JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

the large-scale industrial establishments because they could
hardly compete with large-scale industrial firms in the production
of goods and had therefore either to become suppliers
to the large firms of some specialized goods or producers
of market goods that were outside the assortment manufactured
by large-scale industry. Given the scarcity of capital in
the social milieu from which the small-scale producers or entrepreneurs
were recruited, their proximity to industrial centers
and markets was absolutely crucial. Small-scale industrial
firms did not possess the capital to carry large stocks, and a
quick turnover was their only mode of survival. A great deal
of flexibility in product-mix and in assuring sources of demand
was required to keep the enterprises in operation. They
also required a labor force skilled but not overly specialized
and with relatively few employment alternatives to accept a
less-than-regular employment. This was a typical solution for
economic branches that operated with a basically backward
technology at low levels of productivity, low wages, and long
hours of work, in what were fringes of the consumer goods
industries. It was due to the declining role of handicraft production,
which was suffering from industrial competition, that
this type of industrial employment was acceptable to Jewish
industrial job seekers.
Jewish entrepreneurs did, however, play an important
role in providing gainful employment for large numbers of
Jews. It may be assumed that for a Jewish entrepreneur there
existed a “psychological income” in providing employment for
other Jews, whether he did so for reasons of greater familiarity
and cultural affinity or because it was considered a “good
deed” in cases when discrimination in favor of Jewish employees
increased his operational costs. Those costs, in turn, depended
upon the nature of the labor supply and the distribution
of skills within the Jewish labor force and within the total
population. If the costs of hiring Jewish labor were less than
or equal to those of hiring other members of the labor force,
it can be assumed that there were no costs in the discrimination
in favor of employing Jews. As will be seen from a number
of examples, the employment pattern of Jewish labor by
Jewish entrepreneurs did not in fact impose additional costs
upon the employers. There were, however, two other obstacles
that had to be overcome in order to have the employment of
a Jewish labor force reach a significant level. The first constraint
was the assumed or real strength of the religious taboo
against work on the Sabbath, regardless of whether the taboo
was expressed in the behavior of workers or in the attitudes
of the entrepreneurs. The second constraint was the assumed
animosity of non-Jewish workers and foremen toward Jewish
co-workers. There is no doubt that such constraints upon
the entrepreneurs were real, especially in the later part of the
19th century in Eastern Europe.
The cases of a few industries in Europe and one in the
U.S. are instructive since they provide a broad spectrum of
employment opportunities created by Jewish entrepreneurs
for Jewish workers. One is the *textile industry in Russian
Poland in which Jewish spinners, weavers, and other textile
economic history
workers were predominantly employed in the smaller-scale
enterprises, while the larger-scale factories refrained from
employing them. Second is the case of the forestry trade, in
which few Jewish workers and laborers could compete successfully
with the low-paid peasants seeking off-season employment
in lumbering. Therefore, thousands of Jews were
employed in this industry by Jewish firms as overseers in the
forests, sawmills, and transportation of the products, much of
the output being destined for export or railroad construction.
Thus, the demand for trained personnel with a degree of familiarity
with the operation and quality standards in forestry
and with some clerical skills attracted many Jewish workers
and employees. While such a combination of skills was rare in
the general labor force, and the wages and salaries accepted by
the Jewish workers were generally low, there was hardly any
cost of discriminating in favor of Jewish employment in the
forestry trade. In the third case, the sugar and oil industries
may be subsumed under one type of employment. Neither in
sugar-beet growing nor in the processes of sugar refining were
Jews represented. The same is true for the oil industry located
outside the Jewish *Pale of Settlement. The Jews could compete
neither with the peasants and local oil-workers nor with
the highly skilled specialists in sugar and oil refining. The areas
of employment for Jews provided for them by Jewish entrepreneurs
were those of distribution and trade. Thus, thousands
of Jews were employed as clerical personnel, salesmen,
and sales agents in the trade networks of both the sugar and
oil industries. The outstanding case of industrial employment
provided by Jewish entrepreneurs for Jewish workers in the
U.S. is the garment industry. The levels of skill brought over
by the Jewish immigrants, the relatively low wage schedule
of the garment industry, and the relatively small scale of the
operations of the firms led to a high concentration of Jewish
workers, with the industry as a whole serving as a massive
source of employment.
The above examples illustrate some of the patterns of
the penetration by Jews into areas of industrial employment.
They are indicative of the manner in which masses of former
artisans and pauperized elements of the Jewish community
could join the ranks of industrial workers and employees. As
in other societies, child labor and long-term apprenticeship
were the chief means of skill-acquisition for the poor. Although
the capital-goods industries were virtually closed for
both Jewish entrepreneurs and workers alike, industrial employment
concentrated in consumer goods industries signified
the adjustment to modern, industrial society and injected a
new dynamism both in the social relations within the Jewish
communities and with the community at large.
MAINTENANCE OF POSITIONS IN THE SERVICE SECTOR OF
THE ECONOMY. The service sector includes employment in
trade, transportation and communication, public and private
services, and the liberal professions. For the huge segment of
the Jewish population previously employed in it, largely in
trade and particularly commodity trade, the problem of eco-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 131