Jewish Settlers in Colonial America
Jewish Settlers in Colonial America
My collection focuses on a small but important population who came to the American colonies to escape religious persecution along with other separatists. The first known group of Jewish settlers fled the Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil, establishing the Sheraith Israel congregation in New Amsterdam in 1654. Although they went from one land to another to gain the freedom to practice Judaism or even just to stay alive as even many Jews who converted were still killed just because of their ancestry, the settlers faced similar discrimination in the new world. The governor of New Amsterdam wanted to expel the "deceitful race" but was overruled by the Dutch West India Company who stated that Jews had been loyal and productive members of society in Holland and had the right to stay. The congregation remains in New York even today.
Soon after, Jewish settlers reached New England, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even Georgia and South Carolina. In fact, Jewish immigration dates to the foundation of the colony of Georgia, with the first male, white child born in the colony being a Jew. Many of the Jewish settlers faced intolerance and struggled to observe their religious traditions, assimilated, or converted to Christianity.
The collection includes assorted artifacts and documents that relate to the lives and experiences of Jewish life before 1865. The collection shows evidence of both cultural assimilation, as demonstrated by the popular Christian style of the tombstone and success of Jewish merchants, as well as the fact that the merchant in the north was freeing his slaves in a more progressive northern society in 1817 while the merchant in Charleston was selling a slave in 1858. On the other hand, the religious artifacts show how some Colonial American Jews stuck to their faith and religious practices, even in the early Colonial days of persecution.
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