Co-Sponsored by the Salmagundi Club

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 presents the fascinating, little-known facts about the Jewish exodus that spared millions from persecution. He offers insights into the American experience, connecting banking, shipping, politics, immigration nativism, and war, and delivers a crucial perspective into the burgeoning refugee crisis of our own time.

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.