How Yiddish Changed America and Was Changed

Question

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.

Which sentence from the passage's introductory paragraph is the thesis statement?

(1 point)
Responses

"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."
"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."

"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."
"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."

"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."
"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."

"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."

Answer 1

The thesis statement from the passage's introductory paragraph is:

"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."

This sentence encapsulates the main idea and sets the stage for the discussion about the impact of Yiddish-speaking Jews on American society and vice versa.