by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert
However improbable it may seem, the arrival of around two million Yiddish-speaking Jews from Central and Eastern Europe in North America, between the middle of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth, has turned out to be one of the most profoundly influential modern migrations. It’s an astonishing story. When those Jews first arrived in large numbers in North America, they came mostly from countries in which their economic and political disenfranchisement was taken for granted, places where a Jewish man could not freely choose where to live or what profession to pursue, and where the publishing of newspapers and magazines in the language he spoke, Yiddish, was subject to harsh censorship. (Jewish women were disenfranchised doubly, as Jews and as women.) Violent attacks on Jewish civilians in their homes and businesses—which came to be known as pogroms—were frequent enough, and received enough tacit government support, to add pervasive terror to a Jew’s typical experience of life. Meanwhile, as other Jews gained civil rights in western Europe, even they looked back at the still-disenfranchised, increasingly impoverished Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe as embarrassments or as a problem to be solved.
From "How Yiddish Changed America and How American Changed Yiddish", edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. © 2020 by Restless Books
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
Based on this introductory paragraph, which statement describes the topic of this chapter?
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Responses
The migration of Yiddish-speaking Jewish people from Europe was different from other waves of immigration.
The migration of Yiddish-speaking Jewish people from Europe was different from other waves of immigration.
Jewish people who immigrated to North America fled violence and terror that had become a part of life for them.
Jewish people who immigrated to North America fled violence and terror that had become a part of life for them.
Anti-Jewish prejudice in Europe was present within the Jewish community, as well as outside of it.
Anti-Jewish prejudice in Europe was present within the Jewish community, as well as outside of it.
Yiddish-speaking Jewish people endured discrimination in Europe that other ethnic groups did not face.
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Based on the introductory paragraph, the statement that best describes the topic of this chapter is:
Jewish people who immigrated to North America fled violence and terror that had become a part of life for them.
This choice is supported by the passage's emphasis on the violent attacks (pogroms) and the general state of terror faced by Yiddish-speaking Jews in their home countries before their migration to North America.
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