This day in history: May 5th: Blame the Jews Day (1881)

[Behind the Aegis]

Four years of pogroms against Jews in Ukraine and southern Russia were set in motion on this date in 1881 by mobs of peasants who attacked Jewish stores and homes in the Ukrainian villages of Konsky-rosdor, Popiko, Andreyevka, and the city Orekhov, after Jews were incorrectly blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya on March 13th. Through the spring and summer the rioting would spread to Odessa and other sites, large and small, and after a brief remission, to Warsaw on Christmas Day and to Balta on Easter, 1882, with increasing ferocity and casualties, including many rapes and deaths. “In Belorussia and Lithuania,” according to Jewish Virtual Library, “where the local authorities adopted a firm attitude against the rioters, large fires broke out in many towns and townlets; a considerable number of these were started by the enemies of the Jews.

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The Pogroms were just starting, and eventually end up with the displacing, raping, and murdering of thousands of Jews in Ukraine, Russia, and the Settlement of the Pale. It also was the start of the Jews fleeing to other parts of Europe, which would prove fatal for many, and more fleeing to the US and Canada.

[Rustyeye77]

1. Thank you for posting.

if you read ths add a comment or just kick

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Thank you for kicking this!

It garnered 6 more recommendations because of your comment.

I really appreciate it.

[Rustyeye77]

19. oH...My Pleasure

Very important not to forget these things.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Between 1881 and 1910, about two million Jews fled

The largest number settled in the US, second largest in the UK (my grandparents), most of the others in other English-speaking countries, but a substantial number in Germany and other Western European countries.

The effect on the West was profound.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. I had thought the second largest was Canada.

I must have remembered wrong (it has been a long while since I actually looked at those stats). I remember (hopefully, correctly this time), there was also a large number who went to Latin America. I know parts of my grandmother's family and grandfather's family came to the US at that time. The others remained in the area (all gone), and a few went to Lithuania, and Poland (also gone).

[DavidDvorkin]

11. I'm basing that on something I remember reading

But my memory for such details has never been entirely precise. Or unentirely. So you could well be right.

[melm00se]

12. one of the jews

who came during this time was Israel Isidore Baline better known as Irving Berlin, arguably one of the greatest American song writers. in addition to Berlin, the Gershwin, Jolson, Mayer, and the Warner families came to America because of these pogroms

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Strange foreigners fleeing violence

Bringing their strange language, culture, and folkways to a new land.

Clearly, nothing good ever comes from letting them in.

[Hekate]

3. Kick and remember

[ismnotwasm]

6. K&R

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Kick And Rec

[Initech]

8. Remember - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

[Rustyeye77]

18. YOURE DAMN RIGHT !!!

[beam me up scottie]

9. Recommended. Thanks for the timely reminder.

[Madam Mossfern]

10. That's when my grandparents came to the US

They would never talk about the "old country" and were very proud Americans.

My grandmother, did however, mention that the Cossacks rode into their houses with big sticks and hit them over the head.
I thought she was just making up scary stories.

[Behind the Aegis]

16. I heard very few stories.

One from my great-aunt was that her uncle owned a bar, illegal for Jews to sell alcohol, but it has a systems of pullies and such, so when the Cossacks rode into town, the at turned into a general store. The family lived in a shtetl that was "a buggy's ride to Minsk". None of them spoke Russian, only Yiddish, but refused to teach the children because they wanted the children to speak perfect English and be "real" Americans. Sad.

[Rustyeye77]

20. Same stories from my GM.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

13. If The Technology Had Existed, I Bet They Would Have Set Up A Phone Line........

............to report crimes committed by Jews. Funny how history tends to repeat itself.

[NCTraveler]

14. K&R nt

[smirkymonkey]

17. K&R

Sickening and inexcusable.