Filmmaker Amanda Kinsey on how European antisemitism pushed Jews to the American Wild West
Amanda Kinsey, a five-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and the Director and Producer of the new documentary ‘Jews of the Wild West’, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke about how antisemitism in Eastern Europe caused Jews to flee and start a new life in the American West.
Ms Kinsey spoke of how European Jews were largely forced to move due to “legalised oppression”.
She said: “People are coming from Europe where there is systematic, legalised, anti-Jewish hate, violence, oppression, extreme limitations in terms of occupation of what you could do, owning land wasn’t possible, carrying a firearm wasn’t possible.
“We talk about it in the film, there was a period in Prussia that marriage wasn’t possible for many Jewish families, unless you had a certain income level, which because people were being kept poor, didn’t really exist…that was a big impetus for people moving to the United States…that sort of legalised oppression didn’t really exist in the United States, so in that sense, there was greater freedom.”
The filmmaker explained that while many Jewish immigrants fled to New York City, most were limited to living in crowded tenements in the City’s Lower East Side and were restricted to certain professions with not much opportunity.
Because of these conditions, in addition to concerns that the influx of Jewish immigrants could see a rise in antisemitism, many Jews left for the American West with the help of the Industrial Removal Office, an agency assisting with Jewish immigration.
The Office would place Jewish people in parts of the United States where jobs were needed, with many opportunities being located West, in places such as Texas or Colorado.
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Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
