The first settlements Jews in America reads like a novel. There are the heroes and villains  with events that seem too eerie to be true. In this series I hope to relate some of these historical incidents and perhaps discern what impact or effect their experiences may have had on the subsequent development of the Jewish community in America as we know it today.

To properly understand how and why the first Jewish settlers came to New Amsterdam, we have to go to Recife, a port city on the east coast of Brazil. At the turn of the 16th century, Recife was colonized by Holland’s Dutch West India Company, which invited Portuguese and Spanish Marranos (New Christians), living in the Netherlands, to join the settlers.

In less than a hundred years from its founding, Recife had a Jewish population numbering about 300. Freed of surveillance by the Inquisition, the small but well organized Jewish community, with its Jewish cemetery and two synagogues (Tzur Israel and Magen Avraham) its Etz Chaim Yeshiva (its Jewish school), and its Sedaka organization (to care for the poor, elderly and infirm) openly operated without fear.

Suddenly, in 1654 they abandoned the city. Many of them resettled in Carribean havens while the majority returned to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Why? Why did such a well established Kehilla have to abandon Recife?

It was the result of the war between Holland and Portugal for the control of Brazil. When, after nine years of fighting, the Dutch ceded Recife to Portugal, all Dutch residents were ordered to leave the city.

The Jews, who had sided with the Dutch troops, recognized that the Inquisition would establish itself in Recife and quickly fled the city.

However, in September of 1654, a boat carrying a group of 23 Jews from Recife headed for Amsterdam was seized by the French privateer the Saint Catherine. The ship’s captain attempted to disembark his passengers at several ports, hoping to benefit by the ransom which he would demand for their release or to sell them as slaves. (Some sources claim that the poverty-stricken passengers owed the captain money for their passage.) Failing in his plans, he dumped the entire group in the port of  New Amsterdam (later the city of New York), which was then under Dutch control.

The lot of these “founders of the future Jewish community of the United States” was anything but pleasant. Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of New Netherlands, wrote to his masters, the Dutch West India Company, requesting permission to refuse permanent haven to the new arrivals. In his letter, he explained that the Jews were a “deceitful race,” with an “abominable religion” who “worship at the feet of Mammon.”

Learning about the letter, the newcomers responded to this attack by appealing to the Jewish members of the colonizing company in Amsterdam to come to their aid. Six months later, Peter Stuyvesant was overruled by the company. Their letter bluntly stated that his attitude was “unreasonable and unfair, especially because of the considerable loss the Jews sustained in the taking of Brazil, and also because of the large amount of capital which they have invested in the shares of the company.”

Stuyvesant had little recourse. The group received asylum but little else.

They were prohibited from building a synagogue, from trading in certain parts of New Netherlands and were not allowed to serve in the militia.

Again, the Dutch West India Company came to the aid of the small Jewish settlement, ameliorating their economic lot; still, their acceptance by the general population was denied, probably because they did not serve in the militia.

It is important to recall that in those years, the colonists of New Amsterdam had to face hostile Indians who regularly raided the new settlement. It was they, the men of the militia, who secured the safety of the community. Serving in the militia, therefore, was a mark of distinction denied to the Jews.

Despite Stuyvesant's hostility to the Jews, their plight improved due to the unstinting support from the Dutch West India company. But it took 10 years, until 1665, for their acceptance into the militia. This was accomplished by an early pioneer, Asser Levy.

He petitioned the authorities for permission to serve in the militia. His petition was rejected and worse, he was ordered to pay the tax for his exemption from military service. Asser Levy refused to pay the tax and, instead took legal action, directly appealing to the colonial council.

The council ruled in his favor, establishing the principle that denying a citizen the right to serve in the militia was tantamount to denying him “Burgher Rights.”

Gradually, other rights were granted to the Jews. The right to purchase land for a cemetery, for example, which was denied in 1658, was granted one year later because the need for a cemetery became critical.

There were other recorded legal actions in those years that affected the nascent Jewish community of New Amsterdam. The case of Jacob Barsimson, the first pioneer to arrive in New Amsterdam, sheds important light on the development of religious tolerance in the new colony.

At the time, Jacob was involved in a civil suit and received a summons to appear before the bourgomasters -- the governing council. Jacob Barsimson did not appear as summoned. The members of the council ruled that “although the defendant is absent, no default is ruled against him because he was issued the summons on his Sabbath.”

As a result of this legal case, the council ruled that no summons may be served either on Sunday or on the Jewish Sabbath.

An equally interesting case which, I must confess, I don’t fully understand, is the case involving Asser Levy and his business partner, Moses de Lucena. In 1668, they were given license to be butchers in the colony. But the license indicated that, in view of their “being sworn to the oath of the Jews,” they were not compelled to slaughter hogs.

In trying to understand this case, I concluded that perhaps their butcher business had to do with supplying meat to the army or the civil authorities.

From this small group of 23 hardy souls (whose names almost totally disappeared from history), the Jewish community of New Amsterdam grew. First, financially, they attracted colonists from around the then-known world to set up trading centers in and around New Amsterdam.

Why did they succeed in commerce? Because of their knowledge of Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish languages, and because of their contacts with Jews in other parts of the world. These two factors enabled the Jews to became the financial leaders of the new colonies.

A statistic quoted by the Encyclopedia Judaica recalls that “the Jewish taxpayers contributed 8% of the cost of the Palisade or ‘Waal,’ (later known as Wall Street) although they comprised only 2% of the population.”

10 years after the arrival of the first group of Jews, New Amsterdam fell to the British as a result of wars between the colonizing nations. Religious and civil rights were increased, permitting Jews to build synagogues and, unlike in other colonies, to be elected to public office.

There is evidence that several synagogues existed, but these were only in private homes. The first free-standing synagogue in New York, Shearith Israel, was built in 1706, 40 years after the first group landed in New Amsterdam. Spanish and Portuguese were the languages spoken in their synagogues and in the kehillah (community) organizations.

In a future column I hope to write more about Shearith Israel. Now, I want to indicate one interesting detail about that synagogue. Shearith Israel sponsored a school that taught Judaism, but it also had classes in secular studies because there were no community schools yet established.

What is fascinating about the early settlers is that the Jews became the traders of the area, as I mentioned earlier, because of their knowledge of languages and because they carried their trade with them, going from settlement to settlement to ply their wares.

Thus, in its first 50 years, although Jewish population remained at 2% of the general population, 12% of those engaged in foreign trade were Jews.

At the outset of this piece, I speculated that some of the incidents recorded may shed some light on the future of the American Jewish community. I leave it to you, the reader, to consider facts in this brief essay and determine what, if any, of the experiences of the early colonists may have affected the make-up of the future of our Jewish community in the United States. If you wish, you may share your ideas with me and I shall be delighted to include them in my future columns.

The author can be reached by e-mail at ibbar@aol.com.