Jacob Barsimson

Jacob Barsimson (Hebrew: יעקב ברסימסון) was one of the earliest Jewish settlers at New Amsterdam (New York City), and the earliest identified Jewish settler within the present limits of the state of New York.[1][2] He was an Ashkenazi Jew of Central European background.[3][4][5]

Barsimson had been sent out by the Jewish leaders of Amsterdam, Dutch Republic to determine the possibilities of an extensive Jewish immigration to New Amsterdam. With the fall of Dutch Brazil, it was imperative for Jews planning to leave Europe to find other new homes.

He arrived at that port on the ship Peartree (or de Pereboom) on August 22, 1654, having left the Netherlands on July 8.[1][6] Barsimson used a passport issued to him by the Dutch West India Company.[7] Another Jew named Jacob Aboaf also left the Netherlands on the ship, but departed at England.[6] Barsimson was succeeded by a party of 23 Jews, who arrived at New Amsterdam in September from Brazil.[8][9][2] They established Congregation Shearith Israel, the first Jewish synagogue in what would become the United States.[2] Most of these Jewish settlers were Sephardim.[10]

  1. ^ a b Sandler, Philip (January 1955). "Earliest Jewish Settlers in New York (To The Tercentennary of Jewish Settlement in America)". New York History. 36 (1). Fenimore Art Museum: 39–50. ISSN 0146-437X. JSTOR 23154364.
  2. ^ a b c Kroessler, Jeffrey A. (2002). "1650–1699". New York, Year by Year. New York University Press. pp. 17–32. doi:10.18574/nyu/9780814763933.003.0007. ISBN 9780814763933.
  3. ^ Bloch, Joshua (1950). Grinstein, Hyman B. (ed.). "Review: The Jewish Community of New York". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 40 (3). University of Pennsylvania Press: 317–319. doi:10.2307/1452857. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1452857.
  4. ^ Sachar, Howard Morley (1993). "A Foothold in the Early Americas". A History of the Jews in America. Vintage Books. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-679-74530-3.
  5. ^ Kagan, Richard L.; Morgan, Philip D. (2009). Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500–1800. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-8018-9035-2.
  6. ^ a b Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society: Number 18. Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. Vol. 18. American Jewish Historical Society. 1909. p. 3.
  7. ^ Daniels, Doris Groshen (March 1977). "Colonial Jewry: Religion, Domestic and Social Relations". American Jewish Historical Quarterly. 66 (3). American Jewish Historical Society: 375–400. ISSN 0002-9068. JSTOR 23880374.
  8. ^ Bensadoun, Daniel (August 12, 2010). "This week in history". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  9. ^ Oppenheim, Samuel (1925). "More About Jacob Barsimson, The First Jewish Settler in New York". Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (29). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 39–52. ISSN 0146-5511. JSTOR 43059441.
  10. ^ Weisberger, Bernard A. (2015). The American Heritage History of the American People. New Word City. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-61230-900-2.