caused the Jews to be exiled. From this point on they became nomadic and searched the world to find a place of peace and harmony (http://www.us-israel.org). Jewish ImmigrationThere are approximately 5.5 million Americans who identify themselves as being Jewish, which accounts for 45% of the worlds Jewish population (Rosen, Weltman, 611). The first Jewish community sprung up in the United states in the year 1677. It consisted mostly of Sephardic (Spanish) descendants. Recent immigration of Jewish people from Central and South America has added to the Sephardic population in North America. Todays Jewish community also consists of descendents from Western Europe (Germany), who immigrated to the United States in the middle of the 19th century (Rosen, Weltman, 611). Jewish immigrants of German descent came to America and established large businesses and became powerful figures in the American Jewish community. Today they tend to merge with the Sephardics to make up the American Jewish community (Rosen, Weltman, 612).Throughout the past three decades, over 300,000 Jews from the Soviet Union have immigrated to the United States. This is the largest immigrant group to enter the country in the past 70 years (Rosen, Weltman, 612). There is mixed opinion among the American Jewish community about their arrival. Most give sympathy for the fact that they escaped oppression and poverty, but the underlying feeling is that if they were really seeking Jewish roots (instead of an easier economic life), they would have gone to Israel (Rosen, Weltman, 612).Most Jews today can trace their roots back to Eastern Europe. They are second, third and forth generation offspring of immigrants who came to the United States until World War II. 75% of these American Jews gather in large cities on the East and West coasts. The largest population today is in California and New York with a population of over 2.5 million Jews, half of the number of American Je...
