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The Beginning
Joachim Gaunse (Ganz) lands on Roanoke Island; a year later he departs -
spain
American Jewish history commenced in 1492 with the expulsion of Jews from Spain. This action set off a period of intense Jewish migration. -
Holland
Holland captures Pernambuco, Brazil from the Portuguese and invites Jewish settlement. A significant Jewish community develops in Recife -
Expellion
Portugal recaptures Brazil and expels Jews and Protestants. While most Jews return to Holland, a boatload of twenty-three Jews sails into New Amsterdam -
Winning
Jews win the right to settle in New Amsterdam and establish a Jewish community. -
Citizens
The British Plantation Act offers Jews a limited form of citizenship. -
Education
New York Jewry has an all-day school -
Jews
New York State emancipates Jews -
19th century
Jewish orphanage set up in Charleston, South Carolina in 1801, and the first Jewish school, Polonies Talmud Torah, established in New York in 1806. In 1843, the first national secular Jewish organization in the United States, the B'nai B'rith was established. -
small
1840, Jews constituted a tiny, but nonetheless stable, middle-class minority of about 15,000 out of the 17 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census. -
Gold Rush
Following the California Gold Rush of 1849, German Jews established themselves on the West Coast, with important settlements in Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and especially San Francisco, which became the second-largest Jewish city in the nation. -
Equality
New Hampshire is the last state to offer Jews political equality. -
russian persecution
it was not until the pogroms, anti-Jewish uprisings in Russia, of the early 1880s, that the immigration assumed extraordinary proportions. From Russia alone the emigration rose from 4,100 in the decade 1871-80 to 20,700 in the decade 1881-90.. -
immigration quotas
By 1924, two million Jews had arrived from Eastern Europe. Growing anti-immigration feelings in the United States at this time, resulted in the National Origins Quota of 1924 which severely restricted immigration from many regions including Eastern Europe. The Jewish community took the lead in opposing immigration restrictions, which remained in effect until 1965. -
holocaust
During the Holocaust, less than 30,000 Jews a year reached the United States, and some were turned away due to immigration policies. The US did not change its immigration policies until1948.