Emigration

Large-scale Jewish emigration from Stolin began during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time as Jewish residents had become more significant than ever before in both numbers and percentage of the total population.

Emigration from Stolin, 1890s–1940s

United States

Major cities:
New York
Detroit
Washington, D.C.
Boston
St. Louis

Israel

Major cities:
Tel Aviv

Canada

Major cities:
Toronto
Montréal

Poland

Major city:
Warsaw

Argentina

Major city:
Buenos Aires

United States Israel Canada Argentina Poland

There were many reasons that they chose to leave. Over the years the Jews of Stolin and throughout the Pale of Settlement lacked equal rights and faced relentless anti-Semitism, pogroms, targeted military conscription, severe poverty, and the numerous disasters that accompanied frequent wars in Eastern Europe. As the enlightenment and self-determination encouraged national movements all across Europe, new generations of Stoliners looked to America, and later Israel, for better lives rather than the messianic hopes of the parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

They left their homes and loved ones and ventured out into the unknown. The first step of the journey was crossing vast tracts of land, often on foot, through inhospitable territory and across dangerous borders. Language and cultural differences made it difficult to communicate and scam artists did their best to take advantage of the large numbers of naive and isolated travelers. The sums of money required to travel often amounted to the entire savings of poor families from the Pale, so many heads of families were forced to leave their wives and children behind until they could send for them later.