Tuesday
June 8, 1926
Yidishes ṭageblaṭṭ = The Jewish daily news (New York, N.Y.) — New York City, New York
“1926: The Day 140 Deportees Arrived at Ellis Island & German Students Revolted”
Art Deco mural for June 8, 1926
Original newspaper scan from June 8, 1926
Original front page — Yidishes ṭageblaṭṭ = The Jewish daily news (New York, N.Y.) — Click to enlarge
Full-size newspaper scan
What's on the Front Page

The front page of this Yiddish daily is dominated by immigration drama unfolding at Ellis Island. A special train from the Lackawanna Railroad arrived in Jersey City carrying 140 deportees who are being sent back from America under new immigration laws. The group includes criminals, thieves, mentally ill individuals, and those who simply couldn't make a living in America and became 'public charges.' They've been transported to Ellis Island under heavy guard by railroad police, immigration inspectors, and Coast Guard personnel. The paper notes this is just the beginning - Albert Johnson, author of the famous Johnson immigration bill, has declared that many more such groups will be sent back in the near future. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, 1,500 German students at Hanover Technical College have gone on strike to protest the dismissal of 10 anti-Semitic students who demonstrated against Jewish Professor Theodor Lessing. The striking students packed up and moved to a technical college in Brunswick, where they were welcomed with great enthusiasm.

Why It Matters

These stories capture America at a crucial turning point in 1926. The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 was drastically reshaping who could enter America, ending the era of mass immigration that had brought millions of Jews, Italians, and Eastern Europeans to these shores. The deportation scenes at Ellis Island represented the harsh new reality for immigrants who had once seen America as a permanent refuge. Meanwhile, the anti-Semitic student protests in Germany foreshadowed the darker forces gathering in Europe that would eventually drive another wave of desperate refugees to America's increasingly closed doors.

Hidden Gems
  • Among the 140 deportees were people brought from as far as California - imagine the cross-country train journey of rejected immigrants being shipped back to Ellis Island for deportation
  • The striking German students received encouraging telegrams from the Berlin Technological Institute and other technical schools across the country, showing how widespread anti-Semitic sentiment was becoming in German academia
  • The paper reports that Brazil is withdrawing from the League of Nations because it doesn't get representation on the Council, while Spain is also upset about its diplomatic seating arrangements - apparently international organizations had protocol drama even in 1926
  • A band of criminals has been repeatedly attacking the cemetery of Congregation Beit Yisrael near Niagara Falls, vandalizing the chapel and even shooting at the wooden buildings with firearms
  • Daily exchange rates are listed at the bottom: one German reichsmark was worth 23.81 cents, while 100 Polish zloty equaled just 19 cents - showing the economic chaos still gripping post-war Europe
Fun Facts
  • Professor Theodor Lessing, the Jewish academic causing such controversy in Hanover, would later be assassinated by Nazi agents in 1933 while living in exile in Czechoslovakia - making him one of the first prominent victims of Nazi international terrorism
  • The Johnson immigration bill mentioned in the deportation story established national origin quotas that remained the basis of US immigration law until 1965, fundamentally changing the demographic makeup of American immigration for four decades
  • Ellis Island, where these 140 deportees were being held, had processed over 12 million immigrants during its peak years - but by 1926 it was increasingly becoming a detention and deportation center rather than a gateway to the American dream
  • The League of Nations crisis mentioned with Brazil and Spain withdrawing was an early sign of the organization's weakness - within a decade, major powers like Germany, Japan, and Italy would also leave, ultimately dooming the League
  • The cemetery vandalism near Niagara Falls reflects the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the mid-1920s, when the organization reached its peak membership of over 4 million and was particularly active in targeting Jewish communities in the Northeast
Anxious Roaring Twenties Prohibition Immigration Politics Federal Politics International Civil Rights Education
June 7, 1926 June 9, 1926

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