TIIK .lEWISII
501
izersof Central anil South Ainerica, were the factors in (Iptcniiining tlif wirly iiiiniigration of Jews to AiMiricii, wliitli was coniiioscil exclusively of Si)anish 1111(1 Fortujiuise exiles, wlio settled Spanish in all the islaii<ls to which ships and Portu- from these countries went. This iniguese niiKnilion began with the first settlenienl of the American continent, ami Exiles, was almost exclusively contineil to Central anil South America; although the settlers who arrivcil at Savannah, Oa.. in lT;i;! went direct from Lisbon, making liut the briefest slay in Kiigland. As the inuuigratiou gradually spread in Snulh America small nund)ers of .settlers made their way from Brazil, Ciu-sicao, or the West India Islands to North America, and thence the lirst Jewish settlements in what is now the United States were <lerivud.
To Spain and Portugal Holland succeeded as an exploring mition in the early part of the seventeenth century. With the ouilm-ak of the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain in loliT there developed, by way of protest against the bigotry of the S|)aniards, the broadest toleration then known in Kuro|)e. I!y the middle of the ci'Uturv, when Holland had extorted recognition of her independence even from Spain, when she was in league with Kngland and Sweden and was at the height of her jiower, many Jews of wealth,
—
largely learinng. and intlnence though not exclusively Spanish i-xiles had settled in her dominions; and these were deeply inlerested in the Dutch West India Company, which deteruuned the attitude of the government toward the
—
in their new dominions. The moreover, recognizing the favorable attitude of the Holland government toward their coreligionists, powerfully aided the Dutch in their successful attack upon lirazil in Uiif. The Dutch dominiiin lasteil until ni.")4 and dining the intervening period many Duieh Jewscame to Brazil and other setllemciils, thus reinforcing the original miOwing to the gnition from Spain and Portugal.
settlement of
Jews
Jews
in Brazil,
reconi|Uest of Brazil and the siibseiiuent tliglit of the Jews, these Spanish. Portuguese, and Dutch Jews foiincl their way to the West India Islands and to North Atneriea. Jews began to go to New Amsterdam from Holland jirobably as early as Ki.VJ. These, then, conslitiile thi' main source whence the Sephardic Jewish .selllers were derived, although stragglers came from France, from DutchKnglanil, and even from the Orient, Sephardic at an early jieriod. It sliouhl be stated, however, that not all of the Dutch Jews. Jews were of Sephardic stock. Pro portionate to the extent of Kriglish colonization in the West India Islands surprisingly few Jews went from Kngland to the .Xmerieau colonies or the West Some uiidoiililedly did go to Jamaica India Islands. and other islands, aS well as to the contiiu'nt, even u|) to the begimiing of the jircsent century; and they were pioneers in several states, but rather as This is individuals than in anv coiisidi-rable bodies. no doubt due to the fact that at the perioil of the earliest settlement of .Xjuerir-a there were few if any Jews in Knglaml; and later ')n they were loo well satislied with the coudiliniis there lo seek a home elsewhere, although a small niimberdiil go to Canada. Jews of the Ashkenazic rite went Ashkeearly lo America, bul only as stragnazic Jews, glers; an occasional one, to .Mexico; and a fiw. from Holland, to New Amsterdam. From ITIiil forward (iermany wasa theater of war and petty perseeiilions ami •<( the drafting of able-bodied men inio ihe armies, either for local
ENCYCLOPEDIA
America
purposes or to be sold as mercenaries to foreign l)owers. As the result of a desire to escape these hardships there ensued a .steady inunigration of Germans to New York, to Georgia, and, above all. to Pemisylvania. where Germans were most hospitably received. In ll'ii) the German settlers in Pennsylvania alone were estimated at 90,001) out of a total population of 270.000; and among this enormous number there was quite a considerable body of Jews.
A les.ser same
number had
settled in
New York within
the
period.
The first [larlition of Poland in 17T3, and the unsettlemeul of affairs consequent thereupon, brought the lirst contingent of Polish Jews (through Germany) to America; and this nuinlier gradually grew with the successive disasters to Poland and the incorporation of the territory and people with Russia, Germany, and Austria. The Napoleonic wars, the general misery which followed in Germany, the desire to avoid military conscription, the eager wish to partake of the advantages olfered in the new country, all impelled a steady stream of German-Jewish immigration to the L'nited States beGerman- ginning about 1830, reaching its height Jewish Im- between 184.Sand 18.^0. and continuing migration, until 1870, when it ceased to be a considerable factor. This immigration was principally from South Germany, from the Rhine provinces, and more especially from Bavaria. The immigrants were mostly from small towns; rarely from the larger cities or from North Germany, which contained well-organized Jewish communilies. The most momentous, and at the same time the most easily recognized wave of immigration was that from Russia, which practically began in 1882. Restrictive measures against the Jews had been for a long lime enforced in the empire. The Jews were regarded as a legacy from Poland, ami were practically coiilined to that region; bul many had lu .i^radually .sellled in other parts of the empire. .May, 1882, a scries of the most proscriptive laws ever jias-sed against Jews in any country was promulgated. These laws practically forbade residence outside of a narrow pale of settlement, restricted higher and secondary education of Jews, mercantile and inofessional inirsuils, anil left open no course small portion of this but emigration en bloc. emigration was directed by Baron de Hirscli to the Argentine Republic, and some to Canada; but the great bulk, by a natural imptilse. came to the l'nited In the past year (1900) it would ajipear Slates. from available tigures that no less Russian than 000,000 Russian-Galieian Jews migrated to the Culled Slales; and Jews. within Ihe year Ihe proscriptive laws of Rumania have started a tide whose force none can foresee. These various movemeuls have given .Vmerica Ihe third largest Jewish poindation in the world, and will probably in the fuiiire remove the center of .lewi.sh aclivily to the United States. Education: In the very earliest years of the eslalilishment of the first .Jewish congregation in New York lily Ihire was attached lo the synagogue a school in which ordinary, as wi'U as Hebrew, bnuuhes Were taughl. It was one of the earliest Religious education general schools in .Vmerica. and instruction in Hebrew were established in connection with most of the early synagogues or were given privately; while for orilinary .secular education the Jews resorted to the .schools and colleges in existence, although these were largely under the patronage of one or another s<'ct of the Christian There was a Jewish matriculate at the iliureh. Universily of Pennsylvania, for instance, as early
A
