The Jews of New Amsterdam

This book may be out of print, but my children's public school managed to acquire a few dozen copies--and a good thing too. It shows that even before there were slaves in America, there was discrimination. The account of New York's early Jews begins with the suffering of the Marranos in Spain, the Spanish Inquisition and the Sephardim's flight to Brazil, where they lived for 150 years.But when the Portugese captured Brazil from Holland, the Dutch and the Jews who had prospered under their rule were forced to leave. Thus it was that Jacob Barimson arrived in New Amsterdam. Governor Peter Stuyvesant did not want Jews in his colony, but when the Sainte Catherine sailed into the harbor from the West Indies, the passengers included 23 Jews from Recife, Brazil. They had been shipwrecked and saved by the French vessel.Back then, New York was God-forsaken, with only 750 inhabitants. With nothing to pay their passage, the Jews were jailed for penury. Stuyvesant wrote to his corporate headquarters--the Dutch West India Co.--requesting permission to expel the Jews, who were unwelcome (like Quakers, Baptists, Lutherans and Presbyterians). The Jews petitioned the company to stay, and stay they did. Still, there was no equality. Jews couldn't travel to Fort Orange on the Hudson or down the Delaware River to trade. Their cemetery had to be outside the city walls, they could not own homes or shops, build a synagogue, join the army, or guard the city, though they were taxed for it anyway. In 1655, six Jewish families brought a Torah to New Amsterdam from Holland.When the British took over, in 1664, they were allowed to form a congregation, Shearith Israel, and in 1730 they built the first Temple in New York. Alyssa A. Lappen