Tobias Brinkmann
· Malvin and Lea Bank Professor of Jewish Studies and HistoryPennsylvania State University · History
Active 1997–2025
About
Tobias Brinkmann is the Malvin and Lea Bank Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Pennsylvania State University. He is a social historian specializing in Jewish history after 1800, with a focus on migration processes in a comparative and transnational framework. His research explores Jewish life in the modern city, primarily in Europe and North America, and examines the emergence and transformation of scholarship about Jewish and general migration and flight during the twentieth century. Brinkmann's notable work includes his book 'Sundays at Sinai: A Jewish Congregation in Chicago,' which studies a prominent American Jewish Reform temple established in 1861 by German-speaking Jewish immigrants, highlighting the intersection of religious reform and civic engagement. His latest study, 'Between Borders: The Great Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe,' shifts the narrative from traditional immigration stories to the actual journeys of Jewish migrants and refugees, emphasizing the importance of comparative approaches and shedding light on spaces between borders. Brinkmann has received several awards, including fellowships from the American Jewish Archives and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and he teaches courses on modern Jewish, European, and U.S. history.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- History
- Ancient history
- Geography
- Genealogy
- Mechanical engineering
- Anatomy
- Biochemistry
- Operations management
- Engineering
- Chemistry
- Risk analysis (engineering)
- Biology
- Neuroscience
- Business
- Biophysics
- Archaeology
- Environmental economics
Selected publications
Polly Zavadivker. <i>A Nation of Refugees: Russia’s Jews in World War I</i>
The American Historical Review · 2025-10-02
article1st authorCorrespondingUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. eBooks · 2025-06-17
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingJournal of Plant Growth Regulation · 2025-06-28 · 2 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract Thinning reduces biennial bearing in apple. ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, a precursor of ethylene) is a recent thinning agent. The objective was to identify factors affecting ethylene evolution and fruit abscission following ACC application. Long term, time-course studies reveal that an ACC spray (200 mg l −1 ) applied 21 days after full bloom (DAFB) induces ethylene evolution which peaks about 1 d after application. From 32 days after application onwards, ethylene evolution did not differ from the un-treated control. ACC induced fruit abscission from 16 days after application onwards. Abscission ceased about 21 days after application. By this time, 27% of the fruit remained on the tree, compared to 61% in the un-treated control. Ethylene evolution per spur peaked, when ACC was applied between 16 and 47 DAFB (equiv. to fruit diameters from 8 to 32 mm). Later ACC applications had little effect on ethylene evolution. Ethylene evolution following ACC application was localized. Selective application to a fruit resulted in increased ethylene evolution by the fruit, but not by leaves and vice versa. ACC effects on ethylene evolution and thinning were similar across six apple cultivars. Ethylene evolution increased linearly with increasing ACC concentration. Most of the ethylene released from spurs was accounted for by ethylene from fruits. Less ethylene was released from leaves. Thinning occurred for ACC concentrations of 200 to 400 mg l −1 , lower concentrations were ineffective. Across all experiments, the percentage of fruit remaining on the spur was negatively related to ethylene evolution. Our study shows that ACC (200 to 400 mg l −1 ), applied when fruit are 6 to 20 mm diameter, induces ethylene evolution and abscission.
Journal of Plant Growth Regulation · 2025-12-12
articleOpen accessAbstract For plant growth regulators, uptake and physiological performance must be consistent and predictable. The objectives were to establish the uptake behavior of 14 C labeled 1-aminocyclopropane-[1- 14 C]carboxylic acid (ACC) into leaves and fruit of apple from simulated spray droplets (1 µl). Uptake into leaves and fruit increased with time. Uptake through the abaxial leaf surface exceeded fruit uptake two-fold, and adaxial leaf uptake seven-fold. Abaxial leaf and fruit uptakes were log-normally distributed. Uptake into fruit increased up to 17% of the applied dose at 32 days after full bloom, but declined thereafter. Along a shoot, uptake increased continuously from the tip to the tenth leaf. Higher ACC concentrations increased the amount of ACC taken up into leaves but not into fruit. The pH of the solution had no effect. Adding salts having a deliquescence point up to 75%, such as CaCl 2 , enhanced ACC uptake. Tween 20 increased ACC uptake by fruit 9-fold, into young leaves 6-fold and old leaves 2-fold. Uptake of 14 C-ACC into fruit was higher from commercial formulations than from technical grade ACC. Temperature had no effect on ACC uptake, but higher humidity increased uptake. Penetration of 14 C-ACC through isolated cuticles of apple fruit was equally low. Increasing the humidity above the droplet residue increased penetration, particularly when droplets were applied on to lenticels. Removal of cuticular wax increased ACC penetration. Our data demonstrate that the mobility of ACC in the droplet deposit limits uptake and that deposit hydration may overcome this limitation.
The Journal of Modern History · 2025-08-27
article1st authorCorrespondingOxford University Press eBooks · 2025-11-19
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract Migration is one of the best researched aspects of American Jewish history. Much of the literature focuses on Jewish immigrants and community building. The story of a group of pioneering Jewish settlers who moved to New Amsterdam in 1654 sets the scene for a critical discussion of several influential narratives about Jewish (im-)migration to America. Until recently, historians distinguished different immigration waves to make sense of the diverse backgrounds of Jews from different centers of the Diaspora. This interpretation is suggestive but has shortcomings. Scholars frequently differentiate between Jews (and others) fleeing persecution and those looking for better economic opportunities. The experiences of actual Jewish migrants frequently eluded these categorizations because many were escaping oppressive conditions yet also were seeking better opportunities. The chapter draws attention to “missing migrants,” Jews who were excluded by restrictive immigration legislation between 1921 and 1965.
Jewish Mobilities and the Business of Migration
2024-07-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract In a transformative phase during the middle decades of the nineteenth century the railroad business in Central and Eastern Europe attracted several Jewish investors and entrepreneurs. These mobility entrepreneurs made a substantial impact on mass mobility in and far beyond Eastern Europe. In the 1880s and 1890s Albert Ballin, the son of a Jewish ticket broker from Denmark, turned the Hamburg America Line into the largest steamship line in the world. German steamship lines dominated the transatlantic passenger market in Eastern Europe. The mobility revolution displaced many Jews from economic niches, forcing especially younger men and women to move to industrializing cities. Increasing numbers crossed the Atlantic to the United States. The railroad stories of Sholem Aleichem illustrate the dramatic social transformation and the ambiguities of mobility for Jews in this period.
2024-07-18 · 2 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The journeys of Jewish migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe around the globe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are the focus of this provocative and inspiring book. After 1860 expanding railroad networks and steamships connected Eastern Europe almost literally to the world. Before 1914 almost 2 million Jews from this vast region moved to the United States. Small groups went to other destinations around the globe. The First World War was a watershed event: across Eastern Europe hundreds of thousands of Jews lost their homes, and migration restrictions that were imposed soon after the war, especially in the United States, targeted Jews from Eastern Europe. A substantial number of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe were stranded on the social margins across Europe after 1918. Unable to move to countries of their choice, they were exposed as unwanted refugees and disproportionally perished in the Holocaust. Even after 1945 Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors were stuck in displaced persons camps for years. The experience of Jewish migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe was closely tied to the emergence of the scholarship about migration and flight. Jewish scholars, aid workers, and journalists, most themselves migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe, coined terms such as “displaced person” and reimagined the United States as a pluralist society of immigrants.
Early Jewish Migration from Lithuania
2024-07-18
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract In 1868–1869, in the wake of a hunger crisis, hundreds of Lithuanian Jews crossed Russia’s western border seeking help from small Jewish communities in East Prussia. Overwhelmed by claims for support, Prussian Jews turned to a newly founded Jewish aid association, the Paris-based Alliance Israélite Universelle. The 1868–1869 crisis marks a turning point: for the first time Jewish community leaders in Central and Western Europe realized that Jewish migration would become a major challenge because the Russian Empire offered no viable economic prospects for a strongly growing population. A key question was where Russian Jews could settle. The memoir of a young Lithuanian Jew who left his home village in 1875 for East Prussia illustrates the wide gulf separating perceptions of established Jews in the West from the actual expectations of Jews on the move.
Review: Norman Ravvin, Who Gets In: An Immigration Story
Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes · 2024-08-05
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThe Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others.
Frequent coauthors
- 25 shared
Frau Prof
- 25 shared
Für Inhaltliche Anregungen
Goethe University Frankfurt
- 25 shared
Dorlis Blume
Goethe University Frankfurt
- 25 shared
Alain Devigne
Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris
- 25 shared
Andrea Süchting-Hänger
- 25 shared
Herzlicher Dank
Goethe University Frankfurt
- 25 shared
Stefan Drößler
State Library of Württemberg
- 25 shared
Stefan Leonards
Goethe University Frankfurt
Awards & honors
- Herbert R. Bloch Jr. Memorial Fellow, American Jewish Archiv…
- Maurice Amado Foundation Fellow, Katz Center for Advanced Ju…
- Outstanding Teaching Award for Tenure-Line Faculty, College…
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