Jews comprise approximately 10% of New York City's population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of Israel.

[3][4] The first recorded Jewish settler was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company.

[5] Following the assassination of Alexander II of Russia, for which many blamed "the Jews", the 36 years beginning in 1881 experienced the largest wave of Jewish immigration to the United States.

New York City's Jewish population then began to decline because of low fertility rates and migration to suburbs and other states, particularly California and Florida.

Though there were small Jewish communities throughout the United States by the 1920s, New York City was home to about 45% of the entire population of American Jews.

Many Jews, including the newer immigrants, have settled in Queens, south Brooklyn, and the Bronx, where at present most live in middle-class neighborhoods.

[20] Many rapidly growing Orthodox Jewish communities there have made their home in New Jersey, particularly in Lakewood and surrounding Ocean County, where Beth Medrash Govoha, the world's largest yeshiva outside Israel, is located.

After the September 11 attacks, some Arab Jews in New York City were subjected to arrest and detention because they were suspected to be Islamist terrorists.

[27] While the majority of Jews in New York City are non-Hispanic whites, some Jewish New Yorkers identify as Asian, Black, Latino, or multiracial.

[14] The first recorded Jewish settler in New York was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company.

Portugal had just re-conquered Dutch Brazil (what is now known of the Brazilian State of Pernambuco) from the Netherlands, and the Sephardi Jews there promptly fled.

Governor Peter Stuyvesant was at first unwilling to accept them but succumbed to pressure from the Dutch West India Company—itself pressed by Jewish stockholders—to let them remain.

Over time, the synagogue became dominant in Jewish life, organizing social services and mandating affiliation for all New York Jews.

Two of the most important of these merged in 1859 to form the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society[35] (Jewish orphanages were constructed on 77th Street near 3rd Avenue and another in Brooklyn).

Their congregations and businesses – namely shops selling Old World goods – firmly maintained their identity, language, and customs.

[42] These immigrants tended to be young and relatively irreligious, and were generally skilled – especially in the clothing industry,[43]: 253–4  which would soon dominate New York's economy.

"[43]: 254 The German Jews, who were often wealthy by this time, did not much appreciate the eastern Ashkenazi arrivals, and moved to uptown Manhattan en masse, away from the Lower East Side where most of the immigrants settled.

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[47][48] 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.

Opponents of Dinkins said that he failed to contain the riots, with many calling them a 'pogrom' to emphasize what was seen as the complicity of New York City political leaders.