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Judaism's Modernization in America The Jewish way of life has been affected in a tremendous way by the people of the United States of America. By the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, there were only 2500 Jews in America. For forty years beginning in 1840, 250,000 Jews (primarily from Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia) entered this country. Anti-Semitism and economic woes in Eastern Europe went from bad to worse after the pogroms of 1881-1882. Almost …

…to be Jewish -- going to shul, observing the holidays, sending your children to learn about the Jewish ways of life, belonging to temples and Jewish organizations (i.e., Havurah, an attempt to revive Judaism in small social groups) -- instead of what was only one way to be Jewish. No central idea holds it together. There's really no one common way to be Jewish anymore. Bibliography Works Cited Introduction to Judaism The Master Stories