THE

y, July 17, 1942

Page Five

JEWISH NEWS

he Story of the Jews in the United States

Historical' Analysis of Jewish Contributions to the Development and Defense of America

HE story of the Jews in the building of America
starts, not today nor a hundred years ago, but in
year 1492. It began with a man who thought the
id was round and who had courage enough to
e it at the risk of his own life._ He called himself
tobal Colon. We know him today as Christopher
iambus, the man who opened a new world for the
ressed and persecuted of all nations.
Spain, for hundreds of years the Jews had lived
hat is still remembered as a golden age. Under
Moors and even under the Spaniards, they enjoyed
gree of freedom they had nowhere else in Europe.
had produced scientists, scholars, philosophers,
and musicians. They helped make Spain famous
learning and culture. But in 1492, that Golden Age
e to an end. Ferdinand, the king of Spain, who had
driven out the last of the Moors, ordered the Jews
renounce their religion or leave Spain. Many be-
e Christians, but many more, 300,000 in all, chose
emain Jews and go into exile.
olumbus did not hesitate to go to Jewish map-
ers for his charts and information, and to Jewish
fists for his facts. And it was not Isabella's jewels
financed the voyage of discovery, but the funds
converted Jew, Luis de Santangel by name. On
voyage with Columbus were six men who had been
Jews; the sailor who first sighted the land of
new world was Rodrigo de Triana, a Jew, and Luis
*Torres, another Jew, was the first to set foot on
of the new world. Torres. because he knew
w and Arabic, had come along as interpreter,
they expected to sail to the Indies. He heded
first inland expedition in America, on the island
uba; and it was he who brought tobacco back to
the New World to live out
•pe. Torres returned
life in Cuba, thus becoming one of the first Eur op-
settlers of America.
Those Jews who remained in Spain, converted to
• tianity, were called Marranos, which means the
ed; and many of them considered themselves that.
of them practiced Jewish religious customs se-
, in spite of the terrible punishments which the
uisition inflicted on any who were discovered. They
to their Judaism, and when Spanish and Portu-
colonies began to be established in South and
tral America, they flocked to the New World in the
that there they might once again become Jews
observance as well as in spirit. They settled in
ICiC0 and Brazil and the West Indies, but their hopes
• ious freedom were not fulfilled; the Inquisition
t with them, and in both the Spanish and Portu-
colonies they encountered persecution.
Then Holland took possession of Brazil. Jews not
y from Spain and Portugal, but from all over Eur-
, flocked there. For a brief time it seemed that all
Id be well for the Jews in BraziL But in 1654 that
vanished. The Portuguese seized Brazil from the
ch and once more the Jews had to flee for their
s.

,

to

w Amsterdam:

One small boatload of them, after being captured by
ates' and then rescued by a French man-of-war,
ched the Dutch colony which was called New Am-
dam. In September, 1664, they sailed into the har-
of this Dutch village, the first Jewish settlers in
at was one day to become New York City.
Old Peter Stuyvesant ruled the colony at that time,
he refused to permit the Jews to remain. But they
come far enough in their wanderings; they were
e in New Amsterdam, and here they were going to
y. Finally Stuyvesant and the directors of the Dutch
t Indies Company relented and decided that the
might stay.
One strong-willed man, Asser Levy by name; be-
e the leader' of these Jewish settlers in their
olute fight for their rights, including the right to
itary service in defense of the new country. Under
Dutch they eventually managed to gain, if not com-
,te liberty, at least a tolerance that was more than
y enjoyed in most other quarters of the earth.

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e First Synagogue

The Jews, although poverty-stricken refugees at
time of their landing, immediately set about estab-
ing themselves as citizens of worth and usefulness:
British took New Amsterdam and renamed it New
k, and under English rule Jewish. rights were up-
d. Forbidden to engage in certain occupations, the
s took to trading. They developed an honorable
utation among the Indians, and their boats and
ges journeyed far up the Hudson and Delaware
rs. By 1683 they had rented a place to worship,

-

Financing the Revolutionary War

Acknowledgment

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Jewish News is privileged
to be able to reprint the following historical in-
formation which was prepared for distribution
among 290,000 men in the armed forces of the
United States. This information was compiled and
published as pamphlet No. 1 of Jewish Information
Services by the Jewish Welfare Board of 220 Fifth
Ave., New York, and the American Association for
Jewish Education, 1776 Broadway, New York.
This history in its entirety will appear in serial
form in future issues of The Jewish News. Addition-
al copies of the reprint will be available in limited
quantities, and the text will be made available to
students in our Detroit Jewish schools.
Readers of The Jewish News are advised to clip
these articles and to preserve the entire historical
record in a scrapbook for future reference.

and 1728 they undertook to build their first Synagogue_
on Mill Street. They became persons of respect in the
community, honored and trusted by both the Dutch
and the English. As word of the wonderful new land
travelled back to Europe, more and more Jews sailed
across the seas • to America.
Naturally, Jews joined those settlements which
guaranteed the greatest degree of religious freedom.
Massachusetts, for all that the Pilgrims had come there
as refugees, offered freedom for Puritans, but not for
Catholics, Quakers or Jews. In Rhode Island, on the
other hand, Roger Williams had established the most
liberal of all colonies, one that guaranteed freedom for
all people. Thus in 1658 Jews began settling in New-
port, where in time they built one of the most prosper-
ous Jewish communities in America.
To the smaller towns they came in twos and threes,
very often among the first settlers. They were fearless
pioneers, for many of them, with a sack of ribbons aid
trinkets on their backs and muskets over their should-
ers, went far into the wilderness to trade with the
Indian:1s. They crossed the Alleghenies and they plodded
up to the wild Northwest territory, and sometimes they
were the first white men in those distant places.
In the larger cities of the colonies, New York, New-
port, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah, commun-
ities were built as Jews settled in increasing numbers.

The Revolutionary War

On the 17th of April of '75, when Paul Revere clat-
tered through "every Middlesex village and farm,"
there were about 3,000 Jews in the Thirteen Colonies—
not very many, but then neither was America very
large or thickly settled at that time. Yet even though
they were not many, the Jews made their weight felt
in the Revolution.
It is estimated that of these 3,000 men, women and
children, some 300 at one time or another, during the
long course of the war, fought in the militia or the
regular army. In CharleSton, where Jews played an
important part in the defense of the colony, one com-
pany of the town's militia had so many that it was
called "The Jews' Company." Major David Salisbury
Franks, a member of the famous Franks family, accom-
panied Arnold on his retreat from Canada, and after-
wards fought on through the war. His cousin, Isaac
Franks, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Continental
army. In Georgia, Mordecai Sheftall, a Jew, became
Deputy Commissary-General of Issues, and another
Jew, David Emanuel, after a thrilling career during
the war; became the governor of Georgia in 1801. There
is no room here to list all the 300 and more who fought
as officers and privates in that war. Yet. Benjamin
Nones should be mentioned, a volunteer private under
a lieutenant under De Kalb, and finally a
Major and Sim Officer under George Washington.

EVERYBODY,
EVERY PAYDAY

SAVING IN._
WAR BONDS

Perhaps as important as any military service the
Jews were able to contribute was the part they played
in the financing of the Revolution. For the Revolution-
ary War, like all wars, could be fought successfully
only if the resources were available. The Continental
Congress was always in need of funds, and Washing-
ton's army was always losing men in large numbers
for lack of money to pay the troops and buy them food
and clothing. When Congress or the army needed
money, the Jews gave liberally, without question of
security. A few contributions are recorded, such as the
pledge of 3,000 pounds from Isaac Moses to Robert
Morris, when Morris, minister of finance, was in desper-
ate straits; or the contributions of Aaron Levy and
Joseph Simon; or the $7,000 which Philip Minis of
Georgia advanced to pay the troops. But there were
also other contributions never recorded—funds raised
in synagogues to buy food and clothing for soldiers,
and loans from individuals to members of Congress,
to officers of the army, and to plain soldiers.
Outstanding was the work of Haym Salomon, a
little Polish Jew, who charged by the British in New
York with aiding and abetting the American cause,
escaped from prison and fled to Philadelphia where he
devoted himself to the cause of the Revolution.
Salomon's task was to turn Morris' credits into hard
cash. When money was needed regardless of the pur-
pose, it was to Haym Salomon that Robert Morris
turned. Haym Salomon was slowly dying of consump-
tion. If he had turned the war to his own profit. he
could have made a fortune and provided liberally for
his family. He did neither, and died bankrupt in 1785,
having given his life for his country, as surely as an
soldier in the field.
Before leaving the Colonial period, a word should be
said about the seafaring activities of the Jews during
the Revolution. America was fighting England, a sea-
faring nation, but the Colonies had no regular navy
and were forced to depend upon the activities of ir-
regular privateers. Some of these privateers were
commanded by Jews, and in other cases. whole fleets
of them were owned and operated by Jews. These
volunteer fleets struck telling blows toward the final
outcome of the war.

The Westward Tide

Though the Revolution was over, there were still
battles to be won: for the thirteen colonies had to be
fused into a single united nation with a Constitution
and a Bill of Rights. It was the Bill of Rights, with its
many "small" but terribly important freedoms that
opened the door for the Jews into every one of the new
states.
The Jews began to spread out, to move westward
with the urgent tide of the American frontier. As yet,
they were not numerous: so far as car. be learned, their
numbers increased from 3,000 to 15,000 during the years
from 1785 to 1840. At this time there were a good many
English, German, Russian and Polish Jews in addition
to the older Sephardic or Spanish Jews. They did not
congregate in the large cities as did those coming in
the later waves of immigration, but pushed on beyond
the frontier. In many places they settled in groups
and formed a community, set aside a piece of land
as a burial place, and built a synagogue.
Thus, at the end of the eighteenth and the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, synagogues appeared
in many towns, in Richmond, in Baltimore, in New
Orleans, and even upon the wilderness road to Louis-
ville. Quietly, often leaving no record, the Jews pion-
eered into the wilderness, to trade with the Indians
and to provide the other pioneers with the supplies
they so badly needed. When the Wyoming Valley mas-
sacre occurred, a party of women and children started
from western Pennsylvania back to their homes in
Connecticut. Weary and starving they came, one Friday
evening, to the home of a Jewish trader who was laying
out the Sabbath dinner in his rude log cabin. To him
they seemed like strangers out of the Bible. He washed
their feet and seated them at his table, and afterward
they were. passed on from Jewish home to Jewish home
until the frontier was behind them. -
One of these early settler's was a man by the name
of Abraham Mordecai, who came into Alabama in 1789,
and later founded the city of Montgomery. Mordecai
built the first cotton gin in Alabama. Another was
Joseph Jonas, an early pioneer of the Northwest Ter-
ritory. Jonas started the Jewish community at Cincin-
nati, which afterwards became one of the most flourish-
ing in the land.

Read Next Week's Issue of The Jewish News for the Second Installment of this Historical Article

