![A portion of a 1917 poster, "Food Will Win the War," published by the United States Food Administration, which appeals in Yiddish to the patriotic spirit and gratitude of the new arrivals to America](images/haven_1.jpg)
A portion of a 1917 poster, "Food Will Win the War," published by the United States Food Administration, which appeals in Yiddish to the patriotic spirit and gratitude of the new arrivals to America
In 1654, after Portugal recaptured Brazil and expelled its Jewish settlers, a group of 23 Jewish refugees arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York City) seeking a safe haven and ultimately made a home for themselves and their descendants in the New World.
The Library of Congress celebrates this historic event with a new exhibition, "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America," which is on view in the Northwest Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building through Dec. 18.
The Library's exhibition is one of the commemorative activities associated with the congressionally recognized Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History. The members of the commission are the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the American Jewish Historical Society and the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
Commission members are lenders to this exhibition and to other commemorative exhibitions in Cincinnati, New York and Los Angeles. Funding for the Library's exhibition, a companion volume and a series of public programs has been made possible by a generous grant from the Abby and Emily Rapoport Trust Fund in the Library of Congress, a fund established by Bernard and Audre Rapoport of Waco, Texas, in honor of their granddaughters to support the Judaic programs of the Library.
![In his letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation in 1790, President George Washington made clear that America was a government that "to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance."](images/haven_2.jpg)
In his letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation in 1790, President George Washington made clear that America was a government that "to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance."
Three hundred fifty years ago 23 Jews fled Recife, Brazil, and sought safe haven in a new land. It is to this singular event that today's American Jewish community traces its beginnings. From those beginnings through the present day, Jewish life in America has presented both opportunities and challenges. The Library of Congress is exploring the relationship between America and its Jewish community in "From Haven to Home," an exhibition featuring more than 200 treasures of American Judaica from its collections and important loans from other cultural institutions.
"The Library's collections, which currently number nearly 129 million items, are rich in materials that document the history of America's Jewish community," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "Included are letters from American presidents—Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, among others—to prominent American Jews of their day, comprehensive collections of printed books and newspapers and materials in multiple formats … by and about America's Jews. Many of these materials testify to the deeply sympathetic and intensely creative relationship between America and its Jewish community."
![Library curator Michael Grunberger introduces the "Haven to Home" exhibition to the press.](images/haven_3.jpg)
Library curator Michael Grunberger introduces the "Haven to Home" exhibition to the press.
The Library's commemorative exhibition examines the Jewish experience in America through the prisms of "Haven" and "Home." The Haven section opens with a selection of pivotal documents expressing the ideals of freedom that have come to represent the promise of America. This section also explores the formative experiences of Jewish immigrants as they struggled to become American.
The Home section focuses on the opportunities and challenges inherent in a free society and the uniquely American Jewish religious movements, institutions and associations created in response. In telling the story of diverse groups of Jewish immigrants who made the United States their home, the exhibition examines the intertwined themes, and sometimes conflicting aims, of accommodation, assertion, adaptation and acculturation that have characterized the American Jewish experience from its beginnings in 1654 to today.
Haven
![Two imporant volumes in the life of early Jewish America: at left, printed by Stephen Daye in 1640, the "Bay Psalm Book" (1640) is the first book printed in the English settlements of America and includes the Hebrew words for psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. At right, a page from the first complete Hebrew Bible in America, published in Philadelphia in 1814 by Thomas Dobson, using text prepared by Jonathan (Jonas) Horwitz.](images/haven_4.jpg)
Two imporant volumes in the life of early Jewish America: at left, printed by Stephen Daye in 1640, the "Bay Psalm Book" (1640) is the first book printed in the English settlements of America and includes the Hebrew words for psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. At right, a page from the first complete Hebrew Bible in America, published in Philadelphia in 1814 by Thomas Dobson, using text prepared by Jonathan (Jonas) Horwitz.
From the time of its discovery, America has been a haven for Europe's oppressed and persecuted. In 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World, the Spanish Inquisition reached its apogee. Spain expelled its Jews, and, five years later, Portugal followed suit. The remnants of Iberian Jewry found refuge in the cities and towns of Europe, North Africa and the Near East, and, in the first half of the 17th century, some of their descendants established communities in Dutch-ruled Brazil.
References to Columbus' voyages and to his "discoveries" are recorded in a number of early Hebrew printed books as well as in other works by Jews related to navigation and exploration, which can be found in the exhibition. For Jews forced to practice their faith in secret, the New World offered the prospect of practicing Judaism in the open. Other Jews saw in the newly discovered lands possibilities for economic opportunity and adventure, while some, like 16th century scholar and geographer Abraham Farissol, may have seen the discovery of the New World as a harbinger of the messianic era.
In 1654 Brazil passed from Dutch to Portuguese rule, and Jewish settlers were expelled. Most returned to Holland or moved to Protestant-ruled colonies in the Caribbean. A group of 23 Jewish refugees, including women and children, arrived in New Amsterdam hoping to build a new home for themselves. In the years that followed, the growing Jewish community pressed the authorities to extend to them rights offered to other settlers, including the right to trade and travel, to stand guard, to own property, to establish a cemetery, to erect a house of worship and to participate fully in the political process.
![Emma Lazarus, author of "The New Colossus," which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, in an engraving from a book of her poetry](images/haven_5.jpg)
Emma Lazarus, author of "The New Colossus," which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, in an engraving from a book of her poetry
For Jews, the promise of America was deeply rooted in its commitment to religious freedom. "There is a fundamental difference between religious tolerance and religious freedom, or religious pluralism," said Michael Grunberger, curator of the exhibition and head of the Library's Hebraic Section. Grunberger pointed out that the correspondence in 1790 between Moses Seixas, on behalf of Newport's Hebrew Congregation, and George Washington—on display in this section of the exhibition—in which Washington wrote that the United States gives "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance," affirmed the new nation's commitment to the right of Jews, as well as other Americans, to practice any religion they chose.
Another item in the exhibition, an 1818 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mordecai Manuel Noah, indicates that the goal had not yet been reached. Jefferson wrote that "more remains to be done, for altho' we are free by law, we are not so in practice."
In 1776 Maryland adopted a state constitution requiring that holders of public office declare their faith in the Christian religion. State legislators amended the constitution in 1826 to eliminate this requirement. Speaking in support of the amendment, which became known as the "Jew Bill," were H.M. Brackenridge, in 1818, and William G.D. Worthington, in 1824, whose speeches, from the Library's general collections, are included in the exhibition.
![A Statue of Liberty Hanukkah menorah designed by Manfred Anson in 1985. At the base of each statue is engraved a milestone in the struggle for Jewish freedom, from "Exodus from Egypt" at far right to "Israel 1948" at far left.](images/haven_6.jpg)
A Statue of Liberty Hanukkah menorah designed by Manfred Anson in 1985. At the base of each statue is engraved a milestone in the struggle for Jewish freedom, from "Exodus from Egypt" at far right to "Israel 1948" at far left.
Among the Library's other treasures on display are the "Bay Psalm Book," the first book printed in what is today the United States, in 1640, which contains the Hebrew words for psalms and hymns; the first Hebrew grammar published in America (1735) for use in a required course at Harvard (the grammar's author, Judah Monis, was permitted to join the faculty once he converted to Christianity); the first Hebrew Bible printed in America (1814); and the first published work (1833) by an American Jewish woman, Penina Moise, a prolific author of poems and hymns.
In the more than 200 years that followed Washington's letter, America's Jews communicated often with their elected representatives, including presidents, to ensure that the promise of America was realized in practice.
A Century of Immigration, 1820–1924
In the century spanning the years 1820 through 1924, an increasingly steady flow of Jews made their way to America, culminating in a massive surge of immigrants toward the beginning of the 20th century. Impelled by economic hardship, persecution and the great social and political upheavals of the 19th century—industrialization, overpopulation and urbanization—millions of Europe's Jews left their towns and villages and embarked on the arduous journey to the "Golden Land" of America.
In the first half of the 19th century, Jewish immigrants came mostly, though not exclusively, from Central Europe. In addition to settling in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, groups of German-speaking Jews made their way to Cincinnati, Albany, Cleveland, Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco and dozens of small towns across the United States. During this period there was an almost hundred-fold increase in America's Jewish population from some 3,000 in 1820 to as many as 300,000 in 1880.
![This patriotic song in Yiddish from 1911 opens with: "To express loyalty with every/fibre of one's being, to/this Land of Freedom, is the/sacred duty of every Jew"](images/haven_7.jpg)
This patriotic song in Yiddish from 1911 opens with: "To express loyalty with every/fibre of one's being, to/this Land of Freedom, is the/sacred duty of every Jew"
Between 1881 and 1924, the migration shifted from Central Europe eastward, with more than 2.5 million East European Jews propelled from their native lands by persecution and the lack of economic opportunity. Most of those who arrived as part of this huge influx settled in cities where they clustered in districts close to city centers, joined the working class, spoke Yiddish and built strong networks of cultural, spiritual, voluntary and social organizations. This period of growth came to an end with the passage of restrictive immigration laws in 1921 and 1924. Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe to the United States never again reached the levels that it did before 1920.
Exhibition highlights documenting the migration include the manuscript poem "The New Colossus," in the hand of Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), who penned the poem in 1883 as part of a fund-raising campaign for erecting the Statute of Liberty. Her words, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" appear on the statue's base (on loan from the American Jewish Historical Society). The exhibition also displays the July 4, 1884, deed from France to the United States for the "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" (loaned by the National Archives and Records Administration) and film clips of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
![A 1907 photo of Harry Houdini with his "two sweethearts"—mother Cecilia Steiner Weiss and wife Beatrice](images/haven_8.jpg)
A 1907 photo of Harry Houdini with his "two sweethearts" — mother Cecilia Steiner Weiss and wife Beatrice
This is one of six video stations showing film clips relevant to the Jewish experience in America; others display early scenes of the Jewish quarters in cities such as New York and Boston, examples of anti-Semitism, Jews at home, Jews and entertainment, and a concluding video clip.
Also on display are a photograph and passport application of one famous immigrant, Eric Weiss from Budapest, who made his name in America as Harry Houdini, magician and escape artist; Albert Einsten's 1936 "Declaration of Intention" to become a U.S. citizen after he fled Nazi Germany (from the National Archives); and Hannah Arendt's Affidavit of Identity in Lieu of Passport, dated Jan. 18, 1949, as well as the introduction to her third edition of "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1966).
Anti-Semitism
From the nation's earliest days, an undercurrent of prejudice and discrimination posed a continuing challenge to the Jewish community. However, constitutional guarantees of religious liberty, backed up by American Jewry's firm response to acts of intolerance, prevented persecution of Jews from sinking deep roots in the United States.
Legal impediments to Jewish participation in the political, social and economic life of the country largely ended once Jews received political rights in Maryland in 1826, though the last restrictions in New Hampshire did not disappear until 1877.
![The lynching of Leo Frank, Aug. 17, 1915, Marietta, Ga.](images/haven_9.jpg)
The lynching of Leo Frank, Aug. 17, 1915, Marietta, Ga.
During the Civil War, like so many of their fellow citizens, Jews were forced to take sides. While most of the nation's 150,000 Jews lived in the North and supported the Union, a sizable minority numbering about 25,000 lived in the South and held strong allegiance to the Confederacy. Anti-Jewish sentiments rose sharply during the war, culminating in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's infamous Order No. 11, banning Jews as a class from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. The order was countermanded by President Lincoln three weeks later.
An enlarged New York World-Telegram & Sun photograph in the exhibition portrays Leo Frank, who was lynched by a hysterical mob on Aug. 17, 1915, for the alleged murder of a girl in an Atlanta pencil factory. A 1920 copy of the Dearborn Independent provides a sample of automaker Henry Ford's anti-Semitic tirades in which he accuses Jews of plotting world revolution and controlling financial markets; his newspaper had a peak circulation of 700,000.
Confronting the challenges presented by anti-Semitism has been a persistent concern of American Jewry and has led to the founding of communal organizations focused specifically on responding to prejudice and preventing it through education. Anti-Semitism, extension of civil rights, separation of church and state, the security of the State of Israel and the welfare of Jews around the world are issues that have traditionally stood at the top of the Jewish community's political agenda.
War and Its Aftermath
![The 1942 telegram that first reveals Nazi Germany's intention to exterminate Europe's Jewish population](images/haven_10.jpg)
The 1942 telegram that first reveals Nazi Germany's intention to exterminate Europe's Jewish population
After Adolf Hitler ascended to power in 1933, American Jews undertook various measures to protest the ever-worsening circumstances of the German Jews. They initiated a nationwide boycott of German goods and organized protest marches and rallies in support of beleaguered German Jewry. Though 100,000 Jews were able to enter the United States during the 1930s, millions more were left stranded as attempts to ease America's immigration restrictions largely failed, and other potential havens for Jews barred their entry. With the onset of the war in 1939, Hitler put his plan to annihilate European Jewry into action.
A yellowing telegram, on loan to the exhibition from the Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, tells a poignant story. On Aug. 28, 1942, the contents of this telegram from Gerhardt Riegner, an official of the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland, were conveyed to Jewish leaders, among them Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York. In the telegram Riegner outlined the Nazi intention to exterminate Europe's Jews. At the request of U.S. officials, Wise remained silent, pending official confirmation of the report. Some three months later, the State Department verified the news contained in what has come to be known as the "Riegner Telegram." By this time, however, the Nazis had already murdered more than 2 million of the 6 million Jews who ultimately perished in the Holocaust.
Zion and America
![Invitation to the inauguration of the "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" from President Grover Cleveland, Oct 28, 1886](images/haven_11.jpg)
Invitation to the inauguration of the "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" from President Grover Cleveland, Oct 28, 1886
The Jewish immigrants who arrived in massive waves from Eastern Europe beginning in the early 1880s brought with them the ideas of "Hibbat Zion" (Love of Zion), a movement whose principal aim was the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. Political Zionism gained strength in America in 1914, when Louis D. Brandeis accepted a leadership post as chair of the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs. The persistent efforts of America's Zionist activists on behalf of the establishment of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine were rewarded when the United States voted in favor of the United Nations' 1947 partition plan, dividing Palestine into two independent states, one Jewish and one Arab. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence and minutes later President Harry S. Truman officially recognized the new Jewish state in a brief document that is on view in the exhibition; it is on loan from the National Archives.
![Poster, ca. 1940, encouraging American Jews to support the overseas needs of refugees in Europe and Palestine](images/haven_12.jpg)
Poster, ca. 1940, encouraging American Jews to support the overseas needs of refugees in Europe and Palestine
Jewish Identity
In the early years, Jews fought to be treated like everyone else, seeking the "equal footing" that was theirs by law but not necessarily in practice. More recently, like other minorities and ethnic groups, they have asserted their right to be different and to have those differences accommodated and accepted by society at large.
Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by the Jewish community has been to find ways of maintaining its group identity in an open and free society. To this end, American Jewry has created uniquely American Jewish religious movements, institutions and associations suited to an ever-changing American scene. When millions of East European Jews arrived between 1881 and 1924, American Jews set up networks of organizations to settle and "Americanize" the new arrivals. A rare document of one of these associations (also described in the Conservation Corner article on p.176) is on view. And when confronted with prejudice and discrimination, Jews responded by creating organizations that fought for tolerance and acceptance.
Home
![Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin, pictured in 1948, wrote and regularly performed the patriotic standard "God Bless America"; the cover of the 240-page companion book to the "From Haven to Home" exhibition](images/haven_13.jpg)
Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin, pictured in 1948, wrote and regularly performed the patriotic standard "God Bless America"; the cover of the 240-page companion book to the "From Haven to Home" exhibition
Influenced by the pluralism of American society that encouraged diversity and multiple associations, the American Jewish community rapidly became internally pluralistic, establishing multiple religious movements, cultural affiliations and advocacy groups to meet individual and communal needs. This pluralism is well reflected in the profusion of American "haggadot," the home ritual used at the Passover seder. Hundreds of American editions of the haggadah have appeared, from traditional to innovative and reflecting a full range of religious, cultural and political positions. Examples of these can be seen in the exhibition. The very first American haggadah (left) appeared in New York in 1837 and included the declaration that it was the "First American Edition," implying, correctly, that many more editions would follow. Through these haggadot one can trace the journey of America's Jews from sojourners in a temporary haven to citizens at home in America.
The nature of American society, with its acceptance of religious diversity, provided America's Jews with an unprecedented sense of security and safety. The feeling of being "at home" in America has varied from immigrant wave to immigrant wave, and even from person to person. By 1950 most American Jews were native-born, and a great many had participated in two world wars, experienced the Great Depression, witnessed the Holocaust and its aftermath and supported the establishment of the State of Israel. In the post-World War II years, Jews became a vital force in American society and in the political process, demonstrated on behalf of those oppressed abroad, supported civil rights movements at home and played a significant role in the cultural life of the nation.
![Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, part of a 142-card set of Jewish Major Leaguers from "American Jews in America's Game" issued by the American Jewish Historical Society, 2003](images/haven_14.jpg)
Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, part of a 142-card set of Jewish Major Leaguers from "American Jews in America's Game" issued by the American Jewish Historical Society, 2003
The exhibition winds up with examples of Jewish life integrated firmly into American culture—a huge poster of an American Indian eating rye bread, with the slogan, "You Don't Have to Be Jewish to Love Levy's Rye Bread"; baseball cards featuring Jewish players Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg and Shawn Green; and a Statue of Liberty Hanukkah menorah that links America's quintessential symbol of freedom and opportunity with Judaism's celebration of freedom from oppression.
Conclusion
Fifty years ago, the American Jewish community celebrated its tercentenary. At the culminating event of that celebration, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a stirring address in which he called the arrival of the Jews to New Amsterdam in 1654 "an event meaningful not only to the Jews of America, but to all Americans—of all faiths, of all national origins." Then Irving Berlin, himself a Russian Jewish immigrant, sang his patriotic hymn, "God Bless America." In so doing, he put into words the deep gratitude that he felt toward the United States, which had been to him, and to countless new Americans like him, first a haven and then a home.
The holograph lyrics and a 1968 video clip of Berlin singing his composition on the Ed Sullivan Show provide a moving conclusion to "From Haven to Home."
Contributors to this article include Michael Grunberger, head of the Library's Hebraic Section and exhibition curator; Irene Chambers, Interpretive Programs officer; Cheryl Regan, exhibition director; Audrey Fischer, public affairs specialist; and Gail Fineberg, editor of The Gazette.