From: The Karaite Encyclopedia by Nathan Schur (Frankfurt, 1995)

A few Karaites reached the United Statesfrom 1914 onward. The first one is said to have been Dr BaroukhYusuf Masuda from Egypt. After the Civil War many Karaites fromRussia and the Crimea emigrated to the USA. By 1926 Karaite serviceswere held in New York, led by a Turkish Hazzan, M. lgiz. After1939, when Russia occupied eastern Poland and Lithuania, a furtherwave of Karaites came, first to Paris, and then to the UnitedStates. The first Karaites from Egypt, after the wars of 1948and 1956 started to arrive in 1958. At first they settled alongthe Atlantic sea board, in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore andBoston, and also in Chicago. Most of those who arrived from 1969onward, settled in the San Francisco area. They numbered there,by 1987, 150 households, according to J. Hirshberg. He furthermentions 35 households in New York, 33 in Maryland, 33 in Massachusetts,25 in Illinois, 17 in Rhode Island, 7 in New Jersey, 6 in Arizona,5 in Pennsylvania and a few additional ones in 13 further states, altogether 328 families. M. El­Kodsimentions in the same year 400 (souls) in California, 150 in New York, 150in Boston and its suburbs, 200 in Chicago and 200 elsewhere. Most of theKaraites are self employed, as businessmen and physicians, or workas engineers, teachers or nurses. Only in San Francisco exists a properly organizedKaraite congregation. In most other places they affiliated themselves withRabbanite congregations, though sometimes they still kept Passover theKaraite way. M. El­Kodsi has claimed that about 80% of theKaraites who have settled in the USA have assimilated into theJewish mainstream. The generation born in America often has noidea what Karaism is all about.