In the early 1890s many Russian Jews immigrated to Omaha following several anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, and in particular the 1882 Edict of Expulsion in Kiev, Ukraine. Starting as peddlers and shop owners along North 24th Street in the Near North Side neighborhood, the Jewish people maintained strong religious and educational traditions. Some were Socialist and they and their children became involved in labor organizing and various progressive movements in the city.