Archaeology of the Jewish Communities of St. Lawrence County, 1855-1945 (2022)

The American Jewish immigrant experience is an underrepresented subject in archaeology. Through analysis of census records and cemeteries, I explored the ways Jewish immigrants in St. Lawrence County, New York, materially expressed their religious and cultural identities. Between 1855 and 1945, members of Jewish communities concentrated in Ogdensburg, Massena, and Gouverneur navigated and adapted to their new environment and communities and actively shaped their landscape and material culture to suit their changing needs. Their choices of profession, architectural choices in the construction of their synagogues, use of language and symbols on their gravestones, and organization of their neighborhoods indicate a desire to maintain a cohesive internal community while participating in their larger, predominantly Christian communities. This was surprisingly consistent over time, despite growing antisemitic forces such as the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the notorious Blood Libel incident in Massena in 1928.