Anti-Semitism drove many Jewish families to immigrate to the United States.
Hirsch Strauss was sick with tuberculosis, a serious lung disease, and could not travel. After he died in 1845, Jonas and Louis journeyed to America and began their own dry goods business. In June 1847, Rebecca, Maila, Vogela, and 18-year-old Levi obtained exit visas and passports. The family traveled to a German port and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a crowded ship. The uncomfortable voyage lasted many weeks.
The new arrivals joined Jonas and Louis in New York City, where many Jewish immigrants lived. Fanny married David Stern and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and later to San Francisco, California. Mary married William Sahlein, an uncle. By 1848, Jonas and Louis, who had been working as peddlers, opened a dry goods store in New York City. Levi Strauss began his life in America as a peddler. At the age of 19, he moved to Kentucky, still a frontier area, to sell his goods.
After gold was discovered in California in 1848, many people flocked there to make their fortunes, both by mining and by selling goods to the miners. The 24-year-old Strauss, having recently become an American citizen, joined David and Fanny Stern there in 1853, having endured a long, rough voyage with as many wares as he could carry.
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