Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930

Name: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930
Start: 2026-06-08T13:00:00-04:00
Location: 15 W 16th St, New York, NY, United States, New York 10011

Schedule

Mon, 08 Jun, 2026 at 01:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

15 W 16th St, New York, NY, United States, New York 10011 | New York, NY

What are immigrants to do when business opportunities abound in their new home, but banks refuse essential financial support? How could they make the journey in the first place without helping hands? In this lively history, Rebecca Kobrin chronicles the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Jewish immigrants who stepped up by doing the lending themselves. Arriving from the Russian Empire and settling primarily in New York, they made livelihoods by assisting fellow Jews, so they could purchase passage to the United States and, after arriving, obtain credit that other lenders would not dare provide. Drawing on previously unexamined archival materials in Russian, Yiddish, German, and English, Credit to the Nation traces the novel practices of bankers who not only enabled the flourishing of American Jewry, but also revolutionized the US financial industry.
Join us for a discussion with Kobrin about this book, led by Annie Polland.
Co-sponsored by American Jewish Historical Society