Description: Rebecca Kobrin chronicles the rise and fall of Jewish immigrant banking in America. With few credit options, Jewish migrants turned to Jewish entrepreneurs who became lenders themselves. Before the Depression, Jewish lenders transformed New York City real estate and finance broadly, while enabling their neighbors to thrive in a new land.
Brief description: Rebecca Kobrin, author of Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora, is Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University, where she codirects the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
Review Quotes: Rebecca Kobrin has opened an entirely new chapter in American Jewish history and introduced us to a whole new cast of characters within it. No scholar before her has identified this world of banking as a fundamental aspect of the story of Jewish immigration to America. With deep research and meticulous fealty to the sources, she lays out banking's transnational connections as well as its impact on New York City and on the Jewish immigrants who flocked there to make it their home.--Hasia R. Diner, author of Hungering for America and Opening Doors