Posted on 05/23/2005 3:27:20 AM PDT by Pharmboy
It was not the sort of welcome that would typically inspire commemoration. Twenty-three men, women and children, exiled from their homes, arrive in the port of New Amsterdam. The ship's skipper demands his payment. But the travelers had been robbed by pirates on the high seas on an earlier part of their journey and stripped of most belongings.
The courts authorize an auction in which their remaining goods are sold. The principal debtors are imprisoned. And Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch director general of New Netherland, also appeals to his employers at the Dutch West India Company to deny them permanent residence. He did not want Jews coming into New Amsterdam, and the human cargo that had made its way from Brazil consisted of Jews.
But however inauspicious this greeting was in September 1654, it has now become the spur for a season of commemoration, including at least three new museum exhibitions - one at the Museum of the City of New York ("Tolerance & Identity: Jews in Early New York, 1654-1825") and two at the Center for Jewish History ("Greetings From Home: 350 Years of American Jewish Life," presented by the American Jewish Historical Society, and "Starting Over: The Experience of German Jews in America, 1830-1945," presented by the Leo Baeck Institute). (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He believed that if they stayed, New Amsterdam would start down a slippery slope: let the Jews in, he wrote to his employers, and then "we cannot refuse the Lutherans and Papists."
Certainly don't want any of those Lutherans or Papists in this here colony. Obviously, the famous Dutch tolerance was not universally shared.
Ping...
There were already Jews in what became the US prior to the arrival of the exiles from Recife.
It would be appreciated if you would share your knowledge and sources on this topic with those of us who may not know what you do.
And, while we know, for example, that at least one Jew accompanied Columbus on his initial voyage, the importance of the immigration in 1654 to New Amsterdam is the fact that this was the first major permanent Jewsih settlement in North America and further, gave the Jews a significant and early voice in the development of what was to become one of the great cities of the world.
And, reading the article, I was amazed that it was a Jew working with Clara Barton who helped found the American Red Cross. Did you know that?
What?? Anti-Semitism in Europe?? Shocking!!
Adolphus Solomons. What is even less known about him is that he was shomer Shabbat (observed Sabbath), and he was a photographer. The last formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln was made in his studio by Alexander Gardner in March, 1865.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
One man doesn't make a community, but the earliest I've heard of was Joachim Gaunse, sent to the Roanoke colony by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585. Of course that's excluding Columbus and the Spanish southeast and southwest, where the Inquisition was in force.
Thanks...I had not heard of him. I will google Joachim and see what I can find...
Don't forget Luis de Torre, one of likely 3 to 6 Jews with Columbus, the first to set foot in the New World, credited with being the first observer of tobacco use and the turkey, which he thought was a peacock, tukki in Hebrew.
Yes--I knew about de Torre. I had mentioned him in a post above. I did not, however, know those other details. Thanks...
I found the story about him and the Red Cross fascinating since that organization has had its share of accusations of antisemitism.
That being said, the first doctrine calling for religious tolerance, the Flushing Remonstrance, was written at the Quaker Meetinghouse in what was then the village of Flushing. The meetinghouse, btw, still stands on Northern Boulevard (blink and you miss it).
First document to call for religious tolerance IN THE AMERICAS, I should have said. It was written under Stuyvesant's rule by English Quakers.
Its fitting that the road that once lead to his farm eventually became skid row
Isn't his last name 1/2 of Bed-Sty in Brooklyn as well?
Thanks for the info...I did not know that (my knowledge of early NY history is unfortunately limited to Manhattan and to a lesser degree, Brooklyn). Yes, Stuyvesant was not one of history's good guys, and he did not have an easy time of it after the brits took over the island in 1664. But, I will say this: he allowed the Jews that arrived full citizenship after they lived there for two years. And, many of the Dutch in Niew Amsterdam (and the farms of Breuklyn) at the time were decent people who were not only good to the Jews, but to all the "other" people involved including Africans and Hispanics. As a matter of record, a black man owned a huge tract of land on the west bank of the Hudson back in the 1600s. The Dutch have their good points!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.