Three Hundred Vears of Freedom in America

Tercentenary is Story of Pilgrims' to ress

even after all their household
goods that were on board were
sold.
Their reception was anything
but cordial. They had to over-
come the hostility of Peter Stuy-
vestant, the Governor. Bit by bit
they won their rights — first the
right to stay on, then to trade,
a few months later the right to
have their own burial ground,
and in June 1656 the right to
own their own homes.
There were civic rights to be
won, too, such as the right to
stand guard along the stockades
against Indian attacks, and the
right to citizenship. Their first
congregation, Shearith Israel,
was formed when they arrived
in 1654. Not until 1728 were they
ready to build an actual syna-
gogue., The congregation itself,
also known as the Spanish and
Portuguese Synagogue, thrives
to this day.
Meanwhile a small but steady
trickle of Jews kept coming to
the colonies. By the time of the
Revolution in 1776, they were
active in every phase of colonial
life: as business men, farmers,
laborers, tradesmen, doctor s,
bankers, shipowners. There were
Jews in the colonial militia, and
the zeal they brought to the
fight for independence was
strengthened by their experi-
ences in overcoming the early
disabilities imposed upon them
as Jews.

By SYLVIA STORCH

At just about this time, 300
years ago, the first group of
Jewish settlers, a little band of
23 pilgrims, landed in this coun-
try, in what is now New York.
They came, as had so many of
the settlers before them, and as
were so many to come after
them, in search of freedom, the
freedom to live — and to live I
meant to live as Jews.
In the early days they were
in ,the forefront of the fight
for' freedom. They have since
fought and died in every war
in which the United States has
engaged. They helped clear the
wilderness and chart the seas
for trade routes. They have built I
entire industries and helped de-
velop cities, great and small.
171 every field of culture the
halls of fame echo with the
names of Jewish Americans-171
science, in literature, drama,
music and the other arts. They
have won Nobel Prizes and Pul-
itzer Prizes. They have healed
the nation's sick and helped the
needy. They have helped found
and support great universities
and Jewish institutions of learn-
ing! They have sat in legislatures
and served as Supreme Court
Justices.
And throughout the three
hundred years of their partici-
pation in the growth of the
United States, they have strug-
gled to ,gain and uphold the
The stories of the great Jewish
freedoms which are the hall-
patriots of the Revolution are
marks of our democraCy.
by now familiar. Haym Solomon,
Today there are more than the Polish immigrant who came
5,000,000 Jews in the United to America as a young man and
. States, the largest Jewish com- soon became a successful broker
munity in the world. Along with and commission m e r c h ant,
their fellow-Americans, they en-:1 helped to raise money for the
joy unique advantages and priv- Revolution. The Gatz brothers,
ileges.
who conducted extensive trade
Those were the thoughts of between the colonies and the
American Jewish leaders : who farthest outposts, helped keep
ronvened some time ago to con- the army in supplies. Isaac
sider hOw best to celebrate the Franks served under Washing-
300th anniversary of the first ton. Francis Salvador was one of
the early martyrs in the fight-
Jewish group settlement.
At the very outset they agreed ing in the South."
upon a principle and a theme.
The eyes • of the world were on
The principle : the Tercentenary America, scanning the bold Con-
is not a frivolous affair, no time stitution, and studying the un-
for mutual admiration and self- precedented position of the Jews,
glorification. .Besides commem- who enjoyed full rights of .citi-
orating achievements, it must , zenship. In the separate states
itself achieve something.
I there was a continual drive to
As a theme, they decided upon implement the liberties granted
the motif that dominates Amer- by the Constitution. The most
ican history and the history of striking battle for Jewish reli-
gious freedom occurred in Mary-
the Jews in America alike:
land, 'where Thomas Kennedy, a
"MAN'S
OPPORTUNITIES Protestant, introduced the "Jew
AND RESPONSIBILITIES UN- Bill," and fought for it unin-
DER FREEDOM."
teruptedly for many years, until
The theme and its implica- it was passed in 1826.
tions will thread the diverse na-
As the boundaries of the
tionwide celebrations scheduled country widened, the immi-
for the months between Sep- grants kept coming. Many ar-
tember 1954 and May 1955. The rived after the Napoleonic Wars;
Tercentenary will be observed many after the revolutions of
in schools, libraries, synagogues, 1848; many more because of
community centers and other Russian pogroms; even as in our
public places. There will be con- own day, some fleeing Hitler
certs, exhibits, lectures,' confer- persecutions were admitted,
ences, meetings, scholarly ses- within quota limits, to the
sions. There will be religious ob- United States. Along with other
servances and dedications. The pioneers, Jews pushed frontiers
culmination will be an outdoor to the Midwest, Texas, Califor-
religious ceremony in Washing- nia, Alaska.
ton, D.C., which will draw Jews
Among the new immigrants
from all parts of the country.
was Isaac Mayer Wise, who came
A Tercentenary Sabbath will from Bohemia in 1848 and in the
be marked on Nov. 27 by all ensuing decades became the
J e wish congregations in the leader of Reform Judaism in
United- States. On Thanksgiving America. The emergence of Re-
Day, Nov. 25, a special ceremony form Judaism led to the crystal-
will be held in Touro Synagogue lization of the Orthodox and
in Newport, R.I., the oldest ex- Conservative groups as they, too,
isting synagogue building in sought to adjust their Judaism
America and a national histori- to the American scene. Under
cal shrine.
Wise, the Reform movement
A 10-volume documentary his- gained significance, with many
tory of the Jews in the United dynamic younger rabbis rally-
States will be prepared as a per- ing around him. The first Re-
manent result of the observance. form congregation in the U.S.
•
was formed in Cincinnati, in
The first settlers came from 1854.
Brazil, fleeing the Portuguese
The fact that American Jews
reconquest which meant an end were sharply divided during the
to freedom of religion previous- Civil War is in itself an indica-
ly enjoyed under the Dutch. The tion of their integration into
refugees were impoverished and American life. On bath sides
battered from the war in Brazil. there were Jews in positions of
Some did not have enough prominence, among Lincoln's
money to pay for their passage, staunchest supporters, among

l

•

54I5-THE JEWS IN AMERICA

John Brown's men, in Jefferson
Davis' cabinet.
In 1880 there were about 230,-
000 Jews in the United States.
'In the next 50 years more than
2,000,000 Jews entered the coun-
try. When Russia unleashed a
savage reign of terror on the
already repressed and segre-
gated Jews, many fled, perse-
cuted, poverty - striken immi-
grants seeking a new and free
life. A new frontier was added—
the sweatshop. Their problems
stirred the imagination a n d
compassion of American Jews
like Emma Lazarus, whose poem
is imprinted on the Statue of
Liberty; of Henrietta Szold, who
became one of the great hu-
manitarians; of Lillian D. Wald,
who started a new era of social
work. Their problems provoked
the energies of men like Sid-
ney Hillman, himself an immi-
grant, to found great trade un-
ions in this country.
Through their unions, the im-
migrants managed to combat the
intolerable sweatshop conditions
in the great garment industries,
where mass production of men's
women's and children's cloth-
ing has been developed on a

scale' and at a price nowhere
approximated.
These people fused the old
culture they treasured with the
new culture they eagerly em-
braced in the crucible of their
experience to produce literature
in Yiddish, Hebrew and English -
-books, periodicals, newspapers.
The East European immigrants
were enthusiastic patrons of the
Yiddish theater, which flotir-
ished on a high artistic plane.

In 1875, Isaac Mayer Wise had
established Hebrew Union Col-
lege, the oldest Rabbinical school
in the country. Later in the cen-
tury, the great Yeshiva Univer-
sity started modestly as a sem-
inary for Orthodox rabbis and
became the first university un-
der Jewish auspices. 'The Jewish
Theological Seminary of Amer-
ica, the seat of Conservative
Judaism, was founded in 1881.
The three have distinguished
graduate schools, teacher train-
ing schools, unique libraries and
impreSsive records of scholar-
ship. Brandeis University, a non-
sectarian institution of higher,
learning under Jewiti auspices,
opened its doors in 1948.

5715

Transcending even their re-
sponse to the call of battle in
World War II — a quarter of ,st
million American Jews served —
has been the aggressive fight
waged by Jews against totali-
tarianism in any form, Nazi,
Fascist, Communist.
The three Jewish U.S. Supreme
Court Justices highlight the
widely varying background of
American Jews. Felix Frank-
furter is himself an immigrant,
having come to the Unite d
States as a small child. Louis D.
Brandeis was the son of immi-
grants, and Benjamin N. Car-
dozo was descended from the
earliest Jewish settlers in Amer-
ica.
So it is with Jews in all fields
of endeaVor.
In participating in the com-
memorations, American Jews
cannot but be inspired by the
role that everyone who has
savored freedom must plAy in
conserving it for ourselves, and
helping extend it to thoSe not
yet fortunate enough to know it.

0—DETROIT JEWISH

raWS

1priday, September 24 -,1541