Nadene Goldfoot
The Hebrews of the Biblical Period were just peasants or shepherds, with a handful of craftsmen. They left trade to alien "Canaanites." Who might that be? The Phoenicians, of the Canaanite religion, known for one of their most famous exports, a dye also known as Tyrian purple. They were renowned among contemporaries as skilled traders and mariners, becoming the dominant commercial power for much of classical antiquity. The Phoenicians developed an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium, helping facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
This continued in Eretz Yisrael in the 2nd Temple Period, around 538 BCE. Josephus, former General for Judah turned historian after being caught by the Romans after 70 CE, emphasized that trade held no attraction for the Jews. He was writing for a Roman audience. I wonder if he realized that around the time he was born, there was much strife going on in Judah, and groups of men were living together, going over the bible. Rome was occupying Jerusalem. All this led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. I doubt if Josephus actually knew how Judeans made a living.
So, by not having traded, survivors were now fleeing for their lives out of Jerusalem and into land that was foreign to them. They wound up in places near by to far away, such as Iberia (Spain). Jewish merchants operated in trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages (approximately 500–1000). Many trade routes previously established under the Roman Empire continued to function during that period – largely through their efforts, like the Silk Road.
How did the world-famous Jews come to the point of leaving shepherding to enter the trading profession? It's a long story. Dan Senor and Saul Singer make a stab at Israel's success since 1948 in the book, Start Up nation, the story of Israel's economic miracle. Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel -- a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources-- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK?
Senor is the co-author, with his brother-in-law, Jerusalem Post columnist Saul Singer, of Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. The book, published in November 2009, examines the entrepreneurial economy of Israel and the cultural and social environment that supports this economy. "It's a book about Israel that's not for Jews," Senor has said. "I didn't want it to be in the Judaica section of the bookstore, or the Israel or the Middle East section." Instead, the book is typically found in the Business section of the bookstore. The book has provoked a wide range of responses, from reviews that hail its research and its portrayal of often-neglected facets of Israeli society, to reviews that claim the book implicitly justifies never-ending conflict in the region. Senor and Singer have been praised for the effectiveness with which they have "translat[ed] Israel's own image of itself for an international audience"; their book's title has entered the language as shorthand descriptive term for Israel. The book inspired the creation of Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit organization based in Tel-Aviv.
With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country's adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality-- all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore and Dubai have tried to re-create the "Israel effect", there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there's never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues.Although Jews were favored in Asia and Egypt as agricultural settlers, the proportion of craftsmen in the Diaspora was probably greater, and in Egypt, a few capitalists emerged.
After the Barbarian invasions, Diaspora Jewry, now pre-eminently an international element, was very important in wholesale trade between the Moslem and Christian areas (East and West), at the same time concentrating on highly technical handicrafts such as glass-making, silk-weaving and dying.
The earliest manufacture of glass does not antedate the late third millennium B.C.E., when the first glass beads were made in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Jews came from Mesopotamia and wound up in Egypt, so this is not too surprising. Their ancestors had known about making glass. They were travelers on the Silk Road so some went all the way, buying and selling silk goods, and getting into the making of it.
However, the Jews in Moslem countries perpetuated until a late date the agricultural society which is reflected in the Babylonian Talmud. In southern Europe,, trade and skilled handicrafts, especially in the various branches of textiles, were long-time characteristics of the Jews.
In northern Europe, on the other hand, the increasing monopolistic organization of trade and handicrafts by Christian guilds made it necessary for the Jews to find some other outlet, and in medieval England, France, Germany, and northern Italy, they were thus driven into MONEYLENDING.
Actually, guilds started long ago in the days of King Hammurabi (1708 BCE-1686 BCE) of Babylonia which started with a family, grew to all the relatives, etc, keeping the skill in this group, for weavers, carpenters, goldsmiths, and barbers. This was after Abraham's day.
In Poland, however, the great mass of Jews were petty craftsmen, while in Salonica and other parts of the Turkish empire--as previously in Sicily--they were largely engaged in menial occupations and physical labor, such as the job of stevedores (a person employed, or a contractor engaged, at a dock to load and unload cargo from ships).
In western Europe, meanwhile, the great mass of the Jews--in the 18th century, mostly peddlers and old clothes dealers--were now in the category of petty bourgeois and shopkeepers, with special interest in the tailoring industry and an influential element of financiers. Above, the colored engraving of a Jewish peddler or junk dealer created in 18th century Vienna. It was one of the illustrations included in the book, Der Kaufruf in Wien. 40 Wiener Typen nach dem Kupferstichwerk aus dem Jahre 1775, a visual survey of Viennese types. Other entries included other peddlers and dealers of various items including beer, canvas, carpets, cheese, ink, milk, rosaries, as well as a day laborer, a laundress, and a straw cutter. This print is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials.
Extreme changes have characterized the occupational structure of Diaspora Jewry in the present century. According to the Russian census of 1897, when 60% of world Jewry lived in that country, 3.35% of the Jews engaged in agriculture, 35.45% in a little industry and mostly handicrafts, 38.65% in commerce, 3.98% in transport, 6.61% in domestic services and wage labor, and 11.76% in public services and the free professions. (It is a profession where one can easily work for oneself eg a barber, doctor or accountant as opposed to say a policeman or engineer where it is very hard to work for yourself.) The Russian Jews then were chiefly a group of shopkeepers (middlemen) and craftsmen, and the situation in the 2nd largest Jewish community--the Austrian Empire--was similar.
The 1st major change in this situation resulted from the mass migration to the US where Jews concentrated mainly in light industry. According to the 1900 US census, in 7 large cities, 59.6% of the Jews earned their living by labor (largely in the garment industry) and only 20.6% by commerce. The development of a non-Jewish trading class, often coupled with government discriminations against Jewish traders, reduced the number of Jews in commerce in many lands. The nationalization of trade and commerce also produced this result.
My mother in law, Corrine Cohen, who was born in Brooklyn, NY. in 1914, told me of the problems she had getting a job as a switchboard telephone operator. Evidently they wouldn't hire Jews. She managed to get a job as a saleswoman in a Department store; a great little saleslady who was always pleasant. Her father was a diamond broker. Jews did manage to get into the diamond business.
Many Jewish immigrants to the US were helped by societies who gave them a horse and a wagon. My grandfather, Nathan Abraham Goldfus/foot was such a man. He went to the dock at the river and loaded his wagon with boxes that had to be delivered in SE Portland, OR. He was new at handling a horse, and so died when the horse was spooked, causing him to be thrown out of the wagon, causing his death when brought to the hospital. He was on the 1910 census.
I noticed on our 1910 census how many other men in this area were also peddlers. Meier & Frank Department store started in that fashion. In 1857, Aaron Meier (1831–1889) arrived in the Oregon Territory at the age of 26 and opened a 35-by-50-foot (11 m × 15 m) mercantile store at 137 Front Street in Portland, which had a population of 1,300. He had come to California from Bavaria during the Gold Rush, spending time as an itinerant peddler in southern Oregon.
Thus, in the USSR after the Revolution and in the late 1930's, 7.1% of Russia's Jews were engaged in agriculture, 14.3% in handicrafts, 21.3% in industry, 37.2% in clerical work, and 12.8% in the free professions; with commerce having vanished from the list of their occupations.
Kristallnacht, shop damage in Magdeburg
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews and their shops carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung paramilitary forces along with civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. The German authorities looked on without intervening. That put a damper on the economy and the people!
Most of Western Europe did not allow Jews to buy land, so agriculture was kept from them. In fact, crafts were kept from them, also, and it came down to the fact that the only way to earn a living was to loan money as it was a profession that Christians would not lower themselves to enter. The world's most distasteful occupation was given to the Jews. They turned it into a profession and one or two wound up loaning money to kings. Haym Solomon or (Salomon) was possibly the prime financier of the American side during the American War of Independence against Great Britain. He was born in Prussia and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In Poland during the inter-War period of 1917-1939, the % of Jews went up in crafts and industry (45.4% in the 1930's) but there was also a considerable section of middlemen in commerce and credit-38.2%, all other occupations being of minor importance.
By contrast, in western countries, the Jews concentrated chiefly in commerce and, to a much lesser degree, in industry. In time their share in the free professions grew. Many Jews were doctors. Parents felt it was their job to give their children the best education possible, even though that caused to them to work double shifts or more hours, but they did it. However, in most countries there was a limit on how many Jews could enter schooling for doctors. Many gifted Jewish students were turned away.
Thus, in pre-Nazi Germany, 49.8% of the Jews engaged in commerce, 18.7% in industry, and 9.4% in the free professions.
In the US, the children of Jewish immigrant workmen entered commerce in large numbers, and many became professionals. In the early 1930's, 50% of American Jews were in commerce, 28% in industry,, and 10% in the free professions.
My father was a Jewish immigrant's son who became a kosher butcher. From there he bought his own slaughter-house and he and other butchers worked for him, going from Lincoln wholesale Meats to Wells and Davis Meat Packing Co. He died at 58 years of age, so it was a life with a lot of stress and physical labor that was taxing; sitting in a cattle truck and driving for long hours. Building up a business took almost 24 hrs a day. He was the one who drove the beat-up car you saw on the lot. Besides that, WWII let him continue as leather was a needed item for the army. He kept up his business AND worked in the shipyard soon becoming a foreman. Never be jealous of a man who has a business. You have no idea of the sweat and physical endurance they had to put into it. He and his siblings had lost their father when he was 4. They had to scrounge to live, selling newspapers at age 4 on the streets. They didn't beg, they worked. That feeling of insecurity was the impetus that made his excel in life.
In Latin America, the proportion in commerce remained high with 55% in Argentina, 66% in Brazil, 68.3% in Mexico.
Since World War II, the Jews of Eastern Europe and to some extent also of Central Europe, are approaching a similar occupational structure to that of Russian Jewry.
In 1948, the year Israel was declared a state, 46% of the survivors of Polish Jewry were in industry, 19% in clerical jobs, and 15% in free professions, with only 11% in commerce and even this number was diminishing.
It must be remembered that many immigrants came illegally, having fled for their lives at the brink of WWII, and since then all citizens must serve in the IDF. So besides finding work, men and women must serve 2 or 3 years serving their country, and a month out of every year from then on. Israel is made up of Middle Eastern Jews and Jews of the West, a great difference in educational advantages of the country of origin, and all learning to speak Hebrew. It's a pot of stew with all sorts of ingredients in it, more than the USA had ever imagined could happen; from Doctorate degreed to the most primitive level of learning, an immense array of skills. However, in the synagogue, they were one. Each knew their place there, the Cohens, Levites and Israelites.
Only in the backward Middle Eastern countries has the Jewish occupational structure remained similar to what it was in eastern Europe until the close of the 19th century. Thus, in French Morocco in 1947, 46.5% of the Jews lived by commerce, 36.1% by handicrafts, 7.6% by free professions and 4.1% by agriculture.
In Israel, the occupational structure approximates more to that among the general population in other countries than to the situation among Jews in the Diaspora, except they have invented the kibbutz and Moshav for living and working.
Agriculture, the free professions, etc, are more prominent in Israel at the expense of commerce. Although the % in crafts is similar, the internal breakdown is different, as in the Diaspora the emphasis is on handicrafts while in Israel, industry and building are of chief importance. With the transition to the the professions in Israel, the middlemen and other abnormal occupations resulting from the Diaspora economy have decreased. The nature of immigration economy have decreased. The nature of immigration has also affected the occupational structure, particularly in the pre-state period.
Tel Aviv was being built, founded in 1909, and the activity attracted Arabs from all the neighboring countries to find jobs. This caused the growth in population of the Palestinians.
Britain was granted a Mandate for Palestine on 25 April 1920 at the San Remo Conference, and, on 24 July 1922, this mandate was approved by the League of Nations. Since about 1920, every 100 immigrants included 15 agriculturists and 55.4 craftsmen and industrial workers.
On the other hand, about 2/3 of the mass-immigration since 1948 has been without occupation, and only 4.9 have been agriculturalists. The % of workers in government service has grown with the extension of the civil service in connection with health, education, social assistance, etc. the immigration from Russia around 1980 had brought a high proportion of professionals and workers in the arts.
By 1948, there were 750,000 Jews in the new state of Israel when the state was established. These were the survivors of Nazi rule in Central Europe, the internees in Cyprus, the Jewries of countries behind the Iron Curtain, and the communities under Arab rule such as Yemen and Iraq were transferred to Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Agency's Immigration Department. They had been too busy just trying to stay alive let alone develop an occupational skill.
Perhaps this is because the MacDonald White Paper of 1939 had been issued that said that only 75,000 Jews would be allowed admission during the next 5 years and then Aliyah would be dependent on Arab agreement. When this came out, 36,000 immigrants entered during the 2nd phase of the 5th Aliyah including 15,000 illegal immigrants, which means without government (England) permits in 1939 to 1940.
The 6th Aliyah from 1941 to 1947 was a period of struggle against restrictions on immigration. Ships such as the EXODUS, PATRIA, STRUMA were turned back or destroyed; and during the latter years many intending immigrants were interned in Cyprus. 85,000 Jews arrived in this time, of whom 28,000 were illegal immigrants.
https://www.amazon.com/Exodus-1947-Morley-Safer/dp/B078875272 You don't know this story. Exodus 1947 is a one hour PBS documentary narrated by Morley Safer about the true story of Exodus 1947 voyage: "illegal" American efforts to finance and crew the most infamous of ten American ships that attempted to bring Jewish refugees, Holocaust survivors, to Palestine after WWII.
All the wars, from 1947-49, 1956, 1973, 1981, and fights in-between, have disrupted the economy. They have continued, with rockets constantly shot into Israel from Gaza and now adding fire bombs from balloons falling into forests and fields.
It's a miracle all right, starting 1948 off with people that had had no occupation ever, were probably malnourished and exhausted from fighting in the 1947-1949 War of Independence to turn into a Start-Up nation, acknowledged by 2009.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radhanite#:~:text=Jewish%20merchants%20operated%20in%20trade,period%20%E2%80%93%20largely%20through%20their%20efforts.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/glass
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23506633
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/07/all-about-jews-in-america-before-and-in.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/british_mandate_for_palestine#:~:text=Britain%20was%20granted%20a%20Mandate,by%20the%20League%20of%20Nations.
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