The Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam of September 1654 was the first organized Jewish migration to North America. It comprised 23

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

, refugees "big and little" of families fleeing persecution by the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

after the conquest of

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas ...

. It is widely commemorated as the starting point of New York Jewish and

Jewish-American history American Jews or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jewish, whether by Judaism, religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who desce ...

Brazil

The Jews had sailed from

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

on the ship ''Valck'', one of at least sixteen that left mostly bound for the Netherlands at the end of the

Dutch–Portuguese War The Dutch–Portuguese War (; ) was a global armed conflict involving Dutch Republic, Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, as well as their allies against the Iberian Union, and after 1640, t ...

. ''Valck'' was

blown off course To be blown off course in the sailing ship era meant be to diverted by unexpected winds, getting lost possibly to shipwreck or to a new destination. In the ancient world, this was especially a great danger before the maturation of the Maritime S ...

to Jamaica and/or Cuba.

Caribbean

According to account in

Saul Levi Morteira Saul Levi Morteira or Mortera ( 1596 – 10 February 1660) was a Dutch rabbi of Portuguese descent. Life In a Spanish poem Daniel Levi de Barrios speaks of him as being a native of Germany ("''de Alemania natural''"). From the age of thirt ...

and

David Franco Mendes David Franco Mendes (; 13 August 1713 – 10 October 1792), also known as David Ḥofshi (), was a Dutch-Jewish Hebrew-language poet. He was an early member of the Haskalah in Holland. Biography A businessman, he devoted his leisure hours to the ...

, they were then taken by Spanish pirates for a time. In Cuba, the Jews eventually boarded the ''St. Catrina'', called by later historians the "Jewish ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

''", which took them to

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

New Amsterdam

The new Jewish community faced antisemitic opposition to their settlement from Director-General

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Net ...

, as well as a monetary dispute with the captain of the ''St. Catrina'', which required adjudication from the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

. They were aided by some

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

Jewish traders who had arrived just a month earlier, on the ship ''Peereboom'', from Amsterdam via London. This group included

Jacob Barsimson Jacob Barsimson ( he, יעקב ברסימסון) was one of the earliest Jewish settlers at New Amsterdam (New York City), and the earliest identified Jewish settler within the present limits of the state of New York. He was an Ashkenazi Jew of Cen ...

, and perhaps Solomon Pietersen and

Asser Levy Asser Levy (died early 1680s), also known as Asser Levy van Swellemhttps://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9876-levy-asser-asser-levy-van-swellem Solomon Grayzel, ''A History of the Jews'', The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philade ...

, who has also in earlier sources been claimed as one of the twenty-three. The new community founded

Congregation Shearith Israel The Congregation Shearith Israel (Hebrew: קהילת שארית ישראל ''Kehilat She'arit Yisra'el'' "Congregation Remnant of Israel") – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the Unit ...

still endures as the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. The primary source document for their arrival is as follows:

Commemoration

The 250th anniversary of the arrival was marked a year late in 1905, and the 300th anniversary was marked in 1954. The 300th anniversary was marked for an eight-month period, from September 1954 - May 1955. For this milestone, a Jewish Tercentenary Monument and flagstaff designed by

Abram Belskie Abram Belskie (March 24, 1907 – November 7, 1988) was a British-born sculptor. He is known for his 1939 collaboration with Dr. Robertson Dickinson on the Birth Series Sculptures. Biography Belskie was born in London and grew up in Glasgow, S ...

was placed on

Peter Minuit Plaza Peter Minuit Plaza is an urban square serving the intermodal transportation hub at South Ferry, and lies at the intersection of State Street and Whitehall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The plaza is a heavy pedestrian ...

in Manhattan's

Battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

, and another Jewish Tercentenary Monument and flagstaff designed by

Carl C. Mose Carl Christian Mose (February 17, 1903 – March 25, 1973) was an American sculptor and art teacher. Life Mose was born in Copenhagen, Denmark circa 1903. He emigrated to the United States with his family as a child and he grew up in Chicago, Ill ...

with a wave-shaped

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

bearing illustrations of the

Four Freedoms The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freed ...

as inspired by

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

verses, as well as a conjectural image of the ''St. Catrina'', was placed in St. Louis'

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China *Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fores ...

. Forest Park monument reliefs- Obverse: *''St. Catrina'' conjectural image *"Who Shall Ascend into the Mountain of the Lord" (Freedom of worship /

Psalm 24 Psalm 24 is the 24th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The earth is the 's, and the fulness thereof". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and the ...

) *"Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land" (Freedom of speech /

Jubilee (biblical) The Jubilee ( he, יובל ''yōḇel;'' Yiddish: ''yoyvl'') is the year at the end of seven cycles of ''shmita'' (Sabbatical years) and, according to biblical regulations, had a special impact on the ownership and management of land in the Land ...

) Reverse: *

Dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

and decorative vegetation *"And None Shall Make Them Afraid" (Freedom from fear /

Figs in the Bible Figs in the Bible include references to both the tree and its fruit in the Tanakh and the New Testament, which are sometimes symbolic. Hebrew Bible The fig tree is the third tree to be mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. The first is the Tre ...

) *"For the Widow...For the Stranger...For the Fatherless" (Freedom from want /

Deuteronomist The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...

) The 350th anniversary was observed for another one-year celebration from September 2004 - September 2005, with exhibitions at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation and ...

opening in September and May, and inspired the institution of the first annual

Jewish American Heritage Month Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) is an annual recognition and celebration of American Jews' achievements and contributions to the United States of America during the month of May. President George W. Bush first proclaimed the month on Apr ...

a year later in May 2006.

References

{{Sephardi Jews topics 1654 in the Dutch Empire Brazilian-American culture in New York (state) Brazilian-American history Brazilian-Jewish diaspora Dutch Brazil Dutch-American culture in New York City Dutch-Jewish culture in the United States Expulsions of Jews First arrivals in the United States History of Recife Jewish-American history Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Portuguese-American culture in New York City Portuguese-Jewish culture in the United States Sephardi Jewish culture in New York City Spanish-American culture in New York City Spanish-Jewish culture in the United States