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87-516: Zeckendorf was born to a Jewish family in Paris, Illinois , the son of a hardware store manager. His family moved to New York City when he was three years old. He attended New York University but dropped out to work at the real estate company of his uncle, Sam Borchard. He soon left his uncle's firm to work for Webb & Knapp , a small New York building manager and brokerage. Zeckendorf's most notable property acquisition, and potential development of

174-520: A "dream city" to rival Rockefeller Center , was a 17-acre (69,000 m) site along the East River between 42nd Street and 48th Street. In a now celebrated transaction in December 1946, the prominent architect Wallace Harrison and Nelson Rockefeller bought the site from him for $ 8.5 million ($ 133 million in 2023) and Nelson's father John D. Rockefeller Jr. subsequently donated this land for

261-499: A Jewish state; it had little apparent effect however, with 90% still voting other-than-Republican. In every election since, except for 1980, no Democratic presidential candidate has won with less than 67% of the Jewish vote. (In 1980, Carter obtained 45% of the Jewish vote. See below.) During the 1952 and 1956 elections, Jewish voters cast 60% or more of their votes for Democrat Adlai Stevenson , while General Eisenhower garnered 40% of

348-429: A historical art form. They tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed. Many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the ethnicity more in charge of his life, and perhaps in danger of losing his Jewishness altogether. Some stories show how a family member successfully negotiated

435-466: A major role in left-wing politics and, after 1936, in Democratic Party politics. Although American Jews generally leaned Republican in the second half of the 19th century, the majority has voted Democratic since at least 1916, when they voted 55% for Woodrow Wilson . With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt , American Jews voted more solidly Democratic. They voted 90% for Roosevelt in

522-454: A major-party ticket when he was chosen as Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore 's vice-presidential nominee. The elections of 2000 and 2004 saw continued Jewish support for Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry , a Catholic, remain in the high- to mid-70% range, while Republican George W. Bush 's re-election in 2004 saw Jewish support rise from 19% to 24%. In the 2008 presidential election , 78% of Jews voted for Barack Obama , who became

609-433: A means to define Jews in a world that threatened to overwhelm and absorb Jewish uniqueness. The journal represented the ideals of the menorah movement established by Horace M. Kallen and others to promote a revival in Jewish cultural identity and combat the idea of race as a means to define or identify peoples. Siporin (1990) uses the family folklore of ethnic Jews to their collective history and its transformation into

696-687: A minority population of the older Sephardi Jewish families remained influential. Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution and economic difficulties in parts of Eastern Europe. Most of these new immigrants were Yiddish -speaking Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom arrived from poor diaspora communities of the Russian Empire and the Pale of Settlement , located in modern-day Poland , Lithuania , Belarus , Ukraine , and Moldova . During

783-516: A per-capita basis for incorporated areas in the US are Kiryas Joel Village, New York (greater than 93% based on language spoken in home), City of Beverly Hills, California (61%), and Lakewood Township , New Jersey (59%), with two of the incorporated areas, Kiryas Joel and Lakewood, having a high concentration of Haredi Jews, and one incorporated area, Beverly Hills, having a high concentration of non-Orthodox Jews. The phenomenon of Israeli migration to

870-455: A potential 7.0–7.4 million Americans of Jewish descent. Those higher estimates were however arrived at by including all non-Jewish family members and household members, rather than surveyed individuals. In a 2019 study by Jews of Color Initiative it was found that approximately 12-15% of Jews in the United States, about 1,000,000 of 7,200,000 identify as multiracial and Jews of color . The overall population of Americans of Jewish descent

957-399: A profound impact on the Jewish community in the United States, especially after 1960 as Holocaust education improved, as Jews tried to comprehend what had happened during it, and especially as they tried to commemorate it and grapple with it when they looked to the future. Abraham Joshua Heschel summarized this dilemma when he attempted to understand Auschwitz : "To try to answer is to commit

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1044-618: A proposed US$ 400,000,000 (equivalent to $ 4,224,221,453 in 2023) Century City . The studio had suffered a string of expensive flops, culminating in the box-office disaster Cleopatra (1963) and was in dire need of money. The project, conceived under the direction of Edmund Herrscher , the studio's director of property development, had been announced the first week of 1958, with construction said to begin in July 1958. However, construction did not start as promised, and rumors, later confirmed, circulated that developer Zeckendorf would take over

1131-426: A respectable 35%, but during Bush's re-election attempt in 1992, his Jewish support dropped to just 11%, with 80% voting for Bill Clinton and 9% going to independent Ross Perot . Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996 maintained high Jewish support at 78%, with 16% supporting Bob Dole and 3% for Perot. In the 2000 presidential election , Joe Lieberman became the first American Jew to run for national office on

1218-540: A sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience." During the World War II period, the American Jewish community was bitterly and deeply divided and as a result, it was unable to form a united front. Most Jews who had previously emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe supported Zionism , because they believed that a return to their ancestral homeland

1305-484: A similar split among Israelis and led to a parallel rift within the pro-Israel lobby , and even ultimately to the United States for its "blind" support of Israel. Abandoning any pretense of unity, both segments began to develop separate advocacy and lobbying organizations. The liberal supporters of the Oslo Accord worked through Americans for Peace Now (APN), Israel Policy Forum (IPF) and other groups friendly to

1392-401: A smaller number of converts to Judaism . The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions , encompassing the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance . Depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States has the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel . As of 2020, the American Jewish population

1479-578: A spectacular bankruptcy." Zeckendorf was married four times. His first wife was Irma Levy; they had two children: William Zeckendorf Jr. and Susan Zeckendorf Nicholson. They later divorced and she remarried to the music critic and historian Irving Kolodin . His second wife was Marion Griffin who died in 1968. In 1972, he married Alice Odenheimer Bache , widow of Harold L. Bache . They subsequently divorced and he married Louise Betterly Malcolm in 1975. On September 30, 1976, William Zeckendorf died in his residence on 65th Street and Park Avenue after suffering

1566-459: A state's presidential primary election. For congressional and senate races, since 1968, American Jews have voted about 70–80% for Democrats; this support increased to 87% for Democratic House candidates during the 2006 elections. The first American Jew to serve in the Senate was David Levy Yulee , who was Florida's first Senator, serving 1845–1851 and again 1855–1861. There were 19 Jews among

1653-481: A stroke. American Jews American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish , whether by culture , ethnicity , or religion . According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research , approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi , 3% identify as Sephardic , and 1% identify as Mizrahi . An additional 6% identify as some combination of the three categories, and 25% do not identify as any particular category. During

1740-494: A supreme blasphemy. Israel enables us to bear the agony of Auschwitz without radical despair, to sense a ray [of] God's radiance in the jungles of history." Zionism became a well-organized movement in the U.S. with the involvement of leaders such as Louis Brandeis and the promise of a reconstituted homeland in the Balfour Declaration . Jewish Americans organized large-scale boycotts of German merchandise during

1827-563: A twofold experience—one of the spirit and one of our history.   ... From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say: Our ancient history began with slavery and the yearning for freedom. During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe.   ... It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is, above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions,

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1914-681: Is demographically characterized by an aging population composition and low fertility rates significantly below generational replacement. However, the Orthodox Jewish population, concentrated in the Northeastern United States , has fertility rates when taken alone which are significantly higher than both generational replacement and that of the average U.S. population. The National Jewish Population Survey of 1990 asked 4.5 million adult Jews to identify their denomination. The national total showed 38% were affiliated with

2001-516: Is estimated at 7.5 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population. This includes 4.2 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.5 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.8 million Jewish children. It is estimated that up to 15 million Americans are part of the "enlarged" American Jewish population, accounting for 4.5% of the total US population, consisting of those who have at least one Jewish grandparent and would be eligible for Israeli citizenship under

2088-608: The American Jewish Yearbook that the American Jewish population totaled 7.15 million, making up 2.17% of the country's 329.5 million inhabitants. In the same year, the American Jewish population was estimated at 7.6 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population, by other organization. This includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children. The American Jewish Yearbook population survey had placed

2175-651: The Anti-Defamation League was asked by the conference to apologize for criticizing ZOA's Morton Klein . The conference, which under its organizational guidelines was in charge of moderating communal discourse, reluctantly censured some Orthodox spokespeople for attacking Colette Avital , the Labor-appointed Israeli Consul General in New York and an ardent supporter of that version of a peace process. As of 2020,

2262-603: The Law of Return . Jews were present in the Thirteen Colonies since the mid-17th century. However, they were few in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700. Those early arrivals were mostly Sephardi Jewish immigrants, of Western Sephardic (also known as Spanish and Portuguese Jewish ) ancestry, but by 1720, Ashkenazi Jews from diaspora communities in Central and Eastern Europe predominated. For

2349-724: The New York metropolitan area , establishing the world's major concentrations of the Jewish population. In 1915, the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, and 600,000 nationally. In addition, thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines in Yiddish. At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly arrived Jews built support networks consisting of many small synagogues and Landsmanshaften (German and Yiddish for "Countryman Associations") for Jews from

2436-682: The Reform tradition , 35% were Conservative , 6% were Orthodox , 1% were Reconstructionists , 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish." In 2013, Pew Research's Jewish population survey found that 35% of American Jews identified as Reform, 18% as Conservative, 10% as Orthodox, 6% who identified with other sects, and 30% did not identify with a denomination. Pew's 2020 poll found that 37% affiliated with Reform Judaism, 17% with Conservative Judaism, and 9% with Orthodox Judaism. Young Jews are more likely to identify as Orthodox or as unaffiliated compared to older members of

2523-587: The Republican Party . The 114th Congress included 10 Jews among 100 U.S. Senators : nine Democrats ( Michael Bennet , Richard Blumenthal , Brian Schatz , Benjamin Cardin , Dianne Feinstein , Jon Ossoff , Jacky Rosen , Charles Schumer , Ron Wyden ), and Bernie Sanders , who became a Democrat to run for President but returned to the Senate as an Independent. In the 118th Congress , there are 28 Jewish US Representatives. 25 are Democrats and

2610-732: The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) tried to counterbalance the power of the liberal Jews. On October 10, 1993, the opponents of the Palestinian-Israeli accord organized at the American Leadership Conference for a Safe Israel , where they warned that Israel was prostrating itself before "an armed thug", and predicted and that

2697-564: The "thirteenth of September is a date that will live in infamy". Some Zionists also criticized, often in harsh language, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres , his foreign minister and chief architect of the peace accord. With the community so strongly divided, AIPAC and the Presidents Conference, which was tasked with representing the national Jewish consensus, struggled to keep the increasingly antagonistic discourse civil. Reflecting these tensions, Abraham Foxman from

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2784-491: The 1930s to protest Nazi Germany . Franklin D. Roosevelt 's leftist domestic policies received strong Jewish support in the 1930s and 1940s, as did his anti-Nazi foreign policy and his promotion of the United Nations . Support for political Zionism in this period, although growing in influence, remained a distinctly minority opinion among Jews in the United States until about 1944–45, when the early rumors and reports of

2871-422: The 435 US Representatives at the start of the 112th Congress ; 26 Democrats and 1 ( Eric Cantor ) Republican. While many of these Members represented coastal cities and suburbs with significant Jewish populations, others did not (for instance, Kim Schrier of Seattle, Washington; John Yarmuth of Louisville, Kentucky; and David Kustoff and Steve Cohen of Memphis, Tennessee). The total number of Jews serving in

2958-436: The American Jewish population is, depending on the method of identification , either the largest in the world, or the second-largest in the world (after Israel ). Precise population figures vary depending on whether Jews are accounted for based on halakhic considerations, or secular, political and ancestral identification factors. There were about four million adherents of Judaism in the US as of 2001, approximately 1.4% of

3045-580: The Democrat, with only 45% support, while Republican winner Ronald Reagan garnered 39%, and 14% went to independent (former Republican) John Anderson . During the Reagan re-election campaign of 1984, the Republican retained 31% of the Jewish vote, while 67% voted for Democrat Walter Mondale . The 1988 election saw Jewish voters favor Democrat Michael Dukakis by 64%, while George H. W. Bush polled

3132-551: The House of Representatives declined from 31 in the 111th Congress . John Adler of New Jersey, Steve Kagan of Wisconsin, Alan Grayson of Florida, and Ron Klein of Florida all lost their re-election bids, Rahm Emanuel resigned to become the President's Chief of Staff; and Paul Hodes of New Hampshire did not run for re-election but instead (unsuccessfully) sought his state's open Senate seat. David Cicilline of Rhode Island

3219-595: The Israeli response; the great majority came to accept the war as necessary. Similar tensions were aroused by the 1977 election of Menachem Begin and the rise of Revisionist policies, the 1982 Lebanon War and the continuing administrative governance of portions of the West Bank territory. Disagreement over Israel's 1993 acceptance of the Oslo Accords caused a further split among American Jews; this mirrored

3306-867: The Jewish community. Many Jews are concentrated in the Northeastern United States, particularly around New York City . The world's largest menorah is lit annually at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan , while the largest menorah in New Jersey is similarly celebrated in Monroe Township , Middlesex County . Many Jews also live in South Florida , Los Angeles , and other large metropolitan areas, like Chicago , San Francisco , or Atlanta . The metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami contain nearly one quarter of

3393-525: The Jewish vote for his reelection, the best showing to date for the Republicans since Warren G. Harding 's 43% in 1920. In 1960, 83% voted for Democrat John F. Kennedy against Richard Nixon , and in 1964, 90% of American Jews voted for Lyndon Johnson , over his Republican opponent, arch-conservative Barry Goldwater . Hubert Humphrey garnered 81% of the Jewish vote in the 1968 elections in his losing bid for president against Richard Nixon . During

3480-592: The Labour government in Israel. They tried to assure Congress that American Jewry was behind the Accord and defended the efforts of the administration to help the fledgling Palestinian Authority (PA), including promises of financial aid. In a battle for public opinion, IPF commissioned a number of polls showing widespread support for Oslo among the community. In opposition to Oslo, an alliance of conservative groups, such as

3567-528: The Midwest. Gradually the Cincinnati Jewish community would adopt novel practices under the leadership Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise , the father of Reform Judaism in the United States, such as the inclusion of women in minyan . A large community grew in the region with the arrival of German and Lithuanian Jews in the latter half of the 1800s, leading to the establishment of Manischewitz , one of

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3654-665: The Mile High Center (now part of Wells Fargo Center ) in downtown Denver , and Place Ville Marie in downtown Montreal . Zeckendorf also partnered with Chicago real estate titan Arthur Rubloff to develop a stretch of Michigan Avenue into what Rubloff dubbed the Magnificent Mile . The Rubloff Company was eventually acquired by Prudential and subsequently has become a division of Berkshire Hathaway . The real estate tycoon and his company, Webb & Knapp, also were involved in theme park investment following

3741-512: The Nixon re-election campaign of 1972, Jewish voters were apprehensive about George McGovern and only favored the Democrat by 65%, while Nixon more than doubled Republican Jewish support to 35%. In the election of 1976, Jewish voters supported Democrat Jimmy Carter by 71% over incumbent president Gerald Ford 's 27%, but during the Carter re-election campaign of 1980, Jewish voters greatly abandoned

3828-675: The US is often termed Yerida . The Israeli immigrant community in America is less widespread. The significant Israeli immigrant communities in the United States are in the New York City metropolitan area, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago. According to the 2001 undertaking of the National Jewish Population Survey , 4.3 million American Jews have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural. Welton Becket Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969)

3915-494: The US population. According to the Jewish Agency , for the year 2023 Israel was home to 7.2 million Jews (46% of the world's Jewish population), while the United States contained 6.3 million (40.1%). According to Gallup and Pew Research Center findings, "at maximum 2.2% of the US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification." In 2020, the demographers Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin estimated in

4002-597: The United States in large numbers due to antisemitic laws and restrictions in their countries of birth. They primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Gradually early Jewish arrivals from the east coast would travel westward, and in the fall of 1819 the first Jewish religious services west of the Appalachian Range were conducted during the High Holidays in Cincinnati , the oldest Jewish community in

4089-809: The building of the United Nations Headquarters . Zeckendorf also owned New York's famous Chrysler Building and the venerable Hotel Astor in Times Square as well as the Commodore Hotel , the Drake Hotel , Hotel Manhattan and the Chatham Hotel. He purchased Chicago's famous Robie House in 1958, before transferring ownership to the University of Chicago . He developed two of I. M. Pei 's early skyscrapers —

4176-401: The case of restaurants) menus, silverware, matchbooks, and napkins. After Wurdeman's death in 1949, Becket formed Welton Becket and Associates and continued to grow the firm to the extent that it was one of the largest architectural offices in the world by the time of his death in 1969. In 1987, his firm was acquired by Ellerbe Associates, and the merged firm continued as Ellerbe Becket until

4263-418: The colonial era, Sephardic Jews who arrived via Portugal represented the bulk of America's then-small Jewish population. While their descendants are a minority nowadays, they represent the remainder of those original American Jews along with an array of other Jewish communities, including more recent Sephardi Jews , Mizrahi Jews , Beta Israel-Ethiopian Jews , various other Jewish ethnic groups , as well as

4350-585: The conflict between ethnic and American identities. After 1960, memories of the Holocaust , together with the Six-Day War in 1967 had major impacts on fashioning Jewish ethnic identity . Some have argued that the Holocaust highlighted for Jews the importance of their ethnic identity at a time when other minorities were asserting their own. In New York City, while the German-Jewish community

4437-611: The construction on the marshland of the world's largest co-operative housing project known as Co-op City . Zeckendorf's ownership of the land and his role in Freedomland are documented in the book Freedomland U.S.A.: The Definitive History (Theme Park Press, 2019). In December 1958, Zeckendorf entered into a deal with Spyros Skouras , head of 20th Century-Fox , to purchase Fox's project to develop 176 acres (0.71 km) of its historic backlot in Los Angeles, California , into

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4524-468: The early 1950s. The property was located in The Bronx , a borough of New York City. The park lasted just five years (1960–1964) and it was under various layers of management that included Zeckendorf and his son. According to Zeckendorf in a newspaper article that appeared during 1970, the theme park, unknown to the public at the time, served as a "placeholder" for the land to obtain variances that permitted

4611-410: The elections of 1940, and 1944, representing the highest of support, equaled only once since. In the election of 1948, Jewish support for Democrat Harry S. Truman dropped to 75%, with 15% supporting the new Progressive Party . As a result of lobbying, and hoping to better compete for the Jewish vote, both major party platforms had included a pro-Zionist plank since 1944, and supported the creation of

4698-452: The embodiment of glamorous real-estate dealmaking, which included developing Roosevelt Airfield , where Charles Lindbergh began his transatlantic flight, and helping to advance and develop Long Island University . From the start of his career Zeckendorf had been able to use his dealmaking skills to acquire or build projects for which he lacked the funds, but in time the under-funding caught up with him, and "his overextended company crashed in

4785-626: The end of 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM . It is now known as Ellerbe Becket, an AECOM Company. Becket's buildings used unusual facade materials such as ceramic tile and stainless steel grillwork, repetitive geometric patterns, and a heavy emphasis on walls clad in natural stone, particularly travertine and flagstone . With The Walt Disney Company and the United States Steel Corporation , Becket's firm co-designed Disney's Contemporary Resort , which opened in 1971 at Walt Disney World Resort . The Contemporary

4872-511: The entertainment industry, to come up with a campaign and execute it. Pomerantz turned to a young publicist he had hired, Worley Thorne , the only other publicist in the small firm, for suggestions. Thorne said he'd call friends in the press to assess their attitudes. Thorne learned that there was deep skepticism that the project would ever be built. 20th did not have the money, which is why they brought in Zeckendorf, but apparently Zeckendorf

4959-542: The fact that some of them were denied the right to vote or hold office in local jurisdictions, Sephardi Jews became active in community affairs in the 1790s, after they were granted political equality in the five states where they were most numerous. Until about 1830, Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America . Large-scale Jewish immigration commenced in the 19th century, when, by mid-century, many German Jews had arrived, migrating to

5046-455: The first African American to be elected president. Additionally, 83% of white Jews voted for Obama compared to just 34% of white Protestants and 47% of white Catholics, though 67% of those identifying with another religion and 71% identifying with no religion also voted Obama. In the February 2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary , Bernie Sanders became the first Jewish candidate to win

5133-579: The first time, the English Plantation Act 1740 permitted Jews to become British citizens and emigrate to the colonies . The first famous Jew in US history was Chaim Salomon , a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to New York and played an important role in the American Revolution. He was a successful financier who supported the patriotic cause and helped raise most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution. Despite

5220-541: The formation of new centers, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960; the fastest growth came in Reform and, especially, Conservative congregations. More recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields and aspects over

5307-488: The horrors of the Holocaust. This attention was based on a natural affinity toward and support for Israel in the Jewish community. The attention is also because of the ensuing and unresolved conflicts regarding the founding of Israel and the role for the Zionist movement going forward. A lively internal debate commenced, following the Six-Day War . The American Jewish community was divided over whether or not they agreed with

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5394-494: The largest producers of American kosher products and now based in New Jersey , and the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States, and second-oldest continuous published in the world, The American Israelite , established in 1854 and still extant in Cincinnati. By 1880 there were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States, many of them being the educated, and largely secular, German Jews, although

5481-538: The late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a racial definition of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the Menorah Journal between 1915 and 1925. During this time contributors to the Menorah promoted a cultural , rather than a racial, religious, or other views of Jewishness as

5568-523: The mayors of Los Angeles, Beverly Hills , and Santa Monica , plus politicians and other dignitaries, invited, as well as all the Southern California press. He and Pomerantz would find a star to "launch" the project by breaking a bottle of champagne on the shack prior to its being demolished. Later, they secured Mary Pickford for that task. It was all purely symbolic, since construction did not actually begin, but no one stated that openly, it

5655-755: The mid-20th century, there were American Jews who were among the most active participants in the Civil Rights Movement and feminist movements. A number of American Jews have also been active figures in the struggle for gay rights in America . Joachim Prinz , president of the American Jewish Congress , stated the following when he spoke from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial during the famous March on Washington on August 28, 1963: "As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate,

5742-659: The most liberal programs of the New Deal . They continued as a major element of the New Deal Coalition , giving special support to the Civil Rights Movement . By the mid-1960s, however, the Black Power movement caused a growing separation between blacks and Jews, though both groups remained solidly in the Democratic camp. While earlier Jewish immigrants from Germany tended to be politically conservative ,

5829-546: The number of American Jews at 6.4 million, or approximately 2.1% of the total population. This figure is significantly higher than the previous large scale survey estimate, conducted by the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population estimates, which estimated 5.2 million Jews. A 2007 study released by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) at Brandeis University presents evidence to suggest that both these figures may be underestimations with

5916-488: The other 3 are Republicans. All 10 Jewish Senators are Democrats. Additionally, 6 members of President Joe Biden 's cabinet are Jewish ( Secretary of State Antony Blinken , Attorney General Merrick Garland , DNI Avril Haines , White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain , Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas , and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ). Members of the American Jewish community have included prominent participants in civil rights movements. In

6003-470: The plan. Thorne called Herrscher and asked if there was some small building they could demolish with a bulldozer, to begin to "break ground" for the Becket building. Herrscher said there was a tin shack that was expendable and he'd make it available, as well as the bulldozer. McCrary and William Zeckendorf, Jr. , vice-president of Webb & Knapp, also approved. Thorne said that it should be a large affair with

6090-476: The project by purchasing 20th's interest in the project for US$ 53 million . The following March it was announced that construction would begin that month on the new headquarters for architect Welton Becket , chief architect on the project That did not occur either. Zeckendorf hired New York public relations executive Tex McCrary to lend new life and visibility to the project. McCrary, in turn contracted with Los Angeles publicist Charles A. Pomerantz , well known in

6177-551: The same period, great numbers of Ashkenazic Jews also arrived from Galicia , at that time the most impoverished region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a heavy Jewish urban population, driven out mainly by economic reasons. Many Jews also emigrated from Romania . Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924 when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration. Most settled in

6264-477: The same town or village. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture , and Jews quickly became part of American life. Approximately 500,000 American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in World War II , and after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization . There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage . The suburbs facilitated

6351-454: The studio's conception of Century City as "a city within a city" with the arc-shaped, 19-story Century Plaza Hotel to be the centerpiece. This joint-venture marked an increasing interest by large corporations with land "surplus" in order to create housing communities, industrial parks and office buildings; marking the first movement from traditional industry into real estate investing . Before his company's bankruptcy in 1965, Zeckendorf became

6438-596: The successful debut of Disneyland. Zeckendorf came to know C.V. Wood , who first helped build Disneyland as a Disney employee and then developed theme parks in Colorado, Massachusetts, New York (on Zeckendorf's property) and Texas under his own Marco Engineering company. Zeckendorf and his company enjoyed various connections to the Marco Engineering parks. In New York, Wood created and built Freedomland U.S.A. on marshland that had been owned by Zeckendorf since

6525-619: The systematic mass murder of the Jews in Nazi-occupied countries became publicly known with the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps . The founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948 and recognition thereof by the American government (following objections by American isolationists) was an indication of both its intrinsic support and its response to learning

6612-482: The wave of Jews from Eastern Europe starting in the early 1880s were generally more liberal or left-wing and became the political majority. Many came to America with experience in the socialist, anarchist and communist movements as well as the Labor Bund , emanating from Eastern Europe. Many Jews rose to leadership positions in the early 20th century American labor movement and helped to found unions that played

6699-492: The world after the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. Several other major cities have large Jewish communities, including Los Angeles , Miami Baltimore , Boston , Chicago , San Francisco and Philadelphia . In many metropolitan areas, the majority of Jewish families live in suburban areas. The Greater Phoenix area was home to about 83,000 Jews in 2002, and has been rapidly growing. The greatest Jewish population on

6786-503: The world's Jews and the New York City metropolitan area itself contains around a quarter of all Jews living in the United States. According to a study published by demographers and sociologists Ira M. Sheskin and Arnold Dashefsky in the American Jewish Yearbook, the distribution of the Jewish population in 2020 was as follows: The New York City metropolitan area is the second-largest Jewish population center in

6873-496: The years. The Jewish community in America has gone from being part of the lower class of society, with numerous employments barred to them, to being a group with a high concentrations in members of the academia and a per capita income higher than the average in the United States. Scholars debate whether the historical experience of Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism . Korelitz (1996) shows how American Jews during

6960-581: Was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California . Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washington program in Architecture in 1927 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree ( B.Arch. ). He moved to Los Angeles in 1933 and formed a partnership with his University of Washington classmate Walter Wurdeman and Angeleno architect Charles F. Plummer . Their first major commission

7047-484: Was dramatic, and very successful. The Los Angeles Times devoted almost three full pages to its coverage of the event. Still lacking sufficient money, Zeckendorf was forced to make US$ 1,000 per day penalty payments to Fox. In 1960, Zeckendorf solved his problem by partnering with Alcoa in a joint-venture relationship to finally build Century City, which by now had escalated to a US$ 500,000,000 (equivalent to $ 5,149,606,299 in 2023) project. The new owners embraced

7134-524: Was elected as the House Minority Whip , the first Jewish Republican to be selected for the position. In 2011, he became the first Jewish House Majority Leader . He served as Majority Leader until 2014, when he resigned shortly after his loss in the Republican primary election for his House seat. In 2013, Pew found that 70% of American Jews identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party , with just 22% identifying with or leaning toward

7221-570: Was the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in 1935, which won them residential jobs from James Cagney , Robert Montgomery , and other film celebrities. Plummer died in 1939. The successor firm Wurdeman and Becket went on to design Bullock's Pasadena (1944) and a couple of corporate headquarters. Wurdeman and Becket developed the concept of "total design," whereby their firm would be responsible for master planning, engineering, interiors, furniture, fixtures, landscaping, signage, and even (in

7308-529: Was the only Jewish American who was newly elected to the 112th Congress; he had been the Mayor of Providence . The number declined when Jane Harman , Anthony Weiner , and Gabby Giffords resigned during the 112th Congress. As of January 2014 , there were five openly gay men serving in Congress, and two are Jewish: Jared Polis of Colorado and David Cicilline of Rhode Island. In November 2008, Cantor

7395-418: Was the only solution to the persecution and the genocide which were then occurring across Europe. One important development was the sudden conversion of many American Jewish leaders to Zionism late in the war. The Holocaust was largely ignored by American media as it was happening. Reporters and editors largely did not believe the stories of atrocities which were coming out of Europe. The Holocaust had

7482-407: Was unable to deliver even the $ 53-million purchase price, let alone $ 400 million. The California papers had already given a lot of publicity to Century City and, for them, any more coverage would just be re-hash in which they were not interested. Thorne reported to Pomerantz his opinion that the only way to restore credibility to the project was to actually "begin" construction, and Pomerantz went for

7569-492: Was well established 'uptown', the more numerous Jews who migrated from Eastern Europe faced tension 'downtown' with Irish and German Catholic neighbors, especially the Irish Catholics who controlled Democratic Party politics at the time . Jews successfully established themselves in the garment trades and in the needle unions in New York. By the 1930s they were a major political factor in New York, with strong support for

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