Some Jews actually arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland before 1650. The famous historical French ship from Brazil reached New Amsterdam in 1654. The first congregation was founded the next year called Sharith Israel ("Remnant of Israel"), a good name for the beginning but not for New York City today with 2 1/2 million, and with nearly six million Jews in the United
States. The first rabbi, Paul Pardo, presumably from Portugal or Spain, actually came from Newport, Rhode Island.
    The Dutch had heroically fought for their freedom and independence for thirty years against Spain, the blood-thirsty Duke of Alva and the cruel inquisition. The people of North Holland had suffered the horrors of brutal religious persecution for many years and as a result, developed a tolerance for others being persecuted for their religious beliefs. The persecuted Jews from Spain and
Portugal were allowed to settle in Holland, build their synagogues, and engage in trade. The few Jews who had migrated from Holland to New Amsterdam had encountered no racial or religious difficulties. The situation changed when the Dutch West India Company began to lose the control in Brazil to the Portuguese. Some Jewish exiles from Portugal, fearing further persecution, arranged to leave Brazil for New Amsterdam.
    In 1654, a French ship brought 27 Jewish refugees to New Amsterdam. The captain of the ship claimed he had not been paid for their fare. Consequently he began a lawsuit and won. The Jewish refugees appealed for help from their co-religionists in New Amsterdam, who being Dutch or German, were not interested.
    The Dutch dominie complained to the authorities in Holland, asking them not to permit any more Jews to come to the New Netherlands as there was plenty of trouble already with the Quakers, Mennonites, and Catholics. Governor Stuyvesant was told by the Dutch West India Company to leave religious issues alone and to permit the Jewish emigrants to trade in furs in any part of his
province, provided they looked after their own people. The arbitrary old Dutch governor changed his tune and posted on the cabin doors of the emigrant ship the following notice: “No man shall raise or bring forward any question or argument on the subject of religion on pain of being placed on water and bread for three days in the ship's galley and if any difficulty shall arise out of such
disputes, the authors shall be arbitrarily punished." This could not have happened without Stuyvesant's tacit approval.
    The Jews, comparatively few in number, assembled for a number of years in homes or designated places for religious worship, since their arrival in 1654 at New Amsterdam. The first Jewish synagogue was erected about 1700 on the north side of Mill Street (South William). It was replaced in 1730 by a new stone building 35 feet wide and 58 feet long on the same site, and it remained there for 100 years. It was here that the famous Gershon Seixas of Portuguese descent, born in New York in 1745, was the rabbi of the congregation. He succeeded Rabbi Pinto in 1766 and held office for fifty years. He preached the first sermon in English in the jewish When the British army under General Howe was about to capture New York, Rabbi Seixas closed his synagogue, took the scrolls of the law and the tablets, and, followed by most of his congregation, left New York as war refugees for seven agonizing years.
    Soon after the American army under George Washington marched into New York on November 25, 1783, King's College was renamed Columbia University. Rabbi Seixas was named as one of the trustees as he was very highly regarded by everyone. Mario Gomez was a much respected real estate man and money lender. The Daily Gazette contained his obituary as follows: "He was religious, hospitable, humane and generous and a staunch friend of freedom as was evidenced by his relinquishing a very considerable property and residing among the friends of the Revolution during the late war.
    Another member of the congregation was Hyman Levy, probably a descendent of Asher Levy, the pioneer emigrant known as "the battling butcher of New Amsterdam." Hyman Levy was an honest and successful merchant. He was one of the great fur dealers of the time. It was in his store that John Jacob Astor learned the fur business. During the Revolution, he retired to Philadelphia. He was a true Patriot and a friend of the United States. Rabbi Seixas, Gomez, and Levy were buried in the Jewish burying ground hounded by Oliver, Madison, and James Streets, within the new Bowery. New York graveyards or cities of the dead have not been untouchable or sacred from the hands of time or the foot of progress. About 1830, congregation Shearth Israel moved to Crosby Street near Spring Street, and thirty years later it again moved to a synagogue near the northwest corner of 19th Street and Fifth Avenue.
    When the English took over from the Dutch in 1664, the Jews were tolerated in the quiet profession of their religion and business. Such was not the case with Catholics, who were regarded with suspicion in New York with its 99 percent Protestant population. Strange as it may seem, the Catholics were not permitted, under British rule, to have their own church, such was the
religious prejudice in those days.
    On the other hand, in New York, generations of native American Jews became wealthy long before the Declaration of Independence, and owned large estates. They were active in shipping, commerce, and in the fur trade. They were among the foremost realtors and merchants, and enjoyed the rights and liberties of other British subjects.
    As we approach the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the nation owes a debt of gratitude to a young Jewish emigrant from Poland, Haymen Solomon of New York. Imprisoned by the British in New York, he secured his release by translating German documents, but later was again arrested for spying and fortunately succeeded in escaping to Philadelphia.
There, with the help of friends, he became active in a security house and made a considerable fortune. He was highly patriotic and helped Robert Morris, who was in charge of the government's financing, to raise money to conduct the war. He loaned much money of his own and, probably due to his imprisonment and active participation in the war, he died at an early age, before the
government had made restitution on his loans. He was a martyr to the cause of liberty and American independence. Most of the New York Jews were Patriots during the Revolutionary War. The few Loyalists were the Nathans, Hendrickses, and a part of the Gomez family. Col. Isaac Franks and Maj. David Franks served in the Continental Army with honor and distinction from
New York.
    Among other Jewish officers of distinction in the Revolutionary War were Major Benjamin Nones, Capt. Jacob de la Motta, and Capt. Jacob de Leon, who were attached to Baron de Kalb's staff at the battle of Camden, South Carolina. When the huge and brave general of German origin was wounded mortally from a half a dozen wounds and deserted by most of his troops, it was these three Jewish officers who, at the risk of their own lives, carried him off the battlefield.
     Bush, who was cited for valor after having been severely wounded, and a member of his family, Capt. Lewis Bush, was killed in the battle of Brandywine. The three Pinto brothers of New Haven left Connecticut to fight for American independence. The earliest known New York Jews were of Portuguese origin from Brazil: the Ascostes, the Benjamins, the Cardozas, the Cordobas, the Gomezes, the Hendrickses, the Levys, the Mendozas, the Nathans, the Pintos, and Rabbi Sexias.
    New Amsterdam in I 654 was the first port of entry for the Portuguese Jewish refugrees from Brazil, but three years later a score of Jewish families arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. This was a colony under British rule, far more tolerant than any of the others. The Jewish emigrants there built their own synagogue and established one of the most ancient of all Jewish settlements in the United States.
    The following is part of a letter from George Washington to the Hebrew congregation at Newport, Rhode Island:
 

 Gentlemen :

     While I received, with much satisfaction your address, replete with expressions of affection and esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful rememberance of the cordial welcome come I experienced in my visit to Newport from all classes of Citizens.
  The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship.
  May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths and make us all in our own several vocations useful there, and in his own due time and way, everlastingly happy.

                                                                                G. Washington

    It is interesting to note that there was more tolerance for Jewish emigrants under the Dutch in New Amsterdam than in New England, except Rhode Island. Holland was a sanctuary for religious and civil rights even in the 17th Century. Later New York City, under the British and American governments, provided the Jewish inhabitants with equal rights and security. This was
long before the French Constituent Assembly in 1791 made Jews citizens without restrictions. This act broke the century old chains of discrimination and persecution not only in France but throughout Western Europe.