Spoken like a greenhorn………………..
There was NO mass migration of frum Jews to the US in the run-up to WWII. They were blocked by the changes in immigration laws of 1924.
Far more non-frum, than frum Jews arrived as refugees after WWII and they were more than happy to take the economic help provided by agencies/groups established by non-frum American Jews such as HIAS and B’Nai B’rith.
My maternal side arrived in the US in the 1860s, they came for economic opportunity reasons…my great-great grandfather was sought out in Germany for his particular manufacturing and management skills.
My paternal side came in 1872 from the Pale of Settlement. They were proactive Jewish Pilgrims. Although living in a very frum-Jewish area, they reacted to the Odessa Pogroms of 1871 and the fear that pogroms would spread throughout the Russian Empire. My great-great grandmother’s letters back to the old country (which were used in visa applications by other relatives) explained this fear.
Joseph and many newcomers (defined in my family as those who entered via Ellis Island–we old timers arrived at Castle Garden in Mnahattan) perpetrate this revisionist history that the US was a frum wasteland before WWII. Yes, Jews could easily go OTD, but that happened in Europe as well…especially in the western lands such as Germany with the rise of the Reform movement. Rabbonim were imported, shuls and yeshivos were started in the US. This was mostly the misnagid community. Chassidim were loathe to leave their geographically based dynasty courts. There was no chance of being appointed ‘chief rabbi’ of a city or area in the US. With freedom of religion, the government did not need to have official contact with these rebbes running insular communities of Jewish residents with limited rights.
I come from a long line of misnagdim, but in the 1930s, 40s and 50s they did all in their power to apply political pressure in the US to allow in more Jewish refugees from Europe and sponsor them economically. There was no differentiation by American Jews between frum and non-frum Jews when trying to rescue Jews from the shoah.