Old Stock Jews

Old Stock Jews, also referred to as Old Immigrant Jews, are Jews who have been present in the United States for multiple generations.^[1][2]

History

Unlike the term "Old Stock American", which denotes white Americans with roots stretching back to the colonial era, old stock Jews are a specific sub-group of American Jewry who arrived any time before the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews in the late 19th century and later. The vast majority of these Jews were Western Sephardim and Ashkenazim arriving from Holland, England, Germany, or other European colonies in the Americas.^[3][4][5]

Some of these early Jewish immigrants, specifically those from Germany, promoted a higher degree of assimilation into American culture, in contrast with later waves of Jewish immigrants.^[6][7][8] Groups like the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism were led primarily by wealthy, assimilated German-Jews who claimed Jews were not a nation, but solely a religion.^[9] However, many old stock Jews vehemently opposed assimilation and the Reform movement, such as Rabbi Isaac Leeser^[10] and Rabbi Sabato Morais.^[11]