Jewish Emigration from Europe to South Africa

Question:
In the period of large Jewish emigration from Europe, from the late 1800s until Word War II, how many of Europe’s Jews chose to emigrate to the continent of Africa?

Answer:
According to The Penguin Atlas of Diasporas [New York : Viking ; Penguin Group, 1995 – p.60] 23,00 Jews emigrated from Europe to Africa (specifically South Africa) between 1881 and 1900. Between 1901 and 1914 an additional 20,00 emigrated. From 1915 to 1930 the amount dropped to 15,00 and between 1931 and 1939 the amount fell even further, to 10,00. Altogether this adds up to 68,000 Jews emigrating from Europe to Africa between 1881 and 1939. By way of contrast, in that same time period 2,575,000 Jews emigrated from Europe to the United States of America [ibid.].

How did European Jewish emigrants get to their port of embarkation?

Question: What route would Jews emigrating from Europe to America in the early 1900s have taken in order to arrive at their ports of embarkation?

Answer: According to Lloyd P. Gartner in his article “Jewish Migrants en Route from Europe to North America: Traditions and Realities” (Jewish History [Haifa University Press], vol.1 no.2 – Fall 1986, p.52):

The emigration routes before 1914 took the emigrant to a junction on the railroad network, such as Kiev, Warsaw, or Brody. From there he travelled to a depot city in mid-continent, usually Vienna, Berlin or Breslau, and thence to a port city. The main ports of embarkation for emigration from Eastern Europe were Hamburg and Bremen. Of special importance was the emigrant traffic through England which usually brought migrants from Hamburg across the North Sea to Grimsby, Harwich, or London. They then crossed to Liverpool for the voyage to America. The journey from a Continental port to America via England cost less than did the direct route for those emigrants who circumvented the high, fixed prices of the North Atlantic Shipping Ring by purchasing trans-Atlantic tickets in England under an assumed name.