Here’s a question that you’ve probably never asked. In the modern age, which of these two phenomena have caused more Jews to cease having any real relationship with their Jewish tradition: assimilation or antisemitism? The answer is quite clear: assimilation.

Certainly, there are Jews who try to escape their antisemitic environment by camouflaging their background or immersing themselves in their gentile surroundings. This is especially the case where and when antisemitism is particularly virulent, constituting a threat to Jewish life and limb. However, other than the mid-20th century Holocaust period where millions of Jews perished at the hands of antisemitic governments (Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union), in the past two centuries most Jews have been able to escape such killing grounds by emigrating elsewhere.

The largest such emigration occurred between 1880-1920, to the United States: approximately 2.5-3 million Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe (including Russia) to the United States (about 80%). America at the time was certainly no Jew-loving country; “soft” antisemitism was rampant. Jews experienced very little outright murder (indeed, some became professional assassins!), but most did suffer from heavy discrimination in many fields e.g., the reason some picked up from the East Coast and established “Hollywood” on the other side of the continent.

These immigrant Jews were overwhelmingly “Orthodox” when they arrived (again, most came from highly traditionalist Eastern Europe). Within two to three generations, the majority........

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