History of First Jews in America Examined in Exhibition at The New York Public Library

New York, NY, September 14, 2004 -- The earliest documentation of Jewish settlement in America will be on display in an exhibition opening at The New York Public Library on September 21. The exhibition, Jewes in America: Conquistadors, Knickerbockers, Pilgrims, and the Hope of Israel, coincides with a yearlong celebration marking the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the first group of Jews in New York City. With materials drawn primarily from the Library's collections, the exhibition tells the story not only of the earliest arrival of Jews in New York but of the history of interactions with Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English colonial powers in the Western Hemisphere that led the Jews to reach America. The exhibition is on view in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. It will be on view through November 13, 2004. Admission is free.

Among the rare and revealing items on view are the only existing copy of the first printed version of Columbus's 1493 letter reporting on his epoch-making voyage; minutes of the New Amsterdam City Council from 1654, which record the arrival of the ship bearing the first Jews to reach the future United States; and the first Jewish prayer book printed in English. Also included is the extremely rare Whole Book of Psalmes (the Bay Psalm Book of 1640), which is not only the first book printed in the future United States, but also the first book in the New World to include printing in Hebrew. The exhibition takes its title from Jewes in America, or, Probabilities That the Americans are of That Race, a 1650 compendium of evidence that Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel.

Jews were instrumental to the planning and execution of Columbus's first voyage and even traveled with him on his journey. Columbus's letter reporting on his exploration was written to Luis de Santangel, grandson of forced Jewish converts in Spain, who was a primary finacier of Columbus's exploration. Another rare version of the letter on view features an illustration of Luis de Torres, a Spanish Jew, going ashore on Hispaniola.

Like the subsequent waves who made their way to America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the earliest Jews to arrive in the western hemisphere came as a result of persecution in Europe. At the end of the 15th century large numbers of Jews fled Spain to Portugal. From there many were eventually resettled in Brazil. After the Portuguese colonies in Brazil were overtaken by the Dutch, a Jewish community thrived in the capital city, Recife. But when the Portuguese reclaimed their territory, a group of 23 Jews, headed back to Europe, found themselves first hijacked, then diverted to New Amsterdam, where they happily arrived in September of 1654. This history is conveyed in several volumes and items on view, including Brasilianische Geschichte, a 1659 Brazilian history by Kaspar van Baerle; a 1640 letter from Prince Maurice, the governor of the Dutch colonies in Brazil; and Saul Levi Mortera's 1689 treatise, God's Providential Care for Israel, which, in an attempt to explain that Jewish misfortune did not indicate disapproval by God, told of the Jews' successful departure from Brazil.

Jewish arrival in Manhattan is recorded in the New Amsterdam City Council minutes of September 7, 1654. These minutes, on loan from the New York City Municipal Archives, record legal action taken by the Captain of the French ship that transported the Jews, seeking payment for his services. These notations are the first direct evidence of Jewish arrival in New York no later than September 6, 1654.

Generally the Jews were welcomed or at least accommodated in New Amsterdam, despite efforts by Governor Peter Stuyvesant to keep them out because of concerns about mercantile competition. "Jewish liberty here is very detrimental," he wrote in a 1655 letter to the Dutch West India Company on view in the exhibition.

Explicit acceptance of Jews in America came from open-minded leaders such as Roger Williams, who established Rhode Island as a colony tolerant of all religions, where Jews were not pressured to convert to Christianity. On display is Williams' book The Bloody Tenant of Persecution, 1644, which is the foundational text on which Rhode Island and the American doctrine of the separation of church and state are based. The exhibition also shows the first printing of The New York State Constitution. The 1777 document guarantees freedom of conscience and presents specific controls of "wicked priests" who wanted to convert Jews to Christianity.

Jewes in America presents a wide range of materials from The New York Public Library's Dorot Jewish Division, Rare Books Division, Manuscripts and Archives Division, and the Print Collection of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. It features important new acquisitions of the Dorot Jewish Division made possible by philanthropists Jack and Helen Nash.

According to Michael Terry, Dorot Chief Librarian of the Library's Dorot Jewish Division and curator of Jewes in America, during the Colonial and Federal periods examined in the exhibition, the actual number of Jews in New York and beyond was minuscule compared to those who would arrive later. Yet the presence of Jews in America occupied a sizeable place in the American mind during these formative years. "The theological, philosophical, political, and economic upheavals of the time forcefully posed questions of religious and national identity," Terry explained. "A byproduct of such questions was preoccupation with the identity and status of Jews. If this is a story that today seems remote, it is also one that raises issues of civil rights, multiculturalism, secularism, capitalism, and identification with Israel that are familiar and even integral to the liberal and conservative lines alike along which contemporary American identities bifurcate."

Jewes in America: Conquistadors, Knickerbockers, Pilgrims, and the Hope of Israel is on view September 21, 2004 through November 13, 2004, at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery on the main floor. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays. Admission is free. For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call 212-869-8089 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.

Support for this exhibition has been provided by a grant from The Waber Foundation.

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Pinewood Foundation and by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

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Contact: Herb Scher or Caroline Oyama, 212.704.8600.