Legal and economic restrictions and hardships meant Jews tended to be very mobile. Many emigrated to find work or found a family.
With the introduction of a constitution in Austria-Hungary in 1867, Jews attained full civil rights, which included freedom of movement. As a consequence, many Jewish families left Hohenems.
Trade always involved mobility and contact to other places. Jewish peddlers from Hohenems used to undertake long trips. Jewish merchants had long-standing professional and family ties to such places as Trieste, Augsburg and Vienna, Switzerland, Turkey, England and the United States.
In South Tyrol, Jewish families from Hohenems both helped to industrialize the country and to establish Jewish communities there. The same is true for St. Gall (in Switzerland), where Jews were given the right to settle in 1863. Family maintained ties across great distances. There was a Jewish Diaspora from Hohenems. Partly as a result of these significant international connections, life in Hohenems itself became more urban in character. next ►