History of the Jews in New York
[3] In New York City alone, there are approximately 960,000 Jews, establishing it as the largest Jewish community in the world, surpassing the combined totals of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Portugal had just conquered Brazil from the Dutch Republic, and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews there promptly fled to New Amsterdam, the precursor to present-day New York City.
Jacob Barsimson was the first Jewish immigrant to arrive in New Amsterdam on August 22, 1654[10] on the Dutch West India Company ship, the Peartree (de Pereboom).
[11] Representatives of the Jews living at that time in New York sent a remonstrance to the Dutch West India Company, advocating to allow the immigrants to settle in the new colony.
They argued that land was plentiful and adding more loyal individuals would help to facilitate the Dutch West India Company's goal of expanding their colony.
[13] The Governor's objections were overruled by the Company in an order issued February 15, 1655 and Jews were allowed to travel, trade and live in the New Amsterdam Colony.
[14] As an advocate for Jews in the colony, the earliest mention of Asser Levy in a Court Record from New Amsterdam is September 15, 1654 as a plaintiff against unfair treatment of the Jewish immigrants.
[14] For example, Levy protested the policy of the exemption of Jews from enlisting in the army and being forced to pay an additional tax instead.
[16] Between 1880 and 1924, 2.5 million Ashkenazi Jews from the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Romania, and Austria-Hungary came to the United States and nearly 75 percent took up residence on the Lower East Side.
The population of Jews eventually hit over one million by the 1900s and crowded into Jewish neighborhoods where they were not restricted from renting due to discriminatory policies that persisted until the end of World War II.
[19] The less-fortunate began to make the Lower East Side their own district as an influx of Jews reached the city between the 1870s and early 1900s.
[15] The Jews of Central and Eastern Europe faced economic hardship, persecution, and social and political changes in the 1800s through the early 1900s, causing them to flee to the United States.
Many Hasidim, including numerous community leaders, were murdered during the Holocaust, and most of the survivors fled to either the United States or Israel.
Prominent figures who escaped to the United States included the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who in 1940 fled Nazi-occupied Poland for New York, aided by American diplomats who negotiated with the Nazis for his release.
Joel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, escaped to Switzerland aboard the Kastner train and arrived in New York in 1946, following a brief stay in Jerusalem.
In New York City, major centers of Hasidic Judaism are found in Brooklyn, in particular the neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park.
The Hasidic immigration started after World War II, with the arrival of survivors from Nazi extermination camps and Eastern European ghettos.
[15] In the realm of grand opera, several Jewish vocalists in New York City assumed a prominent role on the international concert hall stage while also striving to preserve Yiddish folk songs on recordings for future generations.
It escalated to a citywide strike in September of that year, shutting down the public schools for a total of 36 days and increasing racial tensions between Black and Jewish Americans.
The newly created school district, in a heavily black neighborhood, was an experiment in community control over schools—those dismissed were almost all Jewish.
The riots began on August 19, 1991, after two 7 year-old children of Guyanese immigrants were unintentionally struck by a driver running a red light[28][29] while following the motorcade of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Chabad, a Jewish religious movement.
Two weeks after the riot, a non-Jewish man was killed by a group of black men; some believed that the victim had been mistaken for a Jew.
