Credit to the nation : Eastern European Jewish immigrant bankers and the shaping of American finance, 1873-1930 / Rebecca Kobrin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kobrin, Rebecca, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--New York (State)--New York--Economic conditions--20th century.

Jews.

Credit--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Credit.

Finance--New York (State)--New York--Religious aspects--History--20th century.

Finance.

Immigrants--New York (State)--New York--Economic conditions--20th century.

Immigrants.

Jewish capitalists and financiers--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Jewish capitalists and financiers.

Banks and banking--New York (State)--New York--History--20th century.

Banks and banking.

Europe, Eastern--Emigration and immigration--History--19th century.

Europe, Eastern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England: Harvard University Press, 2026.

System Details:

text file PDF

Summary:

From a leading historian, the story of how entrepreneurial Jewish immigrants transformed commercial banking and enabled the economic and social advancement of Jews in America.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.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. Drawing on previously unexamined archival materials in Russian, Yiddish, German, and English, Kobrin tells a story that is also crucial to the history of New York, as immigrant bankers' financing of real estate transformed wide swathes of the city. Lenders drove a boom in the prices of tenement buildings, but heavy speculation eventually precipitated the downfall of immigrant banking. Kobrin notes in particular the case of the Bank of United States--a private lender catering primarily to Jewish businessmen--which the Federal Reserve refused to bail out from bankruptcy in 1930.Immigrants' grasping for credit, and the rise and fall of immigrant banks, gave way to a contemporary banking industry that, ironically, refuses credit to today's immigrants. Kobrin reminds us that now, as before, the denial of credit pushes entrepreneurial Americans into unregulated money-lending and the trap of endless debt.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Note on Orthography and Transliteration

Introduction

1. Eastern European Jews and the Quest for Credit

2. The Business of Mass Migration

3. Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Financial Landscape of New York City

4. Immigrant Banks and New York City Real Estate

5. Bank of United States and the 1930 Failure That Reshaped American Finance

Conclusion: The Long Shadow of Immigrant Banking

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed March 3, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Kobrin, Rebecca. Credit to the natio.

ISBN:

9780674305199

0674305191

OCLC:

1573521667

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license