Winner of the Everett Family Foundation Jewish book of the year Award, National Jewish book council, Finalist for the JDC-Herebert Katzki award for a book based on archival research, national Jewish book Council, Jews have been highly visible in New York, and for decades they have been integral to the culture, economy, and politics of America's greatest city. But, surprisingly, no comprehensive history of New York Jews has ever been written before. This book tells the story of New York's emergence as the greatest Jewish city of all time. It explores the central European and eastern European Jews' encounter with New York City, tracing immigrants' economic, social, religious, political, and cultural adaptation between 1840 and 1920. Emerging Metropolis shows how Jews wove their ambitions and aspirations into the very fabric of the city. The struggle of a largely immigrant and working-class community to define itself and work out its place in American culture and society produced a tremendous amount of creativity in this period. New York promised its Jews the ability to integrate into society and at the same time to maintain a vigorous independent existence. The New York Jewish story is one of both Jewish distinctiveness and Jewish absorption into the city as a whole. Book jacket.