In 1906, the U.S. Government sent immigration inspector Philip Cowen on an undercover mission to the Pale of Settlement in Russia (St. Petersburg, Kief, and Odessa) to discover the cause of increased Jewish immigration from Russia to the United States. His findings revealed appalling and unremitting persecution of Russian Jews.
This is one page from Cowen’s report that includes a table with statistics for Eastern European immigration to the United States based on country and ethnicity.
Additional sections of the report tell of the Russian government’s persecution of Jews. Since 1882, the May Laws forced Jews out of their homes and required them all to live in the Pale of Settlement. Crowded into this small area of Russia, the Jews struggled to find jobs and pay rising rent prices. Cowen uses poignant pictures and narration to tell about difficult living conditions and economic hardship for Jews in Russia.
Most tragic of all are his description of the 637 pogroms—targeted attacks on Jews. Entire Jewish cities were ransacked and destroyed while hundreds of Jews were brutally murdered. Cowen writes of these attacks through the stories of eyewitnesses who survived the pogroms. To escape such persecution, Jews sought to immigrate to America. But by accompanying Jewish immigrants on their journey to escape Russia, Cowen found out that Jewish persecution did not end with their departure. Jews were repeatedly charged double or triple the cost of passports and boat tickets to America.
