THE LAST SHIPS FROM HAMBURG: SAVING RUSSIA’S JEWS ON THE EVE OF WW1
Presented by Steven Ujifusa
June 26 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm EDT
From 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews fled discrimination and violence in Eastern Europe. Many settled on the Lower East Side and today’s East Village. How such migration was possible is complicated. It would have been impossible except for the unusual collaboration of three titans of business: Jacob Schiff, managing partner of Kuhn, Loeb, and Co., Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, and J.P. Morgan, the mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine trust.
STEVEN UJIFUSA is a historian who chronicles the confluence of American business, social, and maritime history. His third book, The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I, tells the story of Eastern European Jewish immigration to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was released by HarperCollins on November 21, 2023, and named by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year.
(Photos and Image: Steven Ujifusa)