HISTORICAL FACTS ON THE PROGRESS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN NEW YORK






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        General Historical Information  Prior to 1934
                                      
            I N T R O D U C T O R Y

EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS:

      Sephardim, coming by way of the West Indies, were the first Jews to settle 
in the New Netherlands. "On the 22nd of August, 1654, Jacob Barsimon arrived in 
New Amsterdam. He came from Holland"  He is generally regarded as the first Jew 
settled in what is now New York. (Lebeson, Jewish Pioneers in America). In the 
same year, and only a few weeks later, Holland having lost Brazil and the great 
Jewish settlement of Recife having been disrupted, the barque "St. Catarina"
landed 23 indigent Jews, who were unwelcome to the
burghers, and particularly so to Peter Stuyvesant, the governor, who resisted 
their settlement, but failed in his effort to expel or persecute them seriously. 
The settlement of this first group was authorized by the Dutch West India Company 
in 1655, and Asser Levy, the most important member of the founding group, 
immediately demanded the right to serve in the militia.

     "LEVY, Asser, Van Swellem: One of the earliest Jewish settlers of 
New Amsterdam: He died in 1680. Of Dutch origin, in 1665 he volunteered for 
service under Peter Stuyvesant to attack the Swedes on the Delaware; the governor 
passed an ordinance exempting the Jews from service but ordering them to pay a 
monthly contribution in lieu of service. Levy protested and
fought for his right to do citizen's duty, and won in the Dutch court. In 1657 
he claimed the right of a burgher, and won his cause. He was the first Jew to 
own real estate at Albany and in what is now New York City, for he purchased, 
in 1662, land at what is now South William St. In 1664 he was the only wealthy 
Jew in the town, and lent the city 100 florins to help fortify the town against 
the English. He figures prominently in the oldest law records as he constantly 
appeared in court in person, in defense of Jewish rights. In 1660 Levy and another 
were licensed as Kosher butchers in New Amsterdam and this seems to have been 
the first formal recognition of a Jewish community. Another  of the earliest 
Jewish settlers of New Amsterdam, was Moses Ambrosius, Jacob Aboab who were one 
of the 23 Jews who left Bahia after its recapture by the Portuguese and arrived 
in New Amsterdam in Sept., 1654. Salvador D' Andrada, was also one of the first 
Jewish settlers in New York.His name is mentioned in the lists of 1655. 
The earliest lists of all these settlers show 
that they were artisans and store-keepers. The right of public worship was long 
withheld from these Jewish settlers, so whilst Shearith Israel Congregation, was 
privately founded in 1680, the record of its formal possession of a synagog on 
Mill Street, New York City, is of later date.

      The passing of the New Netherlands to British rule did not militate against 
the early Jewish immigrants, for some individuals are recorded as being in the 
government service at a time when no Jew was so employed in
England. Nevertheless these American Jews bore their full share in the War of 
Independence, on the side of the patriots. Men like:  
		(1) Haym Solomon- aided financially
        (2) Gershom Mendes Seixas-Rabbi and American Patriot (B.New York, 1745: 
d. there, 1816) Appointed minister of Shearith Israel in New York, in 1766, and 
at the outbreak of the American Revolution he espoused the
patriotic cause. He compelled the closing of the synagog at the approach of the 
British, and left New York rather than come under British rule. In 1784 he reopened 
Shearith Israel and was one of the first ministers. His grave is in the old cemetery 
at Chatham Square, second oldest Jewish cemetery in  New York.
         (3) Isaac Moses: an ardent patriot , and at his own expense, fitted out, 
in association with Robert Morris, eight privateersmen to prey on British commerce.

GERMAN  IMMIGRATION:
      There was a constant trickle of immigrants from 1776 to the end of the century. 
The founding of the Hebrew-German Society, Rodef Shalom, in Philadelphia, in 1802, 
marks the first step in the organization of German element in the U.S.A. The second 
serious settlement of Jews began in 1830, when the German Jews began to arrive in 
appreciable numbers, and aided in the rapid development of the country then in progress. 
The first German Jewish congregation was established in New York in 1825. Although 
Reform Judaism is of indigenous origin, having been started in the old settled
community of Charleston, S.C., the wave of Germanic immigration was largely
responsible for the rapid development of Reform congregations, and the gradual 
shaping of what, decades later, became American Judaism. Whilst the originators 
of American Reform Judaism were Sephardim of English or Dutch descent the newly 
settled communities attracted rabbis born and educated in Central Europe, and 
they naturally brought with them some of the dogmatism
which had been engendered by the religious struggles in Europe. These rabbis 
preached in German, which was the language in which congregational activities 
were discussed. The ritual was in German, the prayer book was translated into 
that tongue, and many of the special prayers were written in it. The early 
publications of the B'nai Brith, which was the first integration of the lay 
interest in Jewish affairs, were bi-lingual, and Isaac M. Wise's weekly "Deborah"
was continued in German to about the time of his death. The immigrants came from 
Bavaria rather than from Prussia, with a good sprinkling of Austrians and Hungarians.
Approximately half of
New York City's Jewish population by 1860 were German. Others were native Jews 
born in England, Bohemia, Galicia,Holland,Russia France, and from other
countries. A vast number of these immigrants settled on the Lower East Side of 
Manhattan, where pushcarts, peddlers arguing the price of produce, bearded scholars 
debating talmudic passages in the parks, etc. became a
familiar sight.

EAST  EUROPEAN  IMMIGRATION:
      A steady immigration of Russo-Polish, Roumanian and Galician immigration 
began in '70s, and gradually wrought a great change in American Jewry. Polish 
immigration has been traced back to 1845, but it was only after 1872 that it 
began to assert itself as a communal factor. By that date there were 29 congregations 
in New York; these increased to 290 by 1888. The Sephardim were gradually 
overwhelmed by the germans who in their turn were outnumbered. The newcomers, 
who, too, were driven from their homelands by persecution began to congest the 
poorer parts of the larger cities, whilst the more adventurous sought new 
opportunities in more open spaces. Some Jews were engaged in farming from the very 
dawn of American history.  The earliest Jewish agricultural colony was founded 
in Ulster County, New York, in 1837 and was named Sholem. It lasted about ten 
years. The active persecutions of 1881 in Russia and Roumania swelled the tide of 
immigration, and a frenzied Jewish colonization activity began, and within 
five years, sixteen colonization projects were 
undertaken in Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, S. Dakota, Colorado, Oregon and 
New Jersey. With the exception of those in New Jersey, the colonies were 
short-lived. Dearth of capital, inadequacy of planning and lack of trained 
leadership, were responsible for their brief existence. Impetus was given it 
through the establishment of the Baron de Hirsch Fund in 1891, and The Jewish 
Agricultural Society in 1900.At the same time forced into existence new charity 
organizations, and new educational institutions, whilst the settlers themselves 
added to the synagogs, chebras, and other expressions of
religious life. This tide of immigration continued well to the end of 1910.
    The Russian pogroms of 1881 stirred American Jews not only to the point of 
protest against Russian barbarism, but to the raising of considerable sums for 
the relief of the victims. The public attitude was wholly sympathetic to 
America as a land of refuge for the afflicted, a public welcome was offered 
some of the newcomers; their woes and hopes inspired many. As a result, a 
flood of immigrants went to New York, increasing the congestion on the Eastern 
seaboard, also settling in the Lower East Side , thus transforming the Jewish 
community of New York . During the years of 1881 and 1910, approximately 
1,562,000 Jews came to America. America thus became a new Promised Land, and 
the reality of the lure is attested by the fact that less than five per cent 
of the immigrants were assisted to finance the passage across the Atlantic. 
Many organizations and institutions were created in assisting the new immigrants 
such as the Baron de Hirsch Fund, Educational Alliance, Hebrew Shel!
tering and Immigrant Aid Society, Hebrew Technical schools for boys and 
girls , settlement houses etc., which fostered the rapid Americanization 
of the newcomers.
    To 1877 there were not more than 229,000 Jews in the United States. In 
1917 when the high tide of immigration had been well passed it was estimated 
that there were 3,389,000 Jews in the United States.This huge mass, which in 
part had been distributed over the length and breadth of the country, through 
the ministrations of various agencies, had brought with it the
static orthodoxy, mystical Hasidism, Jewish nationalism, and radical economic 
urgings prevalent in Eastern Europe. Ghettos were formed in the larger cities. 
Although there are traces of anti-Semitism in the early 70's, the newcomers
were welcomed, and out of their intellectual and moral resources they were, 
without let or hindrance, enabled to found hundreds of congregations,
benevolent societies, landsmannschaften, fraternal insurance orders, hedarim, 
yeshibahs, Talmud Torahs, and the like. From the same stream came a demand 
which was rapidly satisfied, for Yiddish newspapers, Yiddish theaters, labor 
organizations, and a strident demand amongst aminority for all the manifestations 
of radicalism in economics and religion. The mass of settlers, finding 
their opportunity for a livelihood in the newly evolved mass production system, 
developed in all branches of the needle industries clung closely to the 
Eastern states, where labor was needed, and where both the sweat shop, and 
its opponent the labor union were quickly operating. The East European immigrants 
brought, however, with them also an avid desire for education, a keen interest 
in the arts, a marked love for music, and so keen a relish for all intellectual
pursuits.Increasing number of Jews who hold professorships or tutorial positions 
in colleges and in universities, and the remarkable preponderance of men of East
European birth or origin in the rabbinate, Orthodox, Reform and Conservative.

CHARITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE
      Whilst statistically the synagogs and temples, with their brotherhoods 
and sisterhoods, are still in the ascendant, the age is distinctly one of 
Social service and charity organization. Social service has become a distinct
profession in American Jewry and the giving of charity, on a large  scale, and 
repeatedly, has become most characteristic of American Jewry. In 1931 (54 )
communities maintained 55 Federations* for philanthropic purposes. They combined 
535 constituent societies, and spent $16,302,856.

POLITICAL CONDITIONS
      The history of American Jewry has in the main to be sought therefore in 
the success of the pioneer settler, the captain of industry, and the brilliant 
successes achieved by many in the arts, sciences and professions. The Jews 
unquestionabley responded not only to the boundless opportunities which the 
country presented, but adapted themselves with amazing rapidity to the folk-ways 
of american enterprise and industry, setting the pace, perhaps, in a number of 
intellectual pursuits.

POPULATION
    In 1818 Mordecai Noah* estimated that there were 3,000 Jews in the United States. 
By 1848 the figures had risen to 50,000. In 1880 Wm. M. Hackenburg estimated 
the number at 230,000 and Isaac Markens, about eight years later, following the 
Russian Immigration doubled these figures. In the five boroughs of New York City 
the total was given as 1,765,000 or 29.56 per cent. of the total inhabitants. 
More than half the Jews in the United States live in the three cities of New York, 
Philadelphia and Chicago.  In 1927 3,118 congregations were listed (a little over 
one-third in New York), which expended $33,391,295 for maintenance, salaries, 
new buildings and debts, and $1,074,680 in benevolence. Only three communities 
reported parochial schools, but 1,291 Sabbath schools, and 901 week-day schools 
were being maintained with an enrolment of 249,109 pupils. On the 1,937 congregational
societies devoted to philanthropic work 1,705 were women's societies; and independent 
of the congregations 1,020 societies were reported doing social-philanthropic 
work. The 10 national benefit orders had 282,504 members divided into 
2,034 branches or lodges or societies. There were 62 hospitals, 
sanitoria and convalescent homes, whilst 1,019 organizations were 
interested in dependents of every type. 50 trade unions 
in New York had 134,020 Jewish members out of a total membership of 392,652.

NEW  YORK  STATE
    Jewish history in the state of New York began soon after the first Jews 
reached New Amsterdam in 1654. A request was made to the Directors of the 
Dutch West India Company to permit the Jews of New Amsterdam to "travel and 
trade to and in New Netherlands, live and remain there, provided the poor among 
them shall not become a burden to the company or to the community, but be supported 
by their own nation.This request was granted on February 15, 1655.  Governor 
Peter Stuyvesant sought to circumvent the company's orders, but on June 14, 1656, 
it was enforced. Several of the early traders took advantage of this right, such 
as Asser Levy, Jacob Lucena, Lewis Gomez and his son, Samuel Jacobs etc. One of 
the oldest Jewish Community can be found in Albany. Many of the Jewish businessmen 
from Albany and New York City travelled through the towns impressed of its 
commercial future, began establishing Jewish communities throughout the State, 
such as Syracuse, Oswego, Rochester, Buffalo, Poughkeepsie, Plattsburgh, 
Newburgh, Elmira, as early as the 1840's. Synagogues 
and community centers were also being established as a result at these settlements.

(1)  Albany:
      The first congregation was founded in 1838, but it was not until 1846 
that the first rabbi was appointed, in the person of Isaac M. Wise,* then a 
newcomer to the United States. It was therefore in Albany that the real battle 
for Reform Judaism in the United States was waged aggressively. Dr. Wise remained 
eight years in Albany where his reforms produced violent
opposition, and at the end of the fourth year resulted in a split in the 
congregation. Anshe Emeth (now Beth Emeth), under the leadership of Rabbi 
Bernard Bamberger was founded in 1850. The fires of reform were, however, 
subsequently kept well aflame, and this holds true for Buffalo and Rochester, 
to the World War period. Albany, as the state capital, has always
had the benefit and felt the influence of those Jews who have either achieved 
high position in the city itself, or those who have come to it holding important 
state office. Benjamin N. Cardozo 1927-1932 and Irving H Lehman 1939-1945, both 
of whom served as Chief Justices of the State. Herbert H. Lehman who was Governor 
in 1933. At the same time it is the active center of the group of communities 
which include Troy and Schenectady which converge on it. Albany has today an
active Orthodox group, and under the sponsorship of Rabbi Baum Zionism has made 
headway there in recent years. It has a well-housed and active Jewish Community 
Center, which is located at 111 Washington Ave. Congregation Beth El Jacob at 
90 Herkimer street was founded in 1841.

(2) Buffalo:
      The first Jew to settle here came from Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1835, 
and the first congregation was established in  1847. It is asserted that the 
community in Buffalo was started as an outcome of Mordecai Noah's attempt to 
found a Jewish Colonization settlement at Ararat, on Grand Island. Mordecai 
Manuel Noah an American journalist, lawyer and diplomat of Portuguese-Jewish 
descent, born in Philadelphia, 1785 and died in New York, 1851 displayed a 
constant interest in Jewish affairs throughout the world and envisioned the 
restoration of a Jewish state, as a haven of refuge from oppression as well 
as a nucleus for cultural development. In 1825, while editor of 
"The National Advocate," of New York, he addressed a proclamation to the Jews of 
the world to settle on Grand Island  (area 27 sq. mi.), in Erie County, 
New York where he, as self-proclaimed governor and judge of Israel, would found 
the city of Ararat, a temporary refuge for Jews prior to their return to the Holy Land. 
Elaborate ceremonies, participated in by many influential citizens of all creeds, 
marked the occasion of Noah's reopening of a Jewish national home, but the attempt 
failed immediately and a storm of ridicule was heaped upon him. Noah, however, 
lost none of his prestige, either politically or otherwise.  The plan never came 
to maturity but the foundation stone of Ararat is preserved in the rooms of the 
Buffalo Historical Society. For a quarter of a century after the Ararat complete 
failure, Noah was actively concerned with many Jewish and communal causes.  He was  
founder of the New York University. His last resting place is the burying ground 
of Shearith Israel on West 21st Street, New York City.  A number of Jews have been 
conspicuously successful in the practice of the law, and are at the same time 
closely associated in the welfare of the community. Carl Sherman, the first Jewish 
attorney general of New York state, hails from Buffalo. The late Rabbi Kopald 
wielded considerable influence in the community, both with the Orthodox and 
the Reform. 
Buffalo has always been regarded as one of the strongholds of American Zionism.
The community is normally very generous in its response to national relief campaigns.

(3)  Elmira:
        Jews first settled here in 1851, and Congregation Children of Jacob 
was founded in 1860. Dr. Rudolph Radin, who later became popular in New York 
City as the rabbi of the Educational Alliance, was appointed rabbi and 
introduced a conservative ritual. There are three congregations of which two 
are conservative. One notable point of interest in Elmira is the Woodlawn 
National Cemetery, which contains the graves of 24 Jews who died in the Elmira 
prison during the Civil War , when thousands of Confederate prisoners were 
housed in hastily built and unsanitary pens. These graves are among 2,963 
Confederate war dead.

(4) Monticello
      Tens of thousands of Jewish families spend their summers there. 
The Catskill Mountain area are year-round Jewish communities with their 
own synagogues and other institutions. Some of these communities had their 
origins in the 1880's and 1890's.

5)  Rochester:
      This community has increased sixfold in the last 30 years, the increase 
being largely due to the development of the clothing industry in this center. 
The first Jews who settled in Rochester in 1848 came from Germany, but to 1894 
an old Baptist church was used as a synagog. In the last-named year Temple 
Berith Kodesh was founded in 1848. This is one of the oldest congregations 
in western New York.. The Conservative congregation, Temple Beth El of  
150 Park avenue, dates from after 1881, when East European immigration began 
to make itself felt in Rochester. Mt. Hope Cemetery, on Mt. Hope Ave, a 
city-owned burial ground contains the oldest known Jewish cemetery in Rochester. 
There are 3960 graves dating from 1848. Jews have occupied a number of 
positions in the local municipality, and sent Meyer Jacobstein, one of the 
ablest Jews who has served in Congress to the House of Representatives for a 
number of terms. Rochester participates in most national affairs, and has witnessed 
many Jewish conventions. Its inhabitants suffered a setback during the 
depression which affected its chief industry very seriously.

(6)  Syracuse:
      Has a population of about 210,000 of whom the Jews compose a trifle over 
5 percent. Jews were attracted to the city in the '30s because they found it a 
trading center for the surrounding territory. Before long a synagog was founded. 
By the time of the Civil War, in which 90 per cent. of the local Jews eligible 
for service enlisted, the Jews were well enough established for a number of them
to be designated as army officers. With the rise of the Reform movement (1864),
the original congregation divided
between Orthodox and Reform adherents, each group forming its own congregation.
      The most prominent native Syracusan was the late Louis Marshall (1856-1929), 
who indicated his love for his native city by retaining membership in Temple Society 
of Concord, the Reform congregation, until the day of his death. The Louis 
Marshall Building of the New York State College of Forestry, south of the Hendricks 
Chapel on the campus of Syracuse University, is named for the Jewish leader, 
lawyer and defender of the state's natural resources and wildlife. Marshall 
was one of the principal leaders of and spokesmen for American Jewry in the 
two decades before his death.
      Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, now chief rabbi of the British Empire, ministered to 
Temple Adath Yeshurun, the first congregation in the country to give a call 
to a graduate of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, from 1894 to 1898. 
The Shuberts grew up in Syracuse. Their first theatrical venture was in the 
city of their birth.
      The present communal life of Syracuse is well organized. There are 
six orthodox congregations, two of which have very elaborate social centers, 
a Conservative congregation, the largest in a city of its size in the country, 
and a well-equipped Reform congregation.
      Four of these congregations and the Jewish Communal Center conduct 
Sunday Schools. The Conservative congregation, a Hebrew school, a Folkschule, 
and the Arbiter Ring conduct regular daily Hebrew classes.  The communal 
center was started through the gift of his home by the late Jacob Marshall, 
father of Louis Marshall, to the Jewish community, in memory
of his deceased wife, in 1910. The communal center still occupies the original 
home, to which an addition was later made.
    Syracuse charities and philanthropic institutions receive their support 
from a Federation of Jewish Charities, which in turn is supported by the 
Syracuse Community Chest.

                           *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

    The migrations from Eastern Europe after 1880 enlarged all of the 
existing-upstate communities creating new settlements. 

 It is estimated that there are 1,903,890 Jews in New York State. There are only 
two countries in Europe which pass this total, Poland and Russia, so that in 
sheer numbers New York Jewry presents a remarkable aggregation of Jews; but 
as over 1,700,000 of this total represents the Jewish population of New York 
City, the mass effect may be said to reflect the city rather than the state.  
Nevertheless the number of centers which have Jewish communities is also 
impressive. The following list is followed in the case
of the larger cities with the number of the local Jewish population.
      The Permanent Jewish communities in New York State are: Albany (8,500), 
Amsterdam, Auburn, Babylon Town,  Batavia, Beacon, Binghamton, Buffalo (20,000),  
Callicoontown, Carthage, Catskill, Cedarhurst, Cohoes, Cortland, Dunkirk, 
Ellenville, Elmira (1,600), Fallsburg (1,060),  Freeport, Fleischmans, 
Glen Cove, Glens Falls, Gloversville (1,250), Gouverneur, Great Neck, 
Greenport, Hastings-on-Hudson, Haverstraw, Hempstead, Hempstead Town, 
Hoosick Falls, Hudson, Hunter, Huntington Town, Ithaca, Jamestown, 
Kingston (1,750), Lake Placid, Liberty, Liberty Town, Little Falls, 
Long Beach, Lynbrook (1,000), Mamaroneck, Massena, Middletown, Monticello,
Mt. Kisco, Mt. Vernon (10,000), New Rochelle (5,500), New York, 
Newburgh (2,500), Niagara Falls (1,000), North Hempstead, Nyack, Ogdensburg, 
Olean, Ossining, Oswego, Patchogue, Peekskill (1,000), Pelham Manor, 
Plattsburg, Port Chester, Port Jervis, Poughkeepsie, Riverhead Town, 
Rochester (33,000), Rockville Center, Rome, San Harbor, Saranac Lake, 
Saratoga Springs, Schenectady (3,800), Schodacktown, 
Sea Cliff, Smithtown Town, Spring Valley, Suffern, Syracuse, Tannersville, 
Tarrytown, Thompson Town, Troy (2,000), Tupper Lake, Utica (5,600) Warwasing,
Watertown, White Plains (1,700), Woodbridge Village, Yonkers (8,000).
      This list, long as it is, ignores the subdivisions of New York City, 
the hundreds of small Jewish settlements in the state, and the remarkable 
annual summer exodus from the city, principally from New York City, to 
resorts of every description, sea, mountain, river and lake, a factor 
that has a distinct influence on all phases of communal life. For these 
migrations have a clear effect on the spread of  New York Jewry. A series 
of congregations of considerable wealth and influence have grown up in 
Long Island as the result of a permanent deposit of a very small percentage 
of the tens of thousands of Jews who flock to the Island in the summer. 
Less distinct is the result of the summering in Green and Sullivan counties, 
in the Catskills, and north of this range to Saratoga.
      Just as numerically New York City dominates the State so too it is 
the leading factor in the history of Jewry in the state.  The first 
settlement began in New York City. A New York Jew obtained interests in 
property in Albany in 1661, but even there as elsewhere in the state the 
record of settlement, growth and communal development belongs to the 19th 
century and is clearly divided between the earlier German and the later 
East-European immigration.

The predominance of Jews in the retail trade, from the tens of thousands of
small stores to the large department stores such as B.Altman, located on the
northeast corner of Fifth Ave. and 34th St; in manufacturing, in building
and real estate operations, in the various professions including the Stock
Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange began with 24 brokers who drew up a
trading agreement in 1792, among which five of the 24 were Jews such as
Isaac M. Gomez, Alexander Zunz, Benjamin Seixas, Ephraim Hart and Bernard
Hart. Also banking; in the theatrical, movie, and other entertainments to
which sports in all their varieties should be added; finally, the hundreds
of thousands of skilled and unskilled workers of both sexes and all ages
show a participation in the material as well as in the intellectual work of
this greatest city commensurate with its Jewish population.

N E W   Y O R K   C I T Y
    The beginning of the Jewish Community of New York, which is the
beginning of Jewish History in North America, is like most early Jewish
histories in new countries far from continuous. Of the 23 Jews who arrived
in Nieuw Amsterdam in Sept., 1654, presumably from Brazil, and who were
ultimately permitted to settle there, despite the objections of Peter
Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of the colony, there is hardly a trace left.
The first impact was, as mostly everywhere else, fatal to the original
settlers who were absorbed by the general population, and the adjustment
which begins with a strengthening of Jewish life, or a new effort to develop
religious activities, education, and communal work, was sustained by later
arrivals rather than by the first comers or their immediate descendants. The
"St. Catarina," which brought the first Jews, cannot be considered as a
Jewish "Mayflower," for few, if any, Jews of New York or of America today
can claim descent from her passengers.
      Under the Dutch in New Netherland, the Jews were not permitted to work
at any craft except that of butcher. They could hold no civic office, and
were not even allowed to hold public religious services.
      The permission given to two Jews to open butcher shops in the city in
1660, while the colony was still under Dutch administration, may be
considered as the first attempted solution of the "Kashrut" problem which
has not been solved in its complicated entirety to this day. Most of the
restrictions which were imposed by the Dutch were continued by the English,
who occupied the city in 1664 and renamed it New York. One of the first
Jewish congregation in North America was Congregation Shearith Israel. This
was established shortly after the settlement of the first Jewish pilgrims in
1654., when the Jews, forbidden to hold public religious services,
congregated in their homes. In 1665 Governor Nichols declared that only
Christians were to be guaranteed religious liberty. In 1685 Saul Brown was
refused permission to trade at retail, and the mayor and the common council
ruled, in answer to a petition, that the Jews' (public) worship was not to
be permitted. But there appears a synagog on a map of New York drawn from
memory in 1695 by a John Miller, and it is known to have had then about 20
members.As early as 1695, the Jewish community was already about half
Sephardic, half Ashkenazic. For every civil political right and greater
religious freedom the Jews had to struggle constantly.The restrictions were
gradually removed in the earlier part of the 18th century. The Jews could
now engage in both wholesale and retail business and were also active as
exporters and importers
      Seven Jewish contributors to the fund for the building of Trinity
Church in 1711 are recorded,among these were the Reverend Abraham Haim de
Lucena, Lewis Moses Gomez, Moses Levy, Mordecai Nathan, Jacob Franks, Moses
Michael and Rodrigo Pacheco.In 1712 the Rev. John Sharp, in a circular in
which he proposed the establishment of an academy, stated that Jews from
Poland, Hungary, and Germany, "Who know Hebrew," were to be found among the
residents of New York. The Yeshibah "Minchat Ereb" was consecrated in 1731.
On December 19, 1728 a small piece of land on Mill Street was acquired by
several leaders of the congregation, thus the first synagogue building in
North America was dedicated in 1730. Ashkenazic Jews constituted a majority
of the congregants. Gershom Mendes Seixas in 1768, was elected hazzan of the
congregation to succeed Joseph Jessurun Pinto,He became the first
native-born Jewish minister in America.
      The small community at that time did much to develop the foreign trade
of the colony, and most of its members embraced the opportunity offered them
by the Act of Parliament of 1740 to become naturalized. The glowing
description of their fine material condition which was given by Peter Kalm,
the Swedish traveler (in 1748), was not overdrawn.A number of Jews continued
to arrive in New York in 1794 from the French colony of Santo Domingo.
Towards the end of the 18th century, more Jews came from Germany, England,
Holland and even Poland.
      The participation of the Jews in the Non-Importation Agreement in the
Revolutionary War (and in all the subsequent wars in which the U.S.
engaged), belongs to general American Jewish history. The community was
diminished when a considerable number of patriotic Jews, including Rabbi
Gershom Seixas, departed for the duration of the English occupation during
the war of the Revolution. But later it grew by accessions of refugees from
the revengefully destroyed Newport, R.I., town, which had the most important
Jewish community in colonial times. Still, the number of Jews in the city at
the beginning of the War of 1812 is given as 500, and as a little over 1,000
(in a population of 160,000) in 1825, when the new immigration from Central
Europe after the Napoleonic Wars had been going on for nearly a decade.
       Harman Hendricks, who subscribed $40,000 to the War Loans of 1812,
was the head of the wealthiest family of the city at that time. Mordecai
Emanuel Noah, the orator at the dedication of the rebuilt Mills Street
Synagog in 1818, was the most prominent Jew in New York until the time of
his death in 1851 with Commodore Uriah P. Levy, who attained the highest
rank in the U.S. Navy, and to whom the "Freedom of the City of New York" was
voted by the Common Council, Feb. 6. 1834, probably the second. Mordecai
Myers was one of the city's representatives in the state assembly in 1829,
1831, 1832, and 1834. Sampson Simpson, the first Jewish graduate of Columbia
College (of which the above-named Rabbi Seixas was one of the trustees), was
admitted to the bar in 1802, and was a leader in local charities. The
adjustment of the small community was proceeding rapidly when the wave of
new immigration largely increased its numbers. In 1817, a somewhat larger
migration of Jews from Western Europe began. A mass movement of German Jews,
which started in the late 1820's reached significant proportions in 1836 and
1837.
      The Polonies Tamud Torah was founded in 1801 and the "Chevra Hesed
ve-Emet" in 1802 but nearly a quarter century passed before the second
congregation, "B'nai Jeshurun" was established (1825). There were five of
them in the city in 1841, three of which united to engage Dr. Max Lilenthal
as their rabbi in 1846. He estimated the Jewish population of New York in
1847 to be about 15,000. Emanu-El Congregation, which later became the
greatest Reform congregation in the country, was organized in 1845, under
the rabbinate  of Dr. L. Merzbacher, and its first place of worship was at
the corner of Grand and Clinton Streets, on the lower east side. In 1847 a
building was purchased at 56 Chrystie Street, then in 1853 when the building
was outgrown, they moved to 12th st. between 3rd and 4th avenues. In 1862
they were located at 5th avenue and 43rd street where they worshipped for
almost sixty years. When the neighborhood became a congested business
district, they built a new temple at Fifth Ave. and 65th street. Temple
Emanu-El was dedicated on January 10, 1930.     The first East-European or
Russian Orthodox congregation, the Beth ha-Midrash ha-Godol, located at 64
Norfolk Street near Grand came into existence in 1852. During the 1800's the
English-Jewish,German-Jewish journalism was created among which were "The
Jew" published in New York by Solomon H Jackson (1823-1825), "Israel's
Herald," a German weekly which was published for the New York Jews. It was
edited by Isidor Bush.The "Asmonean" (1849-58), Publisher Robert Lyon, which
was an English-Jewish weekly and the "Jewish Messenger" (1851-1902) were the
first Jewish periodicals of the growing community, in which the "American
Hebrew" is now practically their sole successor. By 1914 the "Jewish Daily
Forward "the largest of the Yiddish newspapers, reached a circulation of
200,000. The Order B'nai B'rith was organized here in 1843, the Free Sons of
Israel in 1849, and the Order Brith Abraham, from which the largest
numerically Jewish fraternal organization, the Independent Order Brith
Abraham (organized 1887) is a surviving offshoot, was likewise organized in
that period.
     Simon Wolf, in his work on the subject, lists nearly 2,000 New York
Jews who served in the Civil War, in which the Seligman banking house
rendered important financial service to the Government of the United States.
      Most of the older organizations and institutions of the community were
founded or reorganized on a larger scale in the "breathing spell" from 1870,
when Jewish immigration from central Europe practically ceased, owing to the
partial emancipation of the Jews there, and the Jewish house was brought in
order as a Providential preparation, to the beginning  of the Russian influx
in 1882. The first group of Jewish refugees from Russia to arrive in New
York in that year was received with bands of music and was for a time
sheltered by the City. This meeting was the forerunner of numerous protests
and marches for which New York, as the greatest Jewish community of all
times, has become famous. The anti-Hitler demonstration of Mar., 1933, in
which more than 100,000 participated, is the most recent instance of such
characteristic manifestations in which New York leads the Jewish world.
      The third period of immigration which lasted from 1882 to 1914 saw New York
becoming what it is now, the center and the front rank of all Jewish
activities in the United States some of which extend over the entire Jewish
world.The Yiddish press (with four daily newspapers), the Jewish theater
(with a dozen or so playhouses), the labor movement-all originated, and have
their principal strength here in New York, while the rest of the country
remains "provincial."
      The efforts to organize the Orthodox community, which were first made
when Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph was brought from Wilna in 1888, ultimately
failed, and the attempt to organize a "Kehillah" to unite all elements of
the community (1909) was hardly more successful.  Partial unity was achieved
by the formation of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropies
(1916) and by the temporary relief committees of 1903 and of 1905 and
advanced still further by the greatest of them all, the Joint Distribution
Committee, which began to function in 1914. The American Jewish Committee
(1906), the American Jewish Congress, and the older Zionist Organization of
America, all of them with headquarters in New York, sometimes, but not
often, cooperate. The greatest activities, slower among the older parts of
the community, more intense and variegated among the later arrivals and
their immediate descendants, present the largest and most colorful scene in
Jewry, past or present.
      About 1,500 synagogs (which are during the high holidays augmented by
hundreds of halls or "mushroom places of worship" ranging from near
Christian Reform to extreme Hasidic orthodoxy; thousands of organizations
for various purposes, from the "Hebra Shas" for the study of the Talmud
which is attached to most of the larger Orthodox synagogs to the Communistic
International Workmen's Order, with a host of "Landsmanschaft" societies
(some of them, like the Polish and the Ukranian, united in "Verband") and
lodges of the various orders, ladies' organizations of all kinds, and
hundreds of charitable and benevolent organizations and institutions, from
the largest in the country and in the world to the smallest, are active and
struggling, some of them for supremacy, most of them for existence.
       The educational systems to which the dozens of "Centers should be added,
although they partly belong to the synagogs, include over a hundred Talmud
Torahs, a dozen "Parochial Schools" (in which a general public school course
is also given), headed by the great Yeshivah Rabbi Isaac Elchanan with its
Teachers' School, its high school course and its Yeshiva College, the only
Jewish denominational college of arts and sciences in the world. The Jewish
Theological Seminary, which also has a Teachers' college and an immense library
(rivalled in popularity only by the Jewish Department of the great New York
Public Library) represents the Conservative wing, while a number of Temple
schools stand for the several varieties of Reform, with the presumably
non-Jewish system of ethical culture schools, which are also mostly Jewish
in their attendance at the extreme left of the religious side of education.
A considerable number of Hebrew and Yiddish schools with nationalistic, some
with radical tendencies, complete the educational picture on the Jewish side.
      The large number of Jewish representatives which the city sends to the
Congress in Washington, to the assembly and the state senate in Albany; the
large number of Jews in the Civil Service, city, state and national in New
York (including hundreds of police officers up to the higher ranks) and in
the judiciary, from the municipal and magistrates' courts to the supreme
court, with an incidental controller, borough president or other higher city
official, and at present) a New York Jew as governor of the state, prove a
high degree of adjustment even before the welding together of the
community, which will probably not come for another generation. And, despite
all restrictions, immigration is still going on, including a post-war
immigration from Germany, which has lately been augmented by refugees from
the Hitler persecutions in that country.  So lives, works and develops the
community which contains more than a tenth part of the Jews of the world;
the largest agregation of Jews in any one city in comparison with which the
only other "greatest Jewish city in the world" known to history, Hellenistic
Alexandria of nearly 2 years ago, fades into insignificance.
      Of the 3,118 congregations in the U.S.A., involving a synagog building
investment of $155,744,666, a third are located in New York City, which
however naturally subdivides into a number of areas, which though part of
the municipality are in many ways distinct.

MANHATTAN
      It is often regarded as New York because it is the chief commercial
and professional center of the city, has the smaller Jewish population of
the three large boroughs. It houses most of the nationally known
institutions, and its chief temple, Emanu-El conspicuously located, is at
once the largest and most artistic Jewish fane in the U.S. Several  points
of
Jewish interest in Manhattan are:
          1. Cemeteries:
                               a) The Chatham Square Cemetery, known also as
The New Bowery Cemetery, The Oliver Street cemetery is the second oldest
existing Jewish cemetery in the U.S. today, was purchased in 1682 from
William and Margery Merret on behalf of the Jewish community.  The earlier
plot was granted in 1656 to the Jews of New Amsterdam by Peter Stuyvesant.
                              b) Beth Haim Seni-     a Spanish-Portuguese
cemetery located at 11th street, east of 6th ave. This cemetery was
dedicated on February 27, 1805. This cemetery is the second oldest burial
ground of Congregation Shearith Israel.
                              c) Beth Haim Shelishi-  the last burial ground
of Congregation Shearith Israel is on twenty first street near 6th ave. This
ground was consecrated on August 17, 1829.

          2. Organizations
                              a) HIAS (The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant
Aid Society) 425 Lafayette Street, which was founded in 1884. Its purpose
was to provide shelter and assistance in finding employment to Jewish
immigrants.
                               b)Federation of Jewish Philanthropist of N.Y.
59th st. and Lexington Ave.
                               c) The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
of America, 305 Broadway which has the most complete listing of all
congregations in the U.S.
                                d) YM-YWHA  The largest and oldest Jewish
Community Center in continuous existence, is on Lexington Ave. at 92nd
Street.

          3. Hospitals
a)  Beth-Israel Hospital  currently at 17th Street and Stuyvesant Square East, 
opened in 1929. It originated in 1890, when several immigrants contributed 
to open a clinic for the impoverished people for the lower east side.
                              *  *  *  *  *
      Many settlement houses were set up to help the newcomers adjust
themselves to their new home. At 265 Henry Street is the famous Henry Street
Settlement which was founded by Lillian D. Wald, in 1893.
      Shearith Israel located at Central Park West and 70th Street, is the
oldest Jewish congregation in America.

BROOKLYN
      The largest aggregation of Jews are actually residents of the borough
of Brooklyn, which has maintained its communal and institutional
independence, possesses its own Federation of Charities, hospitals,
institutions, centers, temples, synagogs, schools, etc. Brooklyn, in its
turn, is an aggregation of what were once villages and later suburbs, each
of which exhibits some character and revolves around its own centers,
etc.There is evidence, however that the history of Brooklyn Jewry goes back
to the 17th century. In the 1660s and 1670s Asser Levy owned considerable
property in the old Dutch settlement of Breucklen, as Brooklyn used to be
called. Town records of New Lots, Gravesend, New Utrecht, Williamsburg and
other villages that later became part of Brooklyn indicate
that a number of Jews were property-owners in the first decades of the
eighteenth century. By the 1850's public worship by the Jews began in
Brooklyn. The first congregation in Brooklyn, was Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim.
This was organized in 1851. The earliest known Jewish resident who settled
in Williamsburg in 1837 was Adolph Baker. During the '80s and '90s,
large numbers of East European Jews crossed the East River to Williamsburg,
where they established their own synagogues and other institutions. The
arrival of hundreds of thousands of additional Jews from Russia, Poland and
Rumania after 1900 and the demolishing of whole blocks of East Side
tenements to make way for the Williamsburg Bridge caused another surge of
Jewish migration to Brooklyn, which became part of New York City in 1898.
The availability of affordable one and two family houses within easy reach
to the factories in New York , the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge and
Manhattan Bridge in the early 1900's, and the subway reaching the more
distant Brooklyn areas, gave force to a larger Jewish migration to Brooklyn.
>From Williamsburg, the overflow of the Jewish population went,  to  Eastern
Parkway, Borough Park, Bensonhurt, Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Brighton
Beach, Fort Hamilton, Flatbush, Crown Heights and Bay Ridge, creating new
communities.and institutions..

BRONX
      The northern division, the borough of the Bronx for all practical
purposes a distinct entity within New York City, and shares with
Brownsville, at the tip of Brooklyn, in the record for density of Jewish
population and ghetto characteristics. The Bronx has always been a main
gateway for land traffic between New York City, New England and Upper New
York State.The opening of the first subway line to the Bronx in 1904 caused
a mass migration of Jews from New York's lower East Side and Harlem to the
lower Bronx. Later the Jewish population moved to the Grand Concourse and
University Heights neighborhoods.

QUEENS
      Before 1909, when the opening of the Queensboro Bridge, the first of
the bridges connecting Manhattan and Queens brought the first sizable amount
of Jews to Queens, there were small Jewish communities, in Maspeth,
Woodside, Ozone Park and Middle Village sections, with their own synagogues
. Then after 1910, Jews began moving into Woodside, Queens Village,
Woodhaven, Hollis and other areas.

                             * * * * * * * *

The considerable group of Long Island towns, which come within the New York
city and country lines too are independent communities, distinct specimens
of modern suburbia, politically and commercially rather than organically
related to New York City. Many of them are of very recent settlement, but
they have all exhibited a tendency to institutionalize almost as soon as
streets are laid out, and houses erected. In the 1870s and 1880s Jewish
merchants from New York City began establishing themselves at Riverhead,
Greenport, Hempsted, Sag Harbor, Patchogue, Bay Shore, Southampton, Jericho,
Lynbrook, Babylon, Rockville Centre, Port Washington, and Glen Cove. The
prosperous Jews from New York and Brooklyn started coming to Long Island in
the 1880s for summer vacations, of which many stayed on as permanent
residents, creating new Jewish communities on Long Island.

<a href="/Ethnic/Jewish/Names.NotableJewish.html">Notable Jewish Names</a>


Source: "The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge (in one volume)
Edited by:  Jacob De Haas (in collaboration with more than one hundred and
fifty scholars and specialists)
Publisher:  Behrman's Jewish Book House-New York
Copyright:  1934
____________________________________________

      Researched, Prepared and Transcribed by Miriam Medina

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