Timeline
- 1654
Twenty-three Jewish refugees flee Brazil and the long arm of the Inquisition, and land in New Amsterdam.
http://opac.cjh.org:8991/F?func=direct-doc-set&doc_number=000102707&format=999Collection TypeBook - 1666
Jefferson Letter
1Collection TypeArchival - 1668
Peter Stuyvesant Letter with translation
1Collection TypeArchival - 1655
Dutch West India Company allows Jewish settlers to reside permanently in New Amsterdam.
- 1776
The Declaration of Independence proclaims “all men are created equal.”
- 1783
Like other Americans, Jews took sides--and took up arms--during the Revolutionary War. About 100 Jews served in the Continental Army and state militias. By fostering religious freedom, the Revolution confirmed Jews in their belief that they were truly at home in America. In 1790, when the nation’s Jewish congregations sent letters of greeting to president George Washington, he assured them that the United States government “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
1 - 1784
This prayer for the Government for General George Washington and New York State Governor George Clinton was composed and delivered by Gershon Mendez Seixas (1745-1816) in 1784.
1http://access.cjh.org/1110549Collection TypeArchival - 17871http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135Collection TypeWebsite
- 1824
In 1820, American Jews numbered about 3,000, but by 1870, over 200,000 Jews could be found spread throughout the nation. Attracted by the booming commercial economy and religious freedom, a prolonged wave of immigration from the German states, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania, had brought tens of thousands of mostly young Jewish men and women to America.
1 - 1824
Jews in Charleston, South Carolina organize the first Reform Jewish religious group in the United States.
- 1823
The first Jewish American periodical, The Jew, published in New York.
- 18331http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=365010&custom_att_2=simple_viewerCollection TypeArchival
- 1871
More Jews emigrated to the United States between 1870 and 1924 than in any period before or since. The vast majority-some 2.5 million-fled poverty and anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire, Romania and Austria-Hungary and transformed American Jewish life. By fostering the rise of a Jewish working class in the garment trades and other industries, these immigrants reshaped the labor movement and left-wing politics in America. By 1930, the Jewish comunities’ numbers rose to over 4 million, or about 3.5% of the US population.
1 - 18691http://museums.cjh.org/web/pages/cjh/Display.php?irn=16146&QueryPage=%2FOAICollection TypeMuseum Holdings
- 1875
In Cincinnati, Isaac Mayer Wise founds Hebrew Union College, Reform Judaism’s rabbinical seminary.
http://opac.cjh.org:8991/F?func=find-b&request=Mayer+Wise&local_base=ajhsCollection TypeBook - 18811http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=352263Collection TypeArchival
- 19241http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=109207Collection TypeVisual
- 1924
After Congress ended mass emigration from Eastern and Southern Europe in 1924, for the first time in its history the American Jewish population became predominantly native-born. The children and grandchildren of immigrants entered the mainstream of American life. The rise of Nazi Germany and the disaster of the Holocaust confirmed the Zionism of many American Jews. Most Jewish Americans greeted with enthusiasm the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. By 1950, American Jewry, with five million individuals, was now the largest and most influential Jewish community in the world.
11 - 19281http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1379463Collection TypeMuseum Collection
- 1931
The first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize, Of Thee I Sing, composed by George Gershwin.
http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=365033Collection TypeArchival
- 1961
The late 20th century found Jews more ensconced in the American mainstream than ever before. The turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, however, saw Jews bring the student, civil rights, and anti-war militancy to bear on their own movements in support of Israel, and for the liberation of Soviet, Syrian, and Ethiopian Jews. The sixties counterculture also fostered an increased diversity in religious observance--the Havurah and Jewish Revival movements for some and a return to traditional Orthodoxy and Hasidism for others. The freedom to choose or create one’s own way of being Jewish and American remains vital after 360 years.
11 - 1963
Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodger pitcher, named the National League’s Most Valuable Player
1http://museums.cjh.org/web/pages/cjh/Display.php?irn=16150&QueryPage=%2FCollection TypeMuseum Holdings - 1964
Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry founded, following a march to protest Soviet anti-Jewish policies.
http://opac.cjh.org:8991/F?func=find-b&request=student+struggle+soviet+jewry&local_base=ajhsCollection TypeArchival - 1968
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) was formed.
http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=365640Collection TypeArchival