Like many Eastern European immigrants of the time, my ancestors sought more freedom and new opportunities. A number of their grown children plus several sons-in law and daughters-in-law soon assumed leadership positions in mutual aid societies that helped other recent Jewish immigrants get established and build new lives in a new land.
Learning about Landsmanshaftn
Jewish immigrants to New York City frequently joined or founded landsmanshaftn (mutual aid societies geared to immigrants from a particular town or region in Eastern Europe). Socializing was part of the attraction, but even more important were burial payments and other aid available to society members.
I learned more about the context of these societies by paging through Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York, edited by Hannah Kliger. This academic project provided interesting background to understand how recent immigrants from Eastern Europe banded together to help one another.
No precise count exists of the number of societies that existed in the five boroughs of New York, but one study found hundreds of societies with tens of thousands of members in 1917. And that wasn't even the peak period!
More about NY-based landsmanshaftn can be found on the NY Public Library's landsmanshaftn page, the Jewish Genealogical Society of NY's burial society page, Jewish Communal Register book, or by doing an online search.
The Kossuth Society
I've written about my great uncle Albert Farkas being among the founders of the New York-based Ferenc Kossuth Hungarian Literary, Sick and Benevolent Association--usually called the Kossuth Society. Albert and others in the Farkas family helped to found the Kossuth Society in 1904 and served in leadership positions for a number of years. My Grandpa Theodore Schwartz (1887-1965) was among the Farkas in-laws who also played a role in the Kossuth Society.
According to a historical note in the souvenir booklet published on the society's 5th anniversary in 1909, membership was 95 in 1905 but dropped to 35 in 1906. Why? Because enthusiasm temporarily dipped when the society wasn't able to hold a promised concert featuring the famous Hungarian violinist Jancsi Rigo. Membership later rebounded and the society served members for at least 30 years, if not longer.
