Jewish immigrants come to U.S. to escape the Czarist Russian Pogroms and Eastern European anti-Semitism.  (Source: Spartacus Educational Homepage)

1917-1921:

The U.S. becomes afraid for security and anti-war sentiment during WWI. The Sedition Act and Palmer Raids culminate in deportation of 247 people to Russia. The government finds these deportees in violation of the Sedition Act for speaking out against the war and the draft and lobbying for peace. Many of the deportees are Russian Jews who fled Russia initially to escape the anti-Semitism, including Mollie Steimer and Emma Goldman. (Source: Spartacus Educational Homepage)

1930s:

Some of these deportees are forced out of Russia for their political beliefs and in part because of Eastern-European anti-Semitism. Many deportees resettle in Germany. (Source: Spartacus Educational Homepage)

1933-1945:

WWII forces Jews to flee Germany; many try to get asylum or refugee status in the U.S., but are turned away by the inflexible refugee policy. Although 85,000 Jewish refugees reached the United States between March 1938 and September 1939, this level of immigration was far below the number seeking refuge (for additional information students may wish to read the story of the sea vessel, S.S. St. Louis, which attempted to bring 903 refugees to the U.S. and other countries and was finally forced to return to Europe after none of the countries, including the U.S., would take in the refugees).  (Source: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

1945-1952: Approximately 400,000 Displaced Persons (DPs) are allowed into the U.S. between 1945 and 1952. Roughly 20 percent are Jewish Holocaust survivors.  (Source: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)

1980-Present: “Soviet” and Russian Jews again come to the U.S. to escape anti-Semitism.

Additional Source: The Advocates for Human Rights, Cycles of Nativism Timeline.