Since 1648, Eastern Jews have moved west in large numbers. They brought with them skills learned in ghettos that could be adapted to fit social problems and commercial niches in the industrialized societies of the west. Jews from Eastern Europe played a particularly strong role in the fields of social work, the fur trade, textiles, and entertainment. They have also played a major part in the ideologies of Zionism and Marxism. This book examines the migration of Jews from the east and describes the roles they have taken in the west.

MICHAEL COHN is Adjunct Anthropologist at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City and a guest lecturer at the University of Leipzig and Schiller University, Jena, Germany. He has spent twenty-five years teaching at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. His other publications include Jews in Germany 1945-1993 (Praeger, 1994).