Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/545

497 THE

497

.lEWISlI KJS'CYCLOl'EUlA

Thf III have conipriscd ulioiit 2l)lt families. CDinniuuily was ilispcrscil by tlic war; and it never In 1790 it presented an repiined ils importance. The Tonro family beaddress to Washington. appears

i|Ueathed suflicient

nmney

to

maintain thesynajioo-iie

as well as the eemeteiy and these an' still in existence, althoufjh the number ul Jews now resident in

Newport

is but small. Jewish commiuiity of Newport held an especially interesting and even a uniipie position in America, and impressed it.self for all time on the town, once th<' leading port of the colonies and now the most fashinnable summer resort in the United 'I'lie

States.

Other Parts of New England An occasional Jew may have strayed into other portions of New

Knglanii in the earl - days: but the Puritan atmosThe best phere was apparently not congenial. known of the early .settlers was Juilah Monis. who became a convert to Chrislianity, and tilled the chair (rf Hebrew in Harvard College from 1722 until his death in 17(54. As early as 1670 there is mention of a Jew. Jacob Luei'ne. in the Colonial Records of Connecticut. When the Uritish took Newport many of the Jews there left and etTccted a temi)orary settlement at Leicester, Mass. but this did not survive the close of the war. A number of Jews, including the Hays family, settled at Boston before ISOO. About 1S40 Ji-ws began to emigrate from New York to New Haven and IJoston; and congregations were lormeil in those cities in l.S40and 18-12 respectively.

The conununal life of the New England Jews was without especial inciandBoston. dent: and their numbers increased but

New Haven

slowly luitil after the beginning of the Immediately the great Russian emigration in 1SS2. overflow from Xew York, as well as tlu' emigration

through Canada, commenceil topourinto New England. It is estiinate, 000 Jews now (1901) reside in .Massachusetts alone, and nearly 20,000

more

in the other

New

Eni;land slates.

An

interesting |)henonienon has been noticed in connecli<in with theshiflingof agricultural industry Willi the opening up of the in the I'nited States. Western country an<l the greater advantages offered by the virgin soil, many New England farmers absolutely abandoned their compar.-itively unfruitful

farms and moved West. These abanRussian doned farms, especially in Connecticut, have been taken up by Kussian Jews asFarmers. Jews, who, principally as dairy farmers, have added a new and u.seful eleto the agricultural community. It s<-ems not unlikely that Maryland was the lirst colony in which Jews settled, though Ihey were probably stragirlers: and it was long before any coiuMUinal lite was established. ScaltereS he was trieil and remanded for blasphemy, his release being due to the general anmesty in honorof the accession of I{iehard Cromwell (de<lared March:!, llir)S). I.ettersof dini He had a zaiion were issiail to him Sept. 10, l(!ti;i. He is de plantiilion and also praelised medicine. scribed as from Lisbon but he hail a sister in Holland. Till' history of the Jews in .Maryland is of especial interest: since it was in this colony and state that the civil and political rights of .lews were most restricted, anil it was here, of all America, that the most syslemalie efforts were put forth for obtaining

ment

Maryland:



the fullest

recognition under the law.

I.— :J2

Marylanii

America

was one of the tirst colonies to adopt religious toleration as the ba.sis of the state: but it was toleration and not liberty, since there was a proviso that any person who denied the Trinity was to be punished with death. Even after the Revolution, no one might hold any ollice of prolit or trust under the state without signing a declaration that he believed in the Christian religion. ElTorts were made in 1801 and 1804 to obtain a revocation of this jiroviso: but on both occasions more than two-thirds of the legislature Jews Hold voted against its repeal. These eflorts Public were renewed in 1819. and finally sucPositions. ceeded, so that in 1824 two Jewish citizens were elected mem hers of the Council of Hallimore, being the lirst Jews to hold oliice in the .stale of Maryland. The success of these elTorts was largely due to the persistent labors of a single family the Cohens who still maintain an honored position in the community. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Maryland, although remaining in the Union, numbered among her citizens a large body of sympalliizers with the Confederate cause. The conflict of o|iinion was especially severe among the Jews, due to the pronounced antislavery attitude assumed by Rabbi David Einhorn, who was actually threatened with violiiici- and was obli.ged to leave the city.

—

Pennsylvania

—



jews from New Amsterdam

traded along South river, subsequently named the Delaware, as early as 16")."), and began to arrive as settlers in the colony of Pennsylvania not much more than ten yearsafter its establishment. Unlike New Y'ork and Newport, a very considerable projiortion of the early Pennsylvania colonists were not Portuguese, but German Jews; and they settled not in Philadelphia, but in towns in the interior of the state. The earliest settlements seem to have been Joseph Simon, who in Schaefersville and Lancaster. in the latter place was the ))ioneer, about 1740 embarkeil in the Indian trade and in real-estate transactions on a large scale. In 1747 the Schaefers- ileed fora Jewish cemetery in Laucasville, Lan- ler was made out in his name and in that of Isaac Nunes Ricus as trustees. caster, andEaston. Myer Hart was one of the founders of

Easton in 1750. He was engaged in and was there naturiilized on Oct. H. 1764. Aaron Levy sellleil in Xorthuniberland county. Pa., about 17(iO. and was a large landowner. In 1786 he trade,

he town of A.MtoNsiiiito in that county. for a time the leading one in the United States, and was inferior in nunibersonly to that of New York. The tirst Jewish settler in Pliilaihl|iliia of whom there is record was Jonas Aaron (170;>l. and the second was As early as 1747 a num.Vrnold Bamberger (1726). ber of persons who had joined together for llie purpose of woi'ship met for services in a small house in Sterling alley aflerward in Cherry alley between

projected

I

The Jewish lommunity of Philadelphia was

—

—

Third and Poiirlh streets. They were mostly (Jerman and Polish Jews; and their dilTerences as to the liturgy to be followed prevented at the time the

When the troops occupied New Y'ork Revolutionary War. the dining the PhilaMeiides Seixas, miiiisier, Gershom delphia. with a considerable porlioii of the New Y'ork congregation, came to Philadelphia, and, flnding no regular services, they, with the help of the resident Jews, established one in accordance with the Portuguese rite. Seixas was the flrsi minAfter him no man of importance held the ister. [losition until Isaac Leeser, 1829. lie was the leading formalioii of

any regular coiigregalion. lirilish