An old faith in the New World: portrait of Shearith Israel, 1654-1954

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Mill Street 1730

Mill Street 1818

Crosby Street 1834

AN OLD F A I T H THE

NEW

IN

WORLD

' ; S;

AN OLD FAITH IN THE NEW WORLD 'Portrait of Shearith Israel 1654-1954

DAVID AND TAMAR DE SOLA POOL

Qolumbia University 'Press New York 1955

COPYRIGHT

1955

C O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS, N E W

YORK

P U B L I S H E D IN GREAT B R I T A I N , CANADA, INDIA, AND P A K I S T A N B Y GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS,

LONDON, TORONTO, B O M B A Y , AND K A R A C H I

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:

55-6619

M A N U F A C T U R E D IN T H E U N I T E D STATES OF

AMERICA

iDedicated to the Future

of Shearith Israel

Foreword VV E HAVE A I M E D TO P R E S E N T a portrait of Congregation Shearith Israel in the City of N e w York. T h e Hebrew words Shearith Israel mean "a remnant of Israel." Three hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, as Shearith Israel is popularly known, set their stakes in this country. Though few in number, they were destined to establish an enduring settlement for others also and to help create a home for the generations to come. They could not have remotely foreseen how great that home was to be, nor could they have forecounted the myriads who would follow them. T h e Jews who came to America over the centuries were not destitute immigrants. T h e y carried within themselves the fruits of a precious heritage— the faith of Abraham, the L a w of Moses, the vision of the prophets, the aspirations of the psalmist, the wisdom of the sages, the spirit of the martyrs, the unfailing hope of the people of Israel. In the realm of spiritual experience a part can encompass the whole. T o a Remnant of Israel belongs the totality of Israel's treasury. T h e portrait here limned, however falteringly, is a story of an ancient faith in the N e w World. And it is an American story. T h e Jews who came here took their part in the development of American democracy and in the course of its purposive history. T h e synagogue sheds light and comfort. It is an island of safety for man's spirit. In a confused era and a troubled world where so much has been destroyed, it is all the more sorely needed. Tragically few are the Jewish congregations today which can count three centuries. Great historic religious centers of the Old World have been violated and their people ruthlessly destroyed. Shearith Israel's organic growth and its place in the community of which it is a part are a bright and significant commentary on the spirit of America. In reviewing the three centuries behind us, we unfold a panorama in which Judaism in its pristine purity has been preserved and the horizons of service have been extended to meet expanding needs. Twelve generations take their place in a story both of a congregation and

viii

FOREWORD

a synagogue. N o boundary line can be drawn between them. All who have chosen to ally themselves with this American mother synagogue have thereby entered into its religious fellowship and have shared in the making of the congregation. Close integration with one's spiritual home has always been an ideal to strive for. Those who have brought the utmost of response to all that the synagogue offers and demands have been most richly rewarded. A special meed of gratitude is due them for their works, their loyalty, and their faith. T h e past is our heritage, the present our responsibility, the future our challenge. T h e future is darkly unclear, the present is evanescent. Only the past is ours to possess and transmit. W e come to our rendezvous with the future offering our heritage as a legacy for the days to come. This book is dedicated to the future in Shearith Israel. In a profound sense it is dedicated to the men, women, and children who will carry on after us. It is for them to assure the realization of the promise of the past. A hundred years hence when the congregation turns to the celebration of its quadricentennial may it find that its fourth century will have been a fulfillment of purpose to which the first three hundred years have been an introduction, and may they know in their hearts then, as we know today, that the past is everlasting. D A V I D AND T A M A R April,

1955

DE S O L A

POOL

IVe Thank You W E PREFACE OUR THANKS with a word of appreciation to Professor Allan Nevins, who, in his busy life of creative scholarship, has graciously read the proofs of this book with meticulous and critical attention. His warm encouragement and his helpful comments leave us deeply grateful. W e record our indebtedness to many who have been of inestimable assistance. T h e American Jewish Historical Society whose archives are a primary source of Shearith Israel history, the New-York Historical Society Library, the N e w York Public Library, and the Frick Reference Library, have added to the delights of delving in old papers the never-failing cooperation of their librarians. Mr. Thomas F. McLaughlin, Clerk of the City of N e w York, graciously made available the earliest manuscript records of the municipality. Jane Nelson called our attention to Walt Whitman's visit to the synagogue. Congregants and other friends have shared in the making of this book. Captain Jason Meth placed at our disposal his valuable material on American Jewish military history. Dr. Arnold Wiznitzer wholeheartedly shared with us the fruits of his wide exploration of sources relating to the first American Jewish settlers, the founders of Shearith Israel. Rabbi Isidore S. Meyer was ever ready with counsel and help. W e are grateful to Warner Prins for the interpretive drawings at the head of each chapter; to Siegfried Landau and Margot Mendes Oppenheimer for the transcription of the music; to Hazel Greenwald for many of the photographs; to Elsa Cesar for the maps. T h e preliminary work on the preparation of the index was cheerfully assumed by Dr. Anne Schlesinger. Jean Mateles read proofs. For helpful suggestions, friendship, and assistance, we thank also Professor Salo W . Baron, Adrian Baumgart, Dr. Joshua Bloch, Rose Harte, Rosalie Hendricks, Rosalie Krieger, Ivan Salomon, Samuel and Mollie Schneierson, Murray Silverstone. The staff of the synagogue never failed us: Victor Tarry and Judah Guedalia, when we needed to study the records of the congregation; Marian Hoffman and Esther Heckel in the difficult secretarial work involved in a complicated manuscript. On the endpapers of the book are reproduced the commemorative plates drawn by Esther H. Oppenheim.

WE

X

THANK

YOU

It was a privilege to work with the officers and staff of the Columbia University Press, publishers and teachers at once. In the organization of the illustrative material Miss Laurel Wagner was especially helpful. T o the board of trustees of Shearith Israel, its president, Justice Edgar J . Nathan, Jr., and to the chairman of the publication committee of this book, Mr. William Roth, we are grateful for their constant solicitude to free us for the labors of this book and to lighten the tasks that were involved in its compilation. There are many others whom we have had occasion to thank, and now thank again, for kindnesses, suggestions, and criticism. T h e friendship of all will be a treasured memory as it has been a most precious ingredient in the making of this book. W e thank you! THE

AUTHORS

Qontents Foreword.

vii

We Thank You

ix

I SHORES OF HOPE

3

II CITADELS OF FAITH

37

III LIVING TRADITIONS

81

IV PANORAMA OF FAITH V

SERVANTS IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

VI "DILIGENTLY UNTO THY CHILDREN" VII CENTRALITY OF THE SYNAGOGUE VIII FIRM FOUNDATIONS

102 158 hi 233 258

IX SILENT WITNESS

302

X AMERICAN SYNAGOGUE

314

XI RELIGION IN ACTION

341

XII EXPANDING HORIZONS

379

XIII FOR THE SAKE OF ZION

396

XIV

410

FELLOWSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP

xii

CONTENTS

XV XVI

TWELVE GENERATIONS

458

T H E PAST IS E V E R L A S T I N G

486

Appendices CONSTITUTIONS OF SHEARITH ISRAEL

1728, 1 7 6 1

499

SERVANTS OF THE CONGREGATION

502

SOLDIERS AND PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

504

HONOR ROLL

506

Notes

511

Glossary and References

537

Reading List

547

Bibliography

555

Indexes INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS

565

INDEX

569

Illustrations COMMEMORATIVE PLATES Endpapers Drawings by Esther H. Oppenheim. Used by courtesy of the artist THE SANCTUARY

Frontispiece

THE LONG ROAD TO FREEDOM (MAP), page 7 MORTERA T E X T OF TRIALS AND REDEMPTION OF BRAZILIAN JEWRY, page S After page 12 NIEUW AMSTERDAM

Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York and the General Government Archives of the Netherlands THE HARBOR IN RECIFE, BRAZIL Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Araujo Collection, Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil RABBI ISAAC ABOAB DA FONSECA Courtesy of the New York Public Library HEBREW CHRONICLE OF 1784

Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society

After page 28 GOVERNOR PETER STUYVESANT Artist unknown. Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society GENERAL FRANCISCO BARRETO Courtesy of Arnold Wiznitzer DIORAMA OF THE LANDING IN 16S4

Courtesy of Louis Levme

PETITION TO DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania After page 44 DEED OF SALE, 1728

Photograph by Charles Kanarian

HISTORIC MILLSTONES

Photograph by Charles Kanarian

CAMPAIGN FOR FUNDS, 1729

Photograph by Charles Kanarian

NEW YORK, 1744

Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society

MILL STREET SYNAGOGUE

By Esther H. Oppenheim

CROSBY STREET SYNAGOGUE After page 60 NINETEENTH STREET SYNAGOGUE DEDICATION OF NINETEENTH STREET SYNAGOGUE SYNAGOGUE ON CENTRAL PARK WEST DUCK FARM, SITE OF NEW SYNAGOGUE

Photograph by Charles Kanarian

xiv

ILLUSTRATIONS

After page 76 T H E SANCTUARY

Photograph

RENOVATION OF SYNAGOGUE

Photograph

T H E LITTLE SYNAGOGUE

Photograph

by Charles Kanarian by

Harcourt-Harris

by Charles Kanarian

After page 92 FIRST ENGLISH JEWISH PRAYER BOOK, 1761 Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society; Rosenbach PLEDGE OF DECORUM AT SERVICES, 1746

Collection

FIRST PRAYER BOOK IN HEBREW AND ENGLISH, 1826 Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society; Rosenbach Collection COLONIAL OMER SCROLL Photograph by Charles Kanarian After page 10S LAVER SET

Photograph

by Charles Kanarian

K1DDUSH SET AND HABDALAH SET

Photograph

by Charles Kanarian

HANUKKAH LAMP

Photograph by Victor Tarry

DESECRATED TORAH SCROLL

Photograph

TORAH SCROLL, GIFT OF CITY OF JERUSALEM

by Charles Kanarian

Photograph by Hazel

Greenwald

After page 124 TORAH BELLS

Photograph

POINTERS

Photograph by Hazel

by Charles Kanarian Greenwald

CANDLELIGHT SERVICE ON NINTH OF AB PURIM SCROLL

Photograph

by Frank J.

Darmstaedter

L E T T E R FROM D W I G H T D. EISENHOWER ON JEWISH TERCENTENARY, page 139 After page 140 HARVEST BOOTH OF TABERNACLES

Photograph

by Hazel

Greenwald

PLATE WITH SUCCOTH SYMBOLS Bv Esther H. Oppenhehn. Photograph by Hazel Greenwald TERCENTENARY RECONSECRATION SERVICE By LIFE Photographer Walter Sanders. Courtesy of T I M E , Inc. TORAH (CHANT), page 14S HAFTARAH (CHANT), page 14S SONG OF SONGS (CHANT), page 146 RUTH (CHANT), page 146 LAMENTATIONS (CHANT), page 146

ILLUSTRATIONS

xv

PSALMS (CHANT), page 1*1 AZ YASHIR MOSHEH (CHANT), page 148 HASHKIBEI' NU (CHANT), page 148 BOREI AD ANAH (CHANT), page 149 AHOT KETANNAH (CHANT), page 149 EIN KELOHEI' NU (CHANT), page ISO E T SHAAREI RATSON (CHANT), page ISO LEtf LESHALOM GESHEM (CHANT), page 1S1 After page 188 SILHOUETTES OF EARLY JEWISH RELIGIOUS LEADERS

By Joseph

Wood

GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS IN OLD AGE

By Joseph

Wood

GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS, PATRIOT RABBI Portrait by J. F. Brown from a miniature. Photograph by Peter A. Juley & Son CONTRACT WITH T H E REVEREND SEIXAS Photograph by Charles Kanarian After page 204 JACQUES JUDAH LYONS

Portrait by F. Tobias

HENRY S. JACOBS

Courtesy of Congregation B'nai Jeshunm

H. PEREIRA MENDES

Photograph by Bradley

DAVID DE SOLA POOL Portrait by Joseph Tepper. Photograph by Religious News Service After page 212 POLONIES TALMUD TORAH SCHOOL TABLET HEBREW GRAMMAR

Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society

N E W SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY HOUSE LOUIS C. GERSTEIN

Photograph by Hazel Greenwald Cole and Liebmarm,

architects

Photograph by Fred - j f % ^

CU^A-^i-m^ O * - ^/e-

^t/LoJ^ ,

RABBI MORTERA OF AMSTERDAM, WHO DIED IN 1 6 6 0 , LEFT A RECORD OF THE TRIALS AND REDEMPTION OF BRAZILIAN J E W R Y IN

1654.®

T h e fateful ship from which they landed has been called both Si. Charles and Ste. Catherine. In the two places of the old Dutch minutes of N i e u w Amsterdam where the ship is mentioned, the page is torn or worn and the word is overwritten with other ink. T h e official English translation in the N e w York City records of a century ago gives the name as St. Charles. Fifty years ago, it was read as Ste. Catherine. Thereafter, the pioneer researcher Samuel Oppenheim went back to the first name, and this has been accepted by the American Jewish Tercentenary. T h e Dutch Reformed Church, whose minister Polhemus came on the same vessel as the Jews, likewise calls the ship St. Charles. Arnold Wiznitzer, Brazilian historian, makes out a good case for Ste. Catherine or St. Cathrien.6 Whether the twenty-three reached Nieuw Amsterdam on the self-same "French ship arrayed for battle" that had "rescued them from out of the hands of the outlaws," or whether they were brought "according to agreement and contract" b y another French bark from some Caribbean port where they

SHORES OF H O P E

9

were stranded, how much time of their long and fitful journey they spent terrorized by ruthless enemies, or how long they lingered in the West Indies, are all still matters of surmise. Their trials must have recalled to them, as they do to us, the words spoken of old by another woebegone traveler. The cry of Jonah must have welled up from their hearts: I called upon the Lord in my affliction. He answered me. From the depths of Sheol I cried. Thou didst hear my voice. The water surrounded me even unto death, the deep encompassed me. . . . Yet Thou hast brought up my life from the pit." Though they had left behind them the perils of the sea, they yet did not find a sure haven. New trials awaited them. The vessel which had brought them to port, was a French frigate mounting five iron guns, and was owned by Captain Symon Felle. Its master, Jacques de la Motthe, had made a contract in solidum, that is, "all as one," with his Jewish passengers whom he brought from "St. Anthony." On arrival at Nieuw Amsterdam, these refugees from defeated Dutch Brazil and from the hazards of the sea were unable to meet all their financial obligations to de la Motthe. On their dramatic journeying these unfortunate—and fortunate—victims must have had a chance to appraise at once the glamor and the horror, and also the workaday business code, of the prowlers for booty along the coast which led northward from Brazil. This lesson they learned at a price, for by the time they reached Nieuw Amsterdam all that was left of their wealth was some battered possessions, worth far less than the fare for their journey. They found no one in the settlement to whom they could turn for assistance, and the captain held their personal goods on board as security. He took legal steps to collect the money that was due him. On September 7 he brought action before the worshipful court of burgomasters and schepens (aldermen) asking for payment for the freight and board of the Jews whom he had transported. Of the total sum of 2,500 golden guilders which he claimed, only 933 guilders had been paid. The court record as translated from the Dutch reads: [Monday, the 7th Sept. 1654] Jacques de la Motthe, master of the bark St. Charles, by a petition, written in French, requests payment of the freight and board of the Jews whom he brought here from Cape St. Anthony according to agreement and contract in which each is bound in solidum, and that, therefore whatever furniture and other property they may have on board his bark may be publickly sold by order of the Court, in payment of their debt. He verbally declares that the Netherlander, who came over with them, are not included in the contract and have satisfied him.

SHORES

IO

OF

HOPE

T h e r e c o r d then goes on to tell h o w S o l o m o n Pietersen w h o acted as legal counsel f o r the J e w i s h passengers . . . a J e w , appears in Court and says nine hundred and odd guilders of the 2 500 are paid, and that there are 2 3 souls, big and little, w h o must pay equally. T h e Court having seen the petition and contract, order that the J e w s shall, within twice 24 hours after date, pay according to contract what they lawfully owe: and in the meanwhile the furniture and whatever the petitioner has in his possession shall remain as security without alienating the same. 7 A f t e r the lapse of the f o r t y - e i g h t hours, the c o u r t decided that these possessions should be sold t o w a r d p a y m e n t of the debt, but a f u r t h e r d e l a y of f o u r d a y s w a s granted. T h i s respite to M o n d a y , S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , must have been e a g e r l y w e l c o m e d , f o r it included the t w o h o l y days of the J e w i s h N e w Y e a r . A f t e r the f o u r days had passed and no cash had been f o u n d f o r p a y m e n t of the debt, the ship's master, de la M o t t h e , unloaded the g o o d s and p u t them on sale beginning w i t h the g o o d s of A b r a h a m Israel and J u d i c q de Mereda. It has been said b y m a n y that some of the Christian D u t c h citizens of the t o w n began to b u y at nominal prices the goods on sale and g i v e them b a c k to their original o w n e r s . Seeing that this generous neighborliness w o u l d result in loss f o r himself, de la M o t t h e put a q u i c k stop to the sale and called f o r a special hearing in the S t a d t h u y s ( C i t y H a l l ) . T h e r e on S e p t e m b e r

16

he asked that D a v i d Israel and Moses A m b r o s i u s be held responsible f o r the balance due him, and that t h e y be k e p t as prisoners until the debt should be w h o l l y paid. H i s demand w a s granted, but on condition that the t w o prisoners should not be an expense to the c i t y . D e la M o t t h e w a s to p a y f o r the b o a r d of each prisoner the nominal c h a r g e of sixteen stivers a d a y (a stiver being the equivalent of our t w o cents). H e had also to p a y the substantial sum of f o r t y or f i f t y guilders out of the proceeds f r o m the sale of the goods in order to c o v e r the special expenses of the court. A guilder, gulden, o r w a s the D u t c h coin valued at f o r t y A m e r i c a n cents.

florin

8

T h e c o u r t records in O c t o b e r s h o w that finally some of the goods w e r e sold to raise f u n d s to p a y the debt. O n O c t o b e r 5, A s s e r L e v y appears in the records as one w h o s e goods w e r e sold at auction. Jan Marty, pltf. v/s Asser leeven, deft. Pltf. as attorney and agent of the sailors, w h o brought the J e w s here f r o m the W e s t Indies, demands from deft, payment of f. 106. still remaining due. D e f t , says that all his goods were sold at auction, and he

S H O R E S OF

HOPE

ii

is not bound to pay any more, inasmuch as payment for his freight was offered before the sale, on condition that his goods be not sold. The court persists in its previous decision that the prisoners, who were taken as principals, be held responsible, also, for the remainder of the payment. A week later, on October 12, there was paid in to the court some money derived "from the proceeds of the Jews goods which were sold by order at vendue." • This was not enough to discharge their staggering indebtedness. The charge of 2,500 guilders, thrice the normal cost at the time of a journey of comparable distance, points to the extraordinary circumstances in which the journey was undertaken. T o assure their transport they must have mortgaged all that remained to them, and if their own means were not enough, there was always the hope that help could be obtained from brethren in the homeland. Since there were Jews in Holland who were secure and prosperous, those in distress in N e w Holland confidently hoped for help from them. Turning to the mother country for financial assistance seems to have been an act of last resort, although it might well have been from the beginning a persuasive argument to the captain who was called upon to undertake the rescue and transport of the storm-tossed victims. These may have hoped that what was still left of their belongings would in its totality cover the cost of their freight. But it did not. They therefore turned to the brothers across the seas. What is of special interest is that de la Motthe and his crew considered the help asked from members of the Jewish community in Amsterdam likely enough to be forthcoming to justify the releasing of what was left of the mortgaged goods and also of the deposited funds. The detention of the frigate at the dock was becoming increasingly costly and irksome. Since a reasonable sum had already been realized by the sale of the goods, it was easier for Solomon Pietersen, the representative of the Jewish travelers, to persuade the sailors to leave in the expectation that on their return they would be paid the balance still due them, from money made available by Jews in Holland. On October 26, Solomon Pietersen appeared in Court, and exhibited a declaration from the attorney of the sailors, relative to the balance of the freight of the Jews, promising to wait until the arrival of the ships from Patria. W h e r e f o r e he requests to receive the money still in the secretary's hands for R y c k e Nounes, whose goods were sold, over and above her o w n freight debt, in order to obtain with that money some support for her. W h e r e u p o n was endorsed: Petitioner Solomon Pieters as attorney was permitted to take, under security, the monies in the Secretary's hands. 10

12

SHORES

OF

HOPE

With this there came to an end the complex dealings with the master of the ship which brought to Nieuw Amsterdam the sturdy band of "23 souls, big and little" who could endure so much without break of spirit or body. In so far as their names have come down to us in the court records, four men: Abraham and David Israel, Moses Ambrosius (Lumbrozo), and Asser L e v y ; and two women, Judicq de Mereda and R y c k e Nounes, and others making up the twenty-three, found in N i e u w Amsterdam two other Jews. One of these was Solomon Pietersen, of whom we seem to know no fact other than that he was designated to act as counsel for the new arrivals. T h e other was one Jacob bar Simson. H e had come from Holland some two weeks before the arrival of those who came from Brazil. H e bore with him a passport issued by the Dutch West India Company in July. Isolated Jews had preceded them in coming to what is now the United States. These scattered individuals left no mark on the American Jewish story. But Solomon Pietersen, Jacob bar Simson, and the twenty-three other Jews who came to Manhattan in 1654 may truly be called the "Jewish Pilgrim Fathers," for their settlement on the North American continent became the nucleus of a congregation and of a community with historic continuity. It has been suggested by that trail-blazer in American Jewish history, Samuel Oppenheim, that Jacob bar Simson was more than an immigrant, and that he may have come as part of a planned pioneer movement to work and develop the new and extensive domain held by the Dutch West India Company in North America. Brazil had just been lost by the Dutch. Curaçao was but a small island. Dutch Guiana was opened up for settlement later. In contrast, the N e w Netherlands was spacious and crying out for settlers. T h e Dutch West India Company, eager to develop it, issued circulars which offered "freedom and exemptions" to potential colonists there. In June, 1654, the Company assigned f i f t y orphan children to the vessels Pereboom and Gelderse Blom to help populate Manhattan Island. On November 9, 1654, Peter Stuyvesant signed a resolution to lodge the children sent over b y the "Poormasters." 1 1 Leaving on J u l y 8, 1654, Jacob bar Simson had crossed the ocean on the Pereboom, and reached N i e u w Amsterdam on August 22, apparently with some of these children. H e paid thirty-six guilders for his passage. He had been in Manhattan but a fortnight, this official Jewish pioneer, when he was suddenly joined by a company that landed without benefit of passport.

•

s

This was Nieuiv Amsterdam when the Founding Fathers of Shearith Israel reached harbor in September 1654

After sharing valiantly in defense of Dutch Brazil, the left when the Portuguese recaptured

the

Jens

country

• b r u D323 i r b p 3 t M b i 31b 6*1» i-t> t r m « r r a r i y » rr> i r p ' i - l u i i m s r ui&'i , r:t3 'in mt> ir-i ¡us"? b w i . r r i P T S o r ? m n f o r b Qynmrntnf) R S l ' l i O u - S t i i k m ? w 7BPb»irS ipt>r3 : « M M » . 3 T j e f r u i>"3 a w n , 3it>b 1131 ( O a w t t o t ' f c j , bfnc* >6 - 3 b3 c r b p p b ?>j , o - u j - P 'W ? 1 b , 3 13PJJ b3 t T W , -7 7» ^ U i ' C i f ^ y i , rf>t? p t e ^ o J s p »IPP bf> a m , D: »73-1 , D , bf">i'56'f>3 O' 3b3 m i l 13tD SOfrVjiSjf C l b t i K ' H , ' r p r b p i J t f t J S S r r s - i i w s o b.-iro 3 7 » » w o r b * ? =?«» i v w i f r i s m , T 7 9 t i t o r c w m e r T r w vi> vnt> (3ii«u»J&ea«trt) ^ TM>J f>S t'f> J33I ?t 133TP 3*ip3 o b e b OJ CD!»

Hebrew chronicle of 1784, based on earlier records, retells of capture by pirates and rescue of Jewish pilgrims

First rabbi in America—da

Fonseca

S H O R E S OF H O P E

13

Stuyvesant seems to have raised no difficulties with the Jewish merchants or with him who had arrived with the approval of the authorities in Holland. A n altogether different situation was presented by the no less than twentythree men, women, and children, who had now so unexpectedly landed, bereft and weary, still bearing the marks of their turbulent voyage, and plunged at the very moment of their arrival into legal difficulties. " W h o are you? Whence come you? What is your country? W h o are your kinsmen?" " W e are Hebrews and we revere the Lord God of Heaven." One can hear the echo of the immemorial questions and Jonah's simple answer ringing down the corridors of time. Peter Stuyvesant required the twenty-three Jews "in a friendly way to depart." T h e director-general had an aversion to all dissidents—Lutherans, Quakers, Roman Catholics, or Jews—and would have none of them. He brooked ill any variance from doctrines which he made his own. The very arrival of the Jews was a challenge to his conception of N e w Holland as the serene haven of those who believed exactly as did he. The wanderers became pioneers. T h e y stood up against Stuyvesant's will with dignity and strength, setting up, no doubt unconsciously, a cornerstone for the subsequent structure of American democracy. T h e y waged a brave battle to secure for themselves and implicitly for others the right of settlement, freedom of worship, and equality in citizenship. Their doughty resistance proved indeed to be a springboard for liberty. Less than two years earlier, the good burghers of Nieuw Amsterdam, in their struggle with Peter Stuyvesant for representative government, had won only a very limited victory. In politics as in theology, "hardkoppig Piet," as Washington Irving called the Knickerbocker governor, had an inflexible mind of his own. This did not encompass government of the people and by the people. The burgher government which finally was wrested from the stern hands of the Amsterdam Council in 1652 was not much more than a half-way station to the goal of those who led the fight. It was more of a victory for Peter Stuyvesant. The new plan called for the powers of local government to be vested in two burgomasters, five schepens and a schout. Selection of those representatives was to be made with due regard for the wishes of the people. 12 But when put into practice at the proclamation of the new order on February 2, 1653, Manhattan's first municipal government ill concealed the fiat rule of

i4

SHORES

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the arbitrary director-general. Before the year was ended, a convention of delegates from N i e u w Amsterdam and Long Island towns protested against the disregard of the rights that were theirs, and expressed "apprehension of the establishment of an arbitrary government," asserting that "our consent or that of our representatives is necessarily required in the enactment of . . . laws and orders." Against such courageous declarations, Stuyvesant hurled the charge of illegality. H e ordered the citizens "not to assemble any more under pain of our extreme displeasure and arbitrary correction." T h e delegates disbanded, and in due course the authorities in Holland expressed their support of the governor. Strengthened in his position, he quietly purged the remonstrants, and thus further stretched the gap between government and democracy in the fledgling municipality. T h e arrival of the Jews gave a new impetus to resistance against arbitrary authority. It constituted a renewed challenge to the constricting policies of Peter Stuyvesant. Y e t xenophobia in the little colony did not begin with him. His predecessor, Director-General van Dincklagen, had like reservations. T h e prejudices that Stuyvesant expressed about J e w s van Dincklagen expressed on the subject of "Scots and petty traders" in general, and on September 18, 1648, in council at Fort Amsterdam, action had been taken limiting the rights of "such destroyers of trade." 1 3 T h e Dutch West India Company in the homeland did not see eye to eye with their directors in the colonies about the virtues of restraint of trade. T h e y enunciated a classic definition of free enterprise when on March 12, 1654, they wrote Governor Stuyvesant with regard to another edict restricting trade: W e judge [this] to be impracticable, especially in the very beginning of a firstbudding state, whose growth must be sought for in, and founded rather on, fostered and unlimited freedoms, than on compulsory restrictions. . . . We will also warn you, before quitting this subject, not to enact, in future, any more such or similar ordinances or regulations, much less to publish them, before you shall have first received our instructions thereon, as we find such to be for the greatest advantage of the company and this State in particular. September of that year, 1654, found Stuyvesant unconvinced and more certain than ever that new arrivals were detrimental to the colony and the vested business interests of his "most affectionate subjects." But in consonance with the instructions he had received, with unconcealed asperity and preju-

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dice he wrote on September 22, to the Worshipful Directors in Holland about the newcomers: T h e Jews who have arrived would nearly all like to remain here, but learning that they (with their customary usury and deceitful trading with the Christians) were very repugnant to the inferior magistrates, as also to the people having the most affection for you; the Deaconry also fearing that owing to their present indigence they might become a charge in the coming winter, we have, for the benefit of this weak and newly developing place and the land in general, deemed it useful to require them in a friendly way to depart.14 In words still more acrid and tainted with medieval abuse, he further requested the worshipful directors to protect the new colony from what he called "blasphemous" newcomers. He awaited what he hoped would be a concurring reply, though he knew that the Dutch West India Company was eager to encourage development through a policy of the open door to its domains. T h e governor's fears for the coming months were fully substantiated b y the extreme severity of Manhattan's winter of 1654-55. January all the rivers round Nieuw Amsterdam froze. One could walk acoss the East River on the ice where the Whitestone Bridge now spans the waters. In desperate need, the J e w s were compelled to turn to Domine Johannes Megapolensis of the Dutch Reformed Church. T h e good domine had come in August, 1642, from Holland to Albany, then called Rensselaerwyck. He came by free passage to N e w Netherlands with an outfit of 300 guilders (about $ 1 2 4 ) , or five times the amount paid for Manhattan Island sixteen years earlier. His salary was set at 1,100 guilders and thirty schepels of wheat (about twenty-two and a half bushels of the staff of life). T o that were added two firkins of butter annually f o r the first three years. H e remained at Albany under the aegis of the Patroon from 1642 to 1649. From 1649 to 1670 he served in Manhattan. H e should be remembered in friendship not only in his own church, but also by Catholics and J e w s . H e had had occasion to be of service to some Jesuit fathers in his first parish and his saving kindness to Father Jogues, Jesuit priest, has left its mark. 1 5 Later in N i e u w Amsterdam, he did not turn his back on the Jewish poor though he grumbled about it. He gave substantial help to others than his own fellow-Calvinists. His letter of March 18, 1655, to the classis, the governing body of ministers and elders in Amsterdam, indicates gaps in our historical sources and raises questions which still remain unanswered. Writes the domine:

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Last summer some Jews came here from Holland in order to trade. Afterwards, some Jews, poor and healthy, also came here on the same ship with D. Polheijmius. It would have been proper that these had been supported by their own nation, but they have been at our charge, so that we have had to spend several hundred guilders for their support. They came several times to mv house, weeping and bewailing their misery, and when I directed them to the Jewish merchant they said that he would not lend them a single stiver. 10 Jacob bar Simson and Solomon Pietersen were t w o J e w s w h o came to settle before the arrival of the twenty-three. H a d other Jewish traders from Holland come and gone? A s for Jacob bar Simson, he later described himself as a day laborer. Pietersen m a y have been the merchant mentioned b y Megapolensis. T h u s far the v e r y right of settlement b y the J e w s had not been established. Indeed, Director-General Stuyvesant had found local support for his views w h e n at the beginning of March, 1655, the Fiscal van Tienhoven informed the Burgomaster and Schepens the Director General and Supreme Council have resolved that the Jews who came last year from the West Indies and now from Fatherland, must prepare to depart forthwith, and that they shall receive notice thereof, and asked whether Burgomasters and Schepens had anything to object thereto. It was decided No, but that the resolution relating thereto should take its course." T h e J e w s in Amsterdam had been actively interceding w i t h the Dutch W e s t India Company to obtain an official declaration of the right of the J e w s to remain in N e w Holland and enjoy burgher rights, notwithstanding the epistolary remonstrances of Stuyvesant. W i t h broad vision of the facts and with the eloquence of deep earnestness they wrote in January, 1655, T o the Honorable Lords, Directors of the Chartered West India Company, Chamber of the City of Amsterdam. The merchants of the Portuguese Nation residing in this City respectfully remonstrate to your Honors that it has come to their knowledge that your Honors raise obstacles to the giving of permits or passports to the Portuguese Jews to travel and to go to reside in New Netherland, which if persisted in will result to the great disadvantage of the Jewish nation. It also can be of no advantage to the general Company but rather damaging. There are many of the nation who have lost their possessions at Pernambuco and have arrived from there in great poverty, and part of them have been dispersed here and there. So that your petitioners had to expend large sums of money for their necessaries of life, and through lack of opportunity all cannot remain here to live. And as they cannot go to Spain or Portugal because of the Inquisition, a great part of the aforesaid people must in time be obliged to depart for other territories of their High Mightinesses the States-General and their Companies, in order there, through their labor and efforts, to be able to exist under the protec-

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tion of the administrators of your Honorable Directors, observing and obeying your Honors' orders and commands. It is well known to your Honors that the Jewish nation in Brazil have at all times been faithful and have striven to guard and maintain that place, risking for that purpose their possessions and their blood. Yonder land is extensive and spacious. T h e more of loyal people that go to live there, the better it is in regard to the population of the country as in regard to the payment of various excises and taxes which may be imposed there, and in regard to the increase of trade, and also to the importation of all the necessaries that may be sent there. Your Honors should also please consider that many of the Jewish nation are principal shareholders in the Company. They having always striven their best for the Company, and many of their nation have lost immense and great capital in its shares and obligations. T h e Company has by a general resolution consented that those who wish to populate the Colony shall enjoy certain districts of land gratis. W h y should now certain subjects of this State not be allowed to travel thither and live there? T h e French consent that the Portuguese Jews may traffic and live in Martinique, Christopher and other of their territories, whither also some have gone from here, as your Honor? know. T h e English also consent at the present time that the Portuguese and Jewish nation may go from London and settle at Barbados, whither also some have gone. As foreign nations consent that the Jewish nation may go to live and trade in their territories, how can your Honors forbid the same and refuse transportation to this Portuguese nation who reside here and have been settled here well on to about sixty years, many also being born here and confirmed burghers, and this to a land that needs people for its increase? Therefore the petitioners request for the reasons given above (as also others which they omit to avoid prolixity), that your Honors be pleased not to exclude but to grant the Jewish nation passage to and residence in that country; otherwise this would result in a great prejudice to their reputation. Also that by an Apostille and Act the Jewish nation be permitted, together with other inhabitants, to travel, live and traffic there, and with them enjoy liberty on condition of contributing like others, &c. Which doing, &C.1" T h e extant c o p y o f this document preserved b y the Pennsylvania Historical Society is unsigned. T h e original probably bore the signature of the Mahamad, the governing trustees and official spokesmen of the Sephardi community of Amsterdam. F o r their enduring credit let their names be here recorded: J a c o b d'Olivera, Ishac Israel Belmonte, Selomoh Salom, J a c o b del Soto, Joseph Bueno Bivas, Abraham Aboab, and J a c o b Bueno de Mesquita. 1 9 T h i s epistle of Amsterdam J e w r y is in its own right outstanding as a political and social document. It is also a distinguished example o f the time honored Jewish tradition of folk-solidarity expressed through generous assistance, espe-

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cially for "the redemption of captives." T h e reply of the Dutch West India Company to the eloquent petition was an affirmative one. On April 26, 1655, the directors wrote their clear decision to Stuyvesant. T h e y took note of the governor's repugnance to the presence of any dissidents from his faith, and they made special provision to allay the domine's fear of the J e w s burdening the economy of his community b y stating that "the poor among them shall . . . be supported by their own nation." W e w o u l d have liked to effectuate and fulfill y o u r wishes and request that the new territories should no more be allowed to be infected b y people of the J e w i s h nation, f o r w e foresee therefrom the same difficulties which you fear, but after having further weighed and considered the matter, w e observe that this w o u l d be somewhat unreasonable and unfair, especially because of the considerable loss sustained b y this nation, with others, in the raking of Brazil, as also because of the large amount of capital which they still have invested in the shares of this company.

This added argument helped clinch the matter. Therefore, . . . after many deliberations w e have finally decided and resolved to apostille upon a certain petition presented b y said Portuguese J e w s that these people m a y travel and trade to and in N e w Netherland and live and remain there, provided the poor among them shall not become a burden to the Company or to the community, but be supported b y their o w n nation. Y o u will govern yourself accordingly. 2 0

W i t h freedom to live and remain in the goodly land and to travel and trade in it, it was not long before the dynamic Jewish pioneers were in a position to fulfill that proviso of the Dutch Company which was likewise a cardinal principle of the Jewish religion to care for their poor. In the following months, attempts to negate some of these patent rights given to the "Jewish nation" aroused Amsterdam J e w r y to action. On June 1, 1656, they protested to the Company that despite orders Stuyvesant was not granting Jews freedom to exercise their religion in quietness. N o r were they permitted to deal in real estate, or have a Christian employee, or trade freely. Six months later a Jewish petition to the civic authorities of Amsterdam stated that many and various persons and households were disposed to "set out for the colony in the N e w Netherland." An assurance was asked that Jews going there would be given social, commercial, and religious freedom. 2 1 W h e n the Jews arrived in 1654, the years of Stuyvesant's competent, if not ingratiating, administration had had their telling effect. W e are indebted to one Nicasius de Sille for a delightful description of the settlement.

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This country suits me exceedingly well. I shall not try to leave it as long as I live. . . . [It] does a large trade in furs, especially beavers, which are sold to us by the savages by the thousand for Dutch merchandise. All the people here are traders. . . . It goes here in the manner of the Old Testament; wealth consists in oxen and horses to plow with, and in cows, sheep and goats. . . . Children and pigs multiply here rapidly and more than anything else, but there is a lack of women. The rivers are full of fish, good edible fish. . . . The weeds consist mostly of strawberries, catnip and blackberries. . . . In fine, one can live here and forget Patria. Beer is brewed here as good as in Holland, of barley and wheat. . . . No gold or silver circulates here, but beads, which Indians make and call sewant. The women of the neighborhood entertain each other with a pipe and brazier; young and old they all smoke.28

A French Catholic missionary, Father Jogues, the Jesuit who was beholden to Domine Megapolensis for sanctuary from torture by Indians ten years earlier, described the fort at Nieuw Amsterdam as "a commencement of a town." It had a church, a government house, storehouses and barracks. The bastions were crumbling mounds of earth. The soldiery numbered sixty and was charged with the added maintenance of the fort up the Hudson at Albany. The most striking report given by Father Jogues is that the 400 to 500 inhabitants scattered over the island of Manhattan represented various nationalities speaking eighteen different languages. That little babel was a far cry from the primeval estate bought from the poor Indians by Peter Minuit for $24.00 worth of tawdry trinkets. It was already a prototype for a book written two and a half centuries later describing a trip Around the World in Neio York. A first edition of this book could have been written early in the history of the city. Much as the Peter of 1654 loved his Nieuw Amsterdam and though he sought to serve it well within the confines of his own contracted vision, he in nowise sensed the ferment within the embryonic metropolis. He believed that its boundary would forever be set by Wall Street, just as he, the son of a Calvinist minister, devoutly hoped that only good Calvinists would forever determine its fate. It was less than fifty years later, in 1699, that the wall of Wall Street was removed. While awaiting from the directors of the Dutch West India Company their concurrence with his request of the Jews "in a friendly way to depart," he found a pretext which would in his opinion justify an order that "the Jews, who came last year from the West Indies and now from the Fatherland, must

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prepare to depart f o r t h w i t h . " One Abraham de Lucena "had kept his store open during the sermon, and sold b y retail. . . ." E v e r y citizen was expected to attend sermon twice on Sunday. Indians and N e g r o slaves w e r e allowed recreation on that day, except during church hours. T h e n the schout (sheriff) w e n t the rounds of the t o w n to assure quiet and stop the games of the privileged slaves and Indians. Abraham de Lucena had arrived in the early spring of 1655, apparently a recent émigré f r o m Portugal or Spain. T h o u g h he is described as having come f r o m Holland, he hardly understood Dutch. Selling b y retail was not permitted to J e w s , whose residence rights were not y e t established. K e e p i n g a store open during the sermon was allowed to no one. T h e court record f o r M o n d a y , March 1, 1655, reads: Cornelis van Tienhoven, as Sheriff of this City, pltf, v/s Abram de la Sina, a J e w deft. Pltf rendering his demand in writing, says, that he. De la Sina, had kept his store open during the sermon, and sold by retail as proved by affidavit; concluding, therefore, that deft, shall be deprived of his trade, and condemned in a fine of six hundred guilders. T h e charge having been read before deft., who not understanding the same, it was ordered that copy thereof be given deft, to answer it by next Court day. Fiscal Cornelis van Tienhoven informed the Burgomasters and Schepens, the Director General and Supreme Council have resolved, that the Jews, who came last year from the West Indies and now from the Fatherland, must prepare to depart forthwith; and they shall receive notice thereof, and asked whether Burgomasters and Schepens had anything to object thereto. It was decided, N o ; but that the resolution relating thereto should take its course. B e it recorded to the credit of the burgomasters Allard A n t h o n y and Oloff Stevenson van Cortlant, and the schepens, that despite the unequivocal verdict, no action seems to have followed the drastic judgment. 2 3 Grass w a s not g r o w i n g under the feet of the incipient and struggling J e w ish community. In addition to those w h o came and went between Old and N e w Holland on behalf of a brisk transatlantic trade, there were those w h o came to stay. T h e s e greatly strengthened the original settlers. E a r l y in 1655, w e find Joseph d'Acosta among them. H e was a brother of the famous Uriel Acosta. In 1630, he had been president of the Amsterdam Jewish community. H e was also a large shareholder in the Dutch W e s t India C o m p a n y . T h e r e w e r e also Salvador d'Andrade and Jacob Cohen Henriques. T h i s was the J a c o b Cohen Henriques w h o had been a member of the governing board of the congregation in R e c i f e , Brazil, in 1 6 5 1 - 5 2 . 2 4 One of the factors which w o r k e d toward concentrating the community in the city and which discouraged the scattering of Jewish traders was that "all that inhabite up

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Hudson River were forbid to trade over sea," a branch of commerce in which Jewish merchants were preeminent.2® Some six weeks after de Lucena's encounter with the law, w e find another entry of special Jewish interest in the early city records. On April 15, 1655, David de Ferera was registered as leasing one of the 120 houses that comprised the town of Nieuw Amsterdam. Some eight months later, Joseph d'Acosta also leased a house. A week after that, Salvador d'Andrade "rented and inhabited a house . . . knocked down to him at a public sale b y the secretary of the Noble Worships, held on the fourteenth of this month of December." T h e conveyance of these premises was declined " f o r pregnant reasons," namely that Jews had no right to own real estate.28 T h e test case followed closely upon a formal petition of rights likewise rejected by the local authorities. On November 29, 1655, five petitioners addressed themselves: To the Honorable Director General and Council of New Netherlands: With due reverence, Abraham de Lucena, Salvador Dandrada and Jacob Cohen, for themselves and in the name of others of the Jewish nation, residing in this City, show how that under date of the 15th of February, 1655, the Honorable Lords Directors of the Chartered West India Company, Masters and Patrons of this province, gave permission and consent to the petitioners, like the other inhabitants, to travel, reside and trade here, and enjoy the same liberties, as appears by the document here annexed. They therefore respectfully request that your Honorable Worships will not prevent or hinder them herein, but will allow and consent that, pursuant to the consent obtained by them, they may, with other inhabitants of this province, travel and trade on the South River of New Netherland, at Fort Orange and other places situate within the jurisdiction of this Government of New Netherland. Which doing, etc., the undersigned shall remain your Honorable Worships' Humble Servants: This petition was denied " f o r weighty reasons." 27 On March 14, 1656, Abraham de Lucena, Jacob Cohen Henriques, Salvador d'Andrade, Joseph d'Acosta, and David de Ferera put in their remonstrance " f o r themselves, as also in the name of the other Jews residing in this Province." T h e y asked the director-general and council that they be granted equal rights with others in the matter of trading and of acquisition of real estate, claiming that with admission to citizenship these rights were assured to them in the grant received from the Dutch West India Company. Moreover, they were taxed equally with other citizens.

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Therefore your suppliants once more humbly request hereby that y o u r Honors permit them if, like other burghers, they must and shall contribute, to enjoy the same liberty allowed to other burghers, as well in trading to all places within the jurisdiction of this Government as in the purchase of real estate, especially as this has already been consented to and permitted by the Honorable Lords Directors, as can be seen by the aforesaid order show n to y o u r Honors on November 29th. T h e y are willing and ready, with other burghers and inhabitants, to contribute according to their means. T h e city fathers referred to the L o r d s Directors in Amsterdam the question of the right of the J e w s to o w n real estate. 28 O n c e more the liberal directors of the Dutch W e s t India C o m p a n y overruled Stuyvesant. O n J u n e 14, 1656, they extended to the petitioners the right to trade at the South R i v e r (the Delaw a r e ) and at F o r t O r a n g e ( A l b a n y ) . 2 9 W e have here seen and learned with displeasure that your Honors, against our apostille of the 15th of February, 1655, granted to the Jewish or Portuguese nation at their request, have forbidden them to trade at Fort Orange and South River, and also the purchase of real estate, which is allowed them here in this country without any difficulty, and we wish that this had not occurred but that your Honors had obeyed our orders which you must hereafter execute punctually and with more respect. 30 Finally, w h e n the J e w s renewed their demands, in A p r i l , 1 6 5 7 , the burgomasters w e r e told to grant them the right both to trade and to purchase real estate. S o f a r so good. B u t full rights had not yet been granted in 1656, f o r the w o r d then sent f r o m Amsterdam continued: Jews or Portuguese people, however, shall not be permitted to establish themselves as mechanics (which they are not allowed to do in this city), nor allowed to have open retail shops, but they may quietly and peacefully carry on their business as heretofore. T h e n follows another provision calculated to allay Stuyvesant's fears. W i t h regard to worship, they w e r e to . . . exercise in all quietness the religion within their houses, for which end thev must without doubt endeavor to build their houses close together in a convenient place on one or the other side of Nieuw Amsterdam—at their choice—as they have done here. T h i s did not mean a ghetto but rather a recognized " J e w i s h quarter," "at their choice," as there was in Amsterdam, w h e r e R e m b r a n d t f o u n d inspiration f o r m a n y of his pictures. Immigrants, of w h a t e v e r origin they m a y be,

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tend to group together in protective neighborliness. From the beginning w e find J e w s in the little settlement more or less in the district where eventually their synagogue was built. In the "Castello plan" of the city in 1660, the house of Asser L e v y is situated where Mill Lane met Stone Street, just around the corner f r o m where the synagogue was eventually built on Mill Street. A t the northern end of Mill Street (Slyck Steegh) was the house of R u t g e r Jacobsen that was occupied by Abraham de Lucena. But this was assuredly no ghetto. N e x t door to de Lucena on Mill Street lived the Calvinist domine, Johannes Megapolensis, and next to him was the home of Jan Reyndersen. A f t e r one more house, the occupant of which has not been identified, came that of Joost Goderus, then the house built b y the Dutch W e s t India Company to House its N e g r o slaves, and the next, the last house on Mill Street, was the tavern run b y the W a l l o o n Adriaen Vincent. 3 1 Nevertheless, that street of the synagogue later became popularly k n o w n as " J e w s ' A l l e y . " L i f e in N i e u w Amsterdam bore the marks of frontier pioneering. Its greatest danger came f r o m the Indians around Manhattan. E a r l y in 1655, houses were burned b y them, about twenty settlers were killed on Staten Island alone, others were taken into captivity. In the Clarendon papers w e read that Indians about Manahatans fell uppon the Dutch, & in their first furie killed all they could light uppon, burning their howses destroying their Cattle, but uppon better considerations spared the lives of such as they tooke 8c put them to ransome . . . the bowers or farmers generallie left their habitations, & betooke themselves to their Cittie N e w Amsterdam, where the affrighted burgers or Citizens themselves were as readie to gett aborde such ships as were then in the harbour, with what goods they coulde and to bid an ultimum vale to their N e w Netherlands. O n August 28, 1655, the officers of the city's defense "train bands" asked G o v e r n o r Stuyvesant whether the J e w s of the town should "train and mount guard with the citizens' bands." Stuyvesant and the council ruled that since the J e w s w e r e "not admitted or counted among the citizens f o r such purposes in Amsterdam or any other city in Holland," f o r this and f o r other reasons they would be exempted from such service. T h i s the Jewish pioneers refused to accept. T h e y would not agree to being exempted f r o m guarding their home town against attack, though this was an onerous and certainly a dangerous duty. In Brazil they had been outstanding f o r the fervor with which they had defended the country against the attackers, as well as f o r generosity in giving of their means more than propor-

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tionately f o r the difficult defense operations. N o w having w o n the

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to settle and freedom to w o r k in their new home, they were cavalierly told to pay a monthly tax of sixty-five stivers in lieu of giving military service. This was a paltry amount f o r being freed f r o m the physically onerous duties and the dangers of standing guard. But the J e w s would not accept this easy dispensation. T h e y found a w a y of defeating the opinionated governor, and thereby once more successfully challenged prejudice and autocracy, and gained one more victory f o r equality and democracy. T w o men made a test case of this new attempt at discrimination against their group. T h e y boldly requested the director-general and council to let them "keep guard with other burghers or be free f r o m the tax." These t w o men were J a c o b bar Simson and Asser L e v y . Jacob bar Simson might have been considered specially privileged in his rights as, it will be remembered, he came from Holland with a passport. Asser L e v y , as events soon proved, was a natural leader. But at the time both were simple workmen. W e read that on N o v e m b e r 5, 1655, Jacob Barsimson and Asser L e v y request to be permitted to keep guard with other burghers, or be free from the tax which others of their nation pay, as they must earn their living by manual labor. After a vote, the answer was given: Director General and Council persist in the resolution passed, yet as the petitioners are of opinion that the result of this will be injurious to them, consent is hereby given to them to depart whenever and whither it pleases them.32 T h a t subtle invitation to depart contrasted sharply with a general order adopted a month earlier designed to hold people within the colony in the face of the pioneer hardships which had caused not a f e w to depart. T h a t order ruled that no one could leave the colony thereafter without permission of the director-general and the council. On September 15 of that year, 1655, some Indians had assaulted Manhattan " w i t h murder, robbery and fire." T h e public defense works w h i c h had been set up in 1653 along the line of W a l l Street running east and west across the northern boundary of the town, had been reinforced in 1654. N o w once more the stockade fence had to be strengthened and completed with planks five or six feet in length. E m e r g e n c y funds were raised f o r paying f o r the completion of the town's defenses. Peter Stuyvesant and five captains of trading vessels were taxed 150 guilders each. T h e next highest assessment of 100 guilders was set on thirteen other citizens of whom no less than five w e r e the

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newly arrived Jews Abraham de Lucena, Joseph d'Acosta, Salvador d'Andrade, Jacob Cohen Henriques, and David de Ferera.33 For security reasons the city council simultaneously ordered that no one would be permitted to go "inland" without a pass, and when such permission was granted, no member of the party was to be permitted to become separated from his associates. In these conditions and with the need for drawing on as many residents as possible for protecting the little town against the Indians, we later find Asser Levy keeping tocht en ivacht (watch and ward) together with the Christian residents of the city. His services having been accepted, Asser Levy felt strengthened in his demand for full citizenship rights. On April 11, 1657, Asser L e v y , a J e w , appears in Court; requests to be admitted a Burgher; claims that such ought not be refused him as he keeps watch and ward like other Burghers; showing a Burgher certificate from the City of Amsterdam that the J e w is Burgher there. Which being deliberated on it is decreed as before, that it cannot be allowed, and he shall apply to the Director General and Council. 34

Nine days later, a committee of Jews of the town presented a petition to "the Noble Worships the Director General and Council of New Netherland" in which they expressed their great surprise that Asser Levy's petition to be recognized as a citizen had been declined and refused. . . . and whereas the Worshipful Lords consented under date of February 15, 1655, at the request of our Nation, that we should enjoy here the same freedom as other inhabitants of N e w Netherland enjoy . . . further that our Nation enjoys in the City of Amsterdam in Holland the Burgher right . . . also that our Nation as long as they have been here, have, with others, borne and paid, and still bear, all Burgher burdens: W e therefore, reverently request your Noble Worships to please not exclude nor shut us out from the Burgher right, but to notify the Noble Burgomasters that they should permit us, like other Burghers, to enjoy the Burgher right.

In the end, Stuyvesant and the council reluctantly felt compelled to declare that the "Burgomasters of this City are hereby authorized and at the same time charged to admit the petitioners herein and their Nation to the Burghership in due form." 35 It was fitting indeed when in 1955 two blocks of Avenue A in Manhattan were renamed Asser Levy Place. After this victory for fundamental rights, on June 10, 1656, Peter Stuyvesant and the council wrote to the authorities in Amsterdam that the Jews in Nieuw Amsterdam had several times unsuccessfully sought the right of freedom on a par with other residents, which would be "abominable." The Jews were still hampered by certain economic discriminations. A letter from the

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directors of the Company dated June 14, 1656, had clearly stated that though the J e w s of the town should be given the right of trade and of owning property, they were not free to be mechanics in Nieuw Amsterdam in any handicraft which was not open to them in Amsterdam. This letter also stated that they were not permitted to open retail shops, as Abraham de Lucena had painfully learned a year and a quarter earlier. Yet in point of fact, J e w s of the town were earning their living as storekeepers. 36 Early in 1657, in an attempt to curb this practice, Peter Stuyvesant and the council published the ruling that the right to set up and keep open store could be granted only after the common or small burgher right had been obtained. 37 On April 1 1 , Jacob Cohen Henriques asked to be given permission like other bakers to bake and sell bread within the city, but within closed doors. H e was reminded that this was contrary to the orders of the directors of the Company unless he had obtained burgher right. It is Asser L e v y again who appears and also asks for this right. He also is refused. But on October 15 and 29, 1660, Asser L e v y and Moses de Lucena became sworn butchers and were permitted to take an oath which differed from that taken by other sworn butchers because they were exempted from killing hogs. 38 Of the Four Freedoms, three had been secured. Freedom of speech with the right of assembly and petition was operative in principle f o r all; in 1653, this had transformed N i e u w Amsterdam into a municipality. Freedom from want, and the right to work, had been secured by the Jewish pioneers initially in 1655 and fully by 1660. Freedom from fear and the right to self-defense became theirs in 1656. There was another freedom also that was theirs—social freedom. T h e y could live freely where they wished, and join with their fellow citizens of other faiths in equal payment of taxes, in fun and frolic, and in humanly equalitarian neighborliness. T h e r e was still a great freedom to be achieved, one which history has proved to be perhaps the hardest to win—religious liberty. T h i s took far more than the first two years of Jewish settlement to achieve. B y the spring of 1655, there was in the town more than the nucleus of ten men required for a functioning Jewish congregation. W e know Jacob bar Simson, Solomon Pietersen, Abraham Israel, David Israel, iMoses Ambrosius, Asser L e v y , Joseph d'Acosta, Salvador d'Andrade, Jacob Cohen Henriques, Abraham de Lucena, David de Ferera, Isaac Israel, and Benjamin Cardozo. In the letter which Domine Megapolensis wrote on March 18, 1655, to the classis in Amsterdam, he

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expressed his alarm at the rumor that Jews in Nieuw Amsterdam might want to come together and "build here their synagogue." Last summer some Jews came here from Holland, in order to trade. Afterwards, some Jews, poor and healthy, also came here on the same ship with D: Polheijmius . . . Now again in the spring some have come from Holland, and report that a great many of that lot would yet follow and then build here their synagogue.3* A year later, on May 2 6, 1656, the classis in Amsterdam took up this rumor when they wrote W e are informed that even the Jews have made request of the Honorable Governor and have also attempted in that country to erect a synagogue.40 But that consummation of religious freedom was not yet to be. In a letter dated March 13, 1656, the directors of the Dutch West India Company had written that Het Consent aende Jooden gegeven orrrme naer Nieundederlandt to mogen vertrecken ende aldaer to genieten deselve vrijicheyt dewelcke haer hier te lande is vergunt, is geextendeert geiveest ten opsichte van burgerlycke ende politicque Vrij Heden, sonder dat de voorsz Jooden daeruyt licentie sullen mogen nemen omme haeren Godsdienst in synagogen ofte vergaderingen te exerceren ende te pleegen; diensvolgens soo lange Ue geen versoeck voorcomt omme tot de voorsz vrije exercitie van religie geadmitteert to worden, is de consideratie develcke diesivegen gemoveert wordt, te praematuijr, ende soo ivanneer iets voortgebracht wort, sullen Ue vel doen ende tselve alleen herwaerts adviseren, omme daerop de noodige orders te verwachten.*1 The consent given to the Jews to go to New Netherland and there to enjoy the same liberty that is granted them in this country was extended with respect to civil and political liberties, without the said Jews becoming thereby entitled to a license to exercise and carry on their religion in synagogues or gatherings. So long, therefore, as no request is presented to you to allow such a free exercise of religion, any consideration relative thereto is too premature, and when later something shall be presented about it you will be doing well to refer the matter to us in order to await thereon the necessary orders. In reply to this, Governor Stuyvesant wrote on June 10, 1656, Considering the Jewish nation with regard to trade, they are not hindered, but trade with the same privilege and freedom as other inhabitants. Also, they have many times requested of us the free and public exercise of their abominable religion, but this cannot yet be accorded to them. What they may be able to obtain from your Honors time will tell.42 A t the very same time, on June 14, 1656, the directors of the Company wrote that the Jews were to observe their religion and offer up their prayers

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"in all quietness within their houses" (en haren Godsdienst binnen haer heysen in aller stillicheijt v'mogen te plegen). 43 It should be recognized that this limitation on freedom of worship was not directed against Jews alone. On October 30, 1655, Peter Stuyvesant and the city council had written to the directors in Amsterdam: " T o give liberty to the Jews will be very detrimental there. . . . Giving them liberty, we cannot refuse the Lutherans and Papists." 44 This oft-quoted phrase foreshadowed indeed the march of events in the religious history of the city. Though the domine of the parish echoed the governor's fears that the Jews who came to settle within the already variegated population would create still greater confusion, what he called confusion was actually a basic condition of freedom. The handful of Jews on Manhattan Island faced a blank wall of prejudice that separated seventeenth-century society and liberty of conscience. That wall did not tumble at the mere request made "many times" by the Jews for "the free and public exercise" of their religion. But their presence and their determined stand proved to be an entering wedge that reenforced the efforts of Christian denominations also for "the free and public exercise" of their religion. Freedom came only haltingly. Lutherans beginning in 1653, Jews beginning in 1654, Quakers from 1657, and others later in that century and in the next who dangerously followed their faith, owe one another something of the freedom which all today enjoy. The efforts first under Peter Stuyvesant and later under British governors to counteract the narrow statutes that were a drag-over from the Old World, constituted milestones of freedom in the N e w . In perspective, Stuyvesant's stand against the Jews was part of a general intolerance against any religious group which differed from the dominant church. In Nieuw Amsterdam the Dutch Reformed Church was the officially recognized State church. The earliest Dutch settlers were, in large part, men whose loyalty to their church had been steeled through the religious war between Holland and Spain. The colony's governor, who went far beyond most of his fellow colonists in these matters, could see no reason for the expansion of public worship beyond the walls of his own church. Domine Megapolensis shared his views. He wrote to the classis in Amsterdam depicting religious pluralism in the settlement. For we have here Papists, Mennonites and Lutherans among the Dutch; also many Puritans or Independents, and many atheists and various servants of Baal among

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