The Early Jews of America

Did you know who were the earliest Jews in America?” Most people think Jewish history in

the U.S. started in the 1900s… but the real story begins over 350 years earlier.

In 1654, a group of 23 Sephardic Jewish refugees escaped the brutal Portuguese Inquisition

in Brazil. They arrived in New Amsterdam—the city we now call New York—and formed

the first Jewish community in North America. They later built Shearith Israel,

America’s oldest synagogue. But the story goes even deeper… In 1492,

Luis de Torres, a Spanish Jewish interpreter sailing with Christopher Columbus,

became one of the first documented Jews to set foot in the New World. From secret Jews