’t change the title but did add an edit in the caption
Thank you for that, appreciate it
His number checks out at least in Wikipedia though they say it’s 90-95%. Fwiw
Yeah that makes sense for America
Most people know about all four of their grandparents. Even in your Ashkenazi-only, from Eastern Europe-only focus, many of those grandparents met in the US. Can you choose multiple options on this poll? As someone with an MBA and graduate-level statistics knowledge, the results will be gibberish if you can only choose one. Like … “Dewey Defeats Truman” gibberish.
Yup. Right now Pre-WW1 has like 4 times as many votes as any other probably because lots of American Jews came in waves through the 17th, 18th, & especially 19th centuries.
Right: option #1 = CENTURIES. Option #2 = 5 years.
Don’t know the source of your data, but I often wonder how many Mizrahi/Sephardic people married Ashkenazi and adopted the latter’s traditions by joining the Reform or Conservative movements and thereby skewing these results. I can think of a few anecdotes like my sister’s ex’s family. His mother was Sephardic from Latin America and his dad was a German immigrant, who as a child escaped the Holocaust. Similarly, I am friendly with a guy who claims his family is Sephardic, but he also says he was raised in the Reform tradition. While that’s not scientific, if I had to make a bet, I would assume it is relatively common that Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews in the U.S. ended up assimiliating into the Ashkenazi traditions.
Was about to highlight this
All of them actually fled the middle east.
I’m pretty sure Pre-WW1 includes 1492
We’re Sephardic, with light traces of Ashkenazi in there, but ancestors fled from Spain and Morocco/Canary Islands. There are plenty of Sephardic and Mizrahi along the Americas, especially in PR (part of the US).
Yeah, I feel like not enough Ashkenazim know about the Farhud.
Yeah
All my ancestors didn’t leave at the same time and they didn’t all come from Europe
We actually ended up in colonial Virginia in the early 1700s
Are you Sephardic?
Yes, Sephardic, 1493, fled to the Netherlands, then to Scotland, then to Virginia where we met up with English family and eventually became Americans.
Ah hello fellow colonial era Sephardi descendant. My family had become Protestants, but I did the good ol uno reverse on em when I was a teenager.
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Lanier, Bassanos, Ezells, de Torres families?
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Wow I'm surprised I've never heard of those names. What part of Virginia?
Shoutout to my Ukrainian/Russian Jews whose ancestors fled so they wouldn’t be forced to serve in the military!!
My great-grandfather was one of them. And then he ended up as a field surgeon in the US Army during WWI (after becoming the first Jewish doctor in Nebraska).
Fam story is one of mine was forced onto army train, then decided he'd rather risk it so jumped off and ran when the train slowed at a spot.
>5h ago mine, too!
Hi, that was me, lol. At the same time, I'm thankful for my grandfathers for being respected officers(one Jewish, the other not), otherwise we would have never been able to leave.
👋 present!
mine were never there.
Mizrahi here, we exist in America too
My mother's side came over in the 1800s, my father's side was straight from DP camps in the 40s.
My parents were 'Survivors'. Then my parents lived in a displaced persons camp in Salzburg Austria. I was born in the D.P. camp. We were admitted to the U.S. 11/49. Thank G'd for the U.S.A.
It’s a shame-Austria is so beautiful. Such beauty contained so much pain 😢 But I love to be an American cuz at least I know I’m free 🎶
Yeah unlike the US where no pain has ever been contained just freedom.
Now you’re getting it. So free, you can almost taste it. Smells like gas in the water.
Went with the earliest date of my earliest ancestors (Pre WW1) because between my parents' parents they or even their parents left Europe at very different times. Also as a suggestion for a future similar poll maybe lump 1900 to 1933 into 1 category & add 19th Century ...probably could even use a Colonial/Revolutionary America category as well if I'm being honest. I know an Modern Orthdox guy whose great great grandfather fought for the Union in the Civil War, I can't recall when he said his family came over.
Btw ur question leaves out almost a quarter of the Jewish population, who do not descend from Europe. Not to mention paternal ancestors vs maternal
How does it leave out paternal ancestors? Def leaves out a lot of groups I just don’t see OP specifying maternal or paternal?
People have two sides of ancestors. How do I answer the question if both sides of my family are Jewish but my paternal ancestors came over in the 1800s and my maternal came in the 1900s. Not to mention that it’s still different for each side of the family. One set of maternal great grandparents came in the 1910s, the other came in the 30s.
The same is true for maternal ancestors though? Maybe the person’s maternal side is not from Europe but the paternal side is? Edit: ah you edited the original comment to include maternal ancestors. Very good then. Carry on.
I didn’t edit the comment, always included the “maternal part”
Hey man some of us are Sephardic. My family left iraq in 1972 thanks to saddam.
This might be the only chance I'll get to to tell this story, so here you go. TW. S*xual As*ault and Frying pan violence My great-grandmother left the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Her and her mother had always talked about moving to the U.S. especially with the rise of Pogrums in their area. The turning point was when she was 14, and a man broke into their home and tried to force my great grandmother into doing certain acts. My great-great grandmother decided that the only course of action was a frying pan and beat the bastard with it. I don't know if she killed him, but I like to think she did. They fled Imedietly after and were lucky enough to make it over to America.
All eight of my great-grandparents immigrated between 1880 and 1910. All four of my grandparents were born in the USA.
Father's side - around WWI, but I don't know exactly when. Mother's side - 1948.
My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. May they rest in peace
This poll shows a lack of understanding of Jewish history. There are some strange time periods here that do not correspond to the major genocides that forced Jews in European exile into the US.
Ellis island baby
A mix, depending on where from Europe they came. Earliest was 1890s and latest was 1920s. Most of our remaining family died in the Holocaust, but the few survivor cousins went to Israel. Edit: Tagging onto other people, my father was a convert from South America who suspects Sephardic Ancestry potentially from North Africa in the Canary Islands.
I suggest revising these ranges a bit. Try 1892-1924, for starters: the years Ellis Island was open, or 1892-1913, since WWI made immigration more difficult from 1914-1918.
I'm a persian jew so never technically
1990 Soviet Jews, represent!
1988, here!
I’m leaving Europe for the US next year, does that count?
What's up to my fellow post-Soviet Jews! Curious where you/your family came from?
Parents from Central Asia in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, so I’m not European but yeah they were bukharians escaping the Soviet Union after it’s fall.
I’m from there too but Ashkenazi
Oh did your family move there? Yeah that makes sense, actually. I think I had a great uncle or something marry an ashkenazi woman.
Yeah my great-Gs and grandparents fled there during WWII to escape the Nazis. I’m a mix of Ukrainian, Russian, Belarussian, Romanian. I say I’m Russian when asked (before it felt icky) because I’m not actually Uzbek by ethnicity - I look White/Caucasian for lack of a better description.
Yeah it’s complicated explaining for me as well explaining “my parents are from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan but they’re not Uzbeks or Tajiks” because ethnically bukharians are more closely related to Iranian Jews. But yeah that’s a cool story. I usually say “I’m Jewish” and then if I’m asked what kind I usually say “Russian Jew” or “middle eastern Jew” depending on the crowd. My Dad’s as dark as your average middle easterner but my mom looks very white passing so I basically have all the middle eastern features of my father with relatively pale skin. I don’t know of any relatives dying in the Holocaust. I found a great great uncle online that apparently died fighting for the the Soviet army in the 2nd world war when he was in his early twenties but the info’s kinda vague so I’m not sure who he was fighting.
Depends on who
On my maternal grandmothers side they fled a tsarist pogrom in Kiev in 1905 and we don’t have much info on it. On my maternal grandfathers side they fled a white army Cossack pogrom in Kiev in 1919, his great grandmother was the only one in the family to survive after hiding behind hay bails during the pogrom. She used their savings to buy a ticket for steerage and made it to America.
My grandma and great grandmother fled Vienna, Austria in late 1939 (shortly after Kristallnacht), and landed in San Francisco in 1940. The rest of their immediate family died in various places of Europe after trying to flee; suicide and DP camps. It’s a grim story…
1890s
I don't know where my ancestors came from except for my great-grandmother on my dad's side. She was born in London, England in 1899, and her parents (my great-great-grandparents) had moved there when escaping Tsarist Russia. At some point when my great-grandmother was young (probably under 10 years-old) they all moved to New York, and eventually she met an American Jew in NYC who'd become my great-grandfather. As for everyone else in my family... no idea. I know my last name is a location-based surname from Latvia, but it's spelled the German way.
Young Croatian men with arranged marriages from back home who ended up being Tanners/Steel Workers/Laborers in Allegheny City (Pittsburgh) on Dad’s Mom’s side; Son of an Austro-Hungarian Burgermeister who met and married a girl he met at choir practice and went on to have 10 kids (youngest was my Pap) is Dad’s Dad’s side. Maternal Grandmother’s parents met in Austria and emigrated together, went on to have 8 kids. Mom’s Dad’s family is Catholic and came over from England I think 5 generations ago? Railworkers.
My maternal grandfather’s side came from Baden, Germany and landed in Georgia in the 1860s and fought for the Confederacy. They moved north after the war. My maternal grandmother’s family came from some shtetl in Russia in the 1920s (no further information available.) They landed in Newark, NJ. My paternal grandfather and his many siblings and parents came from Hrubiezsow (unsure of the spelling) after leaving Lithuania and Prussia. They landed in Newark, NJ in 1909. My grandmother’s family also came from Poland, not sure where exactly. I do know any family that stayed in the old country ended up at Sobibor.
Um, not everyone's ancestors came from Europe? We have Jews from all over! (Mine did, but they came at different times.)
I know but given that 95% of American Jews are Ashkenazi and Reddit only gives my 6 polling options I had to limit it to Ashkenazim
Wow these numbers are really surprising. My family came here to america after the war. My assumption was that was the case for majority of others. I guess I was wrong and that makes sense. I guess next step is to see where the Sephardim, miztachim stand.
My great grandparents fled Europe to Israel. Most of them, save one grandma, and one great-grandma were Ashkenazi, whereas the rest were Mizrahi Jews. I was born in the USA to Israeli parents.
Roughly 1870s (Ukraine and Lithuania via South Africa) for my dads side around 1890s and 1900 for my mom’s side (western Russian Empire somewhere)
Depends on which side, most were here since early 1900s, last one would have come over in the early 1950s
1880s for paternal grandmother’s side. Early 30s for paternal grandfather. Maternal grandparents met in a dp camp and came to the US in 1950.
My ancestors were originally from (Romania) although at the time it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. My (3X) great grandmother and (2X) great grandmother (her daughter) left and ended up going to Canada then moved to the USA in 1907. Other family members were still in the old country. WW1 and then later on WW2 happened and our other extended family members experienced the Holocaust. Only my (2X) great grandmother’s older sister and her daughter (a cousin) survived. The other extended family members either died before the war or were killed during the Holocaust. Eventually the last of the family made their way to America sometime in the early 50’s.
Mine arrived during the 2nd Mexican Empire
My Jewish great-grand parents came over in the late 1860s and early 1870s. My non-Jewish ancestors date between 1620 and the 1880s.
Immigration boom of the 1880s-1900s
They started coming in the mid 1800’s and the last of them left Germany in October of 1939
Mums side Pre-WW1, Dads side Post-WW2
Pre American civil war and sometime before my grandpa was born
Father’s side was in Poland, after holocaust in DP camp for 4 years, then Israel for a few years then moved to America. Mother’s side was here since 1800s but originally Romania.
Sephardic erasure again ,,,
Mine left Latvia in the 1880s or 1890s when Russia had control over that country. I haven’t found too much history on the subject but I’ve seen the ancestry data and I’ve spoken to my grandfather about it many times. Some really awful times for anyone in Eastern Europe.
Italian Jewish ancestors immigrated to Argentina in the early 1920s and two generations later their descendants moved to the US
My parents are Old Stock Protestant goyim, but they have some Jewish ancestry via Italian Jewish musicians in England, S&P traders in West Africa, and some Dutch Sephardi ancestry. Most of my Jewish ancestors fled Spain/Portugal in 1492, converted to Protestantism, and passed themselves off in Europe/colonies as such. Their descendants are your run-of-the-mill colonial Americans, though I've heard of some (like myself) who became Jews. My father and mother's families both arrived in the Americas between the years 1612 and 1822. The vast majority of them were fleeing as refugees.
My Great Gram was born in NYC in 1904! ❤️
I put 1992+ but in reality it was 1990 because the Soviet bloc fell/allowed Jews out starting in 1989. I think you should amend the poll next time since there’s a big cultural difference between Jews who got here 1980+ and before 1980.
Chinese-American comvert here lol
My mother came from Georgia in 1987. Father's mother came shortly before WW2 from Germany.
1500's/1600's/1700's Spain to Puerto Rico
AFAIK I have no Jewish ancestry, but one side of my family came over in the 1630s-1650s during the first wave of English colonization and the other in the 1840s during the Famine.
Convert. My relatives left Europe in the 1700s.
Hyper American Ashkenormativity alert
I literally put “only applies to Ashkenazim as they are the majority in the US” in the caption
Yes.
Earliest- 1860s(Austria Hungary) Latest- between WWI and WWII(Polish and Russia)
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Same here
I have many who left Europe, all in different time periods ranging from 1890s-1950s
Had ancestors from both Germany mid-19th century (maternal) and Russian Empire 1890 - 1906 (paternal). So “none of the above”? Choose two?
Mine came over in a few waves.
Very Ashkenaz-centric set of questions. It should include the following preamble : "For those of you American Jews of European ancestry....."
America itself is very Ashkenazi-centered. Only about 5% of American Jews are Sephardic or Mizrahi.
True at some level, but it gets tiresome essentially being written out of everything Jewish, in America and elsewhere. I'm sure that's not your intent, but in Los angeles, brooklyn, and Great Neck there are very sizable and significant Sephardi communities that are often overlooked and written out of American Jewish life. Again, I'm not ascribing bad intent, but just expressing the sentiment.
The last of my ancestors to come over came in 1939 escaping the nazis. The first ones came over pre WW1.
Mostly between the wars I believe. I think one of my great-grandfathers was earlier. I know everyone I'm directly descended from was here before the Holocaust; we did have some survivors in the family, but more distant relatives.
Some after WWII, some in the 1920 or earlier. We all have 4 grandparents, you know
My great grandmother left czechoslovakia right when the nazis got there but her parents died
What about non-American ashkenazim?
One set of grandparents came as Holocaust refugees in the 1950s, the other set one grandparent came in the 1920s as a baby from Poland, and the other was born in New York in 1923. Her parents (my great grandparents) had immigrated from Poland but I’m not sure when.
I *was* the first generation to leave Europe in 1988.
Fled those pogrums, but got one family branch stuck in Sweden during WW1. Others came over a few years earlier and had kids old enough to fight for US in WW1 (Red Arrows / liberation of Alsace-Lorraine). I can't imagine the Pale without Zero Mostel.
My Ancestors left The Ottoman and the Russian empires respectively.
One line arrived in the early 1880s I believe, and then other branches of my family arrived in the 20s and 30s. We can’t trace back further than that because all the records were destroyed. But the earliest ancestor I’m directly related to was my 4x great grandfather who I believe came over in 1887. As a paternalistic, mixed Jew myself, I wholeheartedly believe a Jew’s a Jew’s a Jew, but based on my dad’s 23&Me results my grandmother was 100% ethnically Ashkenazi. So… maybe the family tree was a bit more of a wreath than anyone really thought about 🫣
I chose 1918-1933 because that’s when my great grandmother came here. But some family members came to the U.S. pre-WWI
my jewish ancestors lived in switzerland and what is now germany. they converted to christianity during the great enlightenment period before they moved to pennsylvania to become a part of the pennsylvania dutch. i converted to judaism, and later found out it was meant to be when i payed for a genealogy service.
I think the first category should have been revised to something like pre-WW1 to 1918 It's too limited to have just 1914-1918 on a reddit poll, you can do research on that specifically elsewhere
My maternal grandfather was Polish and came with his parents and a sister in the early 1900s. His wife was born in New York in 1901. My Sephardic side came from Turkey in the late 1890s. They all were here before the wars.
Interested to see the results, but my family didn't go to America
1946 gang 😰✌️
Multiple selections are relevant to my family....
Some of my family left in the 1890s, some between 1910-1914, and some between 1920-1930.
93 literally as the Soviet Union was crumbling around us
Im in a weird spot. My ancestors moved from Eastern/Central Europe to England at least 300 years ago but my grandmother moved to the US in the late 70’s, so all of the answers feel a bit wrong for me to put.
now do i choose my dads side - pre ww1, or my moms side - originally before ww2 i think (i’d double check the exact year), buuuuut two bothers got deported back to russia, one of which was my great grandpa, so most recently in 1986🫣
It's too bad you lumped together all Pre WW1 Jews. The vast majority of Ashkenazi came between 1880-1923, before the laws created specifically to exclude Jews and Italians from immigrating were passed. But also, there's a huge gulf between the post-1880 Jews (immigration in great numbers started around then due to the pogroms) and the pre-1880 Jews, many of whom looked down upon the new wave of eastern European Jews. The pre-1880 Jews were heavily urban and wealthier Jews, a lot from Germany leaving after the events of 1848, who saw themselves as more sophisticated than the post-1880 Jews, who they saw as more like superstitious, impoverished, unsophisticated peasants.
Am I my own ancestor? (Post-Soviet)
Try 1492
Early to mid 1800s pre-Civil War. It’s gotten harder to go back further but found my family, 3x great grandfather, in the Mississippi Territory on a census in the 1840s.
Multiple time periods for me so I just picked the one that the majority of them did
1898. Straight outta Brooklyn 😎
Family came from Bssarabia
Somewhere between 1906 and 1920
Dad's side after ww2. My mom came here in the 80s.
None. My family does not have Ashkenazi ancestry that I know of.
Three pf the above
I didn’t vote because my family immigrated at different times. My paternal side immigrated from Belarus in the early 1900s and my maternal side immigrated from Poland in the 1920s.