Throughout Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) and continuing through July 4th, the Conference of Presidents will be sending out information focused on a specific time period in American history celebrating the contributions of American Jews and featuring action items and resources from partner organizations.
Each week this page will be updated with highlights from the newsletter, as well as a link to the full newsletter with additional information, resources and action items.
Pre-Revolutionary Period, Before 1776
Joachim Gans is considered the first practicing Jew to step foot in North America. Born in Prague in the 16th century, Gans became an expert in mining and metallurgy. In 1585, Gans joined a British expedition to the colony of Roanoke. At Roanoke, Gans helped establish a scientific workshop where he studied the potential for mining precious medals in the New World. Given that England had banned Jews in 1290, Gans was forced to hide his Judaism throughout his time in England and Roanoke. In 1589, after he had returned to England, suspicions arose around his faith. When asked if he denied “Jesus to be the Son of God?”, Gans replied, “What needeth the almighty God to have a son? Is he not almighty?” Gans was placed on trial for Blasphemy and, while there is no record of the trial’s results, it’s believed he was exiled from England back to mainland Europe. In 2019, a historical marker was erected in North Carolina to recognize Gans’ contributions to American history. It reads, “Joachim Gans. Scientist; Jewish native of Prague. Led metallurgy experiments, 1585-86, at the first Roanoke colony near here. Part of Lane’s English expedition.”
Asser Levy was an early Jewish settler in New York, then New Amsterdam. An Ashkenazi Jew from Poland, he arrived in the Dutch colony in 1654. Levy and all of early New York’s Jewish inhabitants faced intense antisemitism from Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who levied additional taxes on them, banned them from joining the city’s militia, and prevented them from becoming official citizens of New Amsterdam. Levy was instrumental in combatting this antisemitism and winning rights and freedoms for all Jewish New Yorkers. He led the campaign to allow Jews to serve in the city militia and was the first Jew to request citizenship in 1657. He inspired others to join him in his fight, and they were able to secure both the right to join the militia and citizenship. Levy would go on to have a wide ranging and successful business career including as a butcher, trader, and land speculator. While many early Jewish settlers returned to Europe, Levy stayed and died in New York in 1682.
The First Jewish Community in New York In September, 1654, 23 Jews arrived in New Amsterdam, on a ship coming from Brazil. There had already been Jewish merchants who had passed through the Dutch colony, including Asser Levy, but no attempt to permanently settle. These 23 new arrivals included the first Jewish women and children to step foot in New York and are considered the first ever Jewish community in North America. A Sefer Torah was brought from Amsterdam in 1655, land for a cemetery was granted in 1656, and the community began regularly conducting worship. While many of the original members returned to Europe, the community they founded became Congregation Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in North America. in 1730, they dedicated the Mill Street Synagogue (pictured), the first building designed and built to be a synagogue in North America. Now known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and located on New York’s Upper West Side, the congregation still exists today!
Bilhah Abigail Levy Franks Abigail Franks serves as an early example of American Jews involving themselves in secular American society while maintaining their proud Jewish lives. Franks was born in England, but spent most of her life in New York City, where she was active in Congregation Shearith Israel as well as in the secular society of her Christian neighbors. Franks’ letters to her son, Naphtali, who had returned to England, provide an important window into early American Jewish life. Throughout the letters, Franks detailed her fierce commitment to leading an observant Jewish life and encouragement for her son to remain committed while also being open about her struggles within the Shearith Israel community and desire for reform within the American Jewish community.
Gershom Mendes Seixas is considered the first American-born Jewish spiritual leader. Seixas was of mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazi descent. His father, Isaac Mendes Seixas was a Portuguese Converso who fled to New York to be able to practice Judaism openly. It was there he met Gershom’s mother, the Ashkenazi Jew Rachel Levy. In 1768, Seixas was named the Hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel at just 23 years old. While not a Rabbi, Seixas served as the community’s primary spiritual leader, offering religious guidance, supervising Kashrut, performing weddings and funerals, and working to maintain his congregants’ connection to Judaism in New York’s secular society. During the Revolutionary War, Sexias fled New York for Philadelphia where he helped establish and lead Congregation Mikveh Israel, the city’s first permanent synagogue. After the War, he returned to New York and resumed his role at Shearith Israel.
Luis Moses Gomez was a Sephardic Jewish merchant in colonial America. Gomez settled in New York in 1703 and became a successful trader and landowner. The house he built in the Hudson Valley, now known as the Gomez Mill House, is the oldest surviving Jewish residence in North America. In 1705, Gomez secured an Act of Denization from Queen Anne of England, granting him rights to own property and conduct business despite legal restrictions on Jews. A committed Jewish leader, he led the drive to fund the construction of Congregation Shearith Israel’s Mill Street Synagogue and served as a benefactor of the congregation.