Why did the Lithuanian Jews end up dominating the ostrich feather trade, asks Stein, a professor of history at the University of Washington. Her answer tends to be couched in distressing academic-ese: "contacts of kith and kin within and across sub-ethnic diasporas and political and oceanic boundaries, copacetic relations with the reigning authorities" and so on. In plain English, the Lithuanian Jews had worked in similar areas of business, notably textiles, tanning, hide, leather, and furs, and they were experienced travelling merchants and traders. They also had a ready-made global network of family and friends in the great trading ports and cities of the era: Livorno, Tripoli, New York and, above all, London, which as the hub of the Empire became the ostrich-feather dealing capital of the world. So successful did the Jewish ostrich-feather dealers become that there were accusations of price-fixing to keep non-Jews out. Professor Stein concludes that while there may have been some substance to the allegations, the fact is that all such trading networks depend in the end on expertise and experience, which the Jews had in abundance.
Then it all collapsed. One reason was animal welfare: the US passed a series of laws to protect wild birds from being killed for their plumage, and ostrich feathers became associated in the public mind with such cruelty, despite the fact that ostriches were well treated, their feathers plucked, like sheep being sheared for wool. Rather more importantly, the First World War halted high fashion in its tracks: women opted for more restrained headgear and the only feathers in demand were white ones, which could be obtained rather more cheaply. The Jews of Outdschoorn were reduced to wandering the streets, bewildered at the loss of their livelihood. An anti-Semitic backlash resulted, from farmers and others who were also ruined.
Professor Stein rather overdoes the lamentations about the end of the trade: new technology and changes in fashion have condemned many once-lucrative commodities to extinction almost overnight, like nitrates in Chile or rubber in Malaya. She also overlooks the fact that the descendants of the Lithuanian Jews moved on to prosper elsewhere in South Africa, forming a key element in the country's business community today, legitimately feathering their nests while the ostriches went back to the wild.
