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Jewish people in Appalachia
Most
of the eastern European Jewish immigrants who entered the United States during
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries settled into the burgeoning
urban centers in the East and Midwest. Yet other Jewish Americans chose
alternative living arrangements for themselves and their families. Some Jews,
hearing about the opportunities in the "black diamond" mining and
timbering industries, migrated across the Alleghenies into southern West Virginia.
When the West Virginia coal industry was booming, Jewish people came to the area
and established businesses that supported the coal-based economy.
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Jews in West Virginia faced little organized anti-Semitism. the relatively
small Jewish population. Many Jews did, in fact, successfully integrate
themselves into the communities where they lived. Gentile West Virginians
accepted their Jewish neighbors as contributing members of their communities,
and in some cases even welcomed them as exotic outsiders. It is somewhat ironic that in the southern part
of the state, the region that is most stereotypically Appalachian, one
encounters a culture that welcomes its Jewish citizens. Southern West Virginia
is a region frequently described as clannish and hostile to outsiders, and yet
in reality Jews and other immigrants were generally welcomed into the
communities located there.
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