Two centuries and a half have passed since the first colony of Jews landed on Manhattan island, in what was then New Amsterdam, for it was the fact of the dominance of Holland that attracted the Jews fleeing from Portuguese persecutions in Brazil to the Dutch settlement in North America.

It was really in September, 1654, that a little company of twenty-three Jews reached New Amsterdam, but Peter Stuyvesant was then the Governor, and he did not fancy this invasion of his domain by infidel Jews. The appeal of the Jews to the West India Company was so well received by its Directors that in April, 1655, an official grant of privileges of residence and rights was sent to the Governor, and he was compelled to yield to the orders of his superiors. From that day to this the Jews have played no unimportant part in the life of New Amsterdam, New York, and of the United States at large.

It was persecution which drove the Jews from Spain and Portugal to Holland, and when they had settled in some of the Dutch possessions in the New World the transfer of authority to Portugal again forced them out. It is probable that one or two Jews were already settled in New Amsterdam when this colony reached there, but from the arrival of the refugees from Brazil dates the real beginning of the Jewish community, which received the grant of a piece of land for a burial ground so early as 1656. This was on the New Bowery, near Oliver Street, and was added to from time to time later.

The Jews at once sought the rights of citizenship, keeping guard when permitted and trading far up the Hudson River. One of them, Asser Levy, purchased the ground upon which Albany now stands. They were enterprising merchants, entering at once into the fur trade, while some acted as bakers and butchers in the little metropolis.

Some of the Jewish settlers removed to Newport as early as 1655, and there is a record of fifteen families arriving there in 1658, importing the first degrees of Masonry. They scattered, too, into Maryland, where their rights were sharply restricted, and it is probably due to their efforts for rights that Maryland was one of the first colonies to adopt religious toleration as the basis of the State. It was only a matter of time now for the Jews to follow all the tracks of colonization, and they appear in Pennsylvania and along the Southern coast. This element was made up almost exclusively of the Spanish or Portuguese Jews, men of culture and means, merchants of broad ideas who differed from the Christian settlers only in attending religious services on Saturday rather than Sunday and in the special character of these and their home ceremonials.

Only a few German or Polish Jews drifted to the New World from time to time, until the wars of the early part of the eighteenth century drove many Germans out, and among them were some Jews. The dominant element, however, remained Spanish for more than a century, and they took part in all public affairs, exploring the wilds with Washington, and fighting in the Revolutionary War. They provided no small share of the means for carrying on that war, aiding also by signing that "non-importation" resolution which prepared the way for the Declaration of Independence.

The number of Jews in the United States in 1826, as estimated by Isaac C. Harby was only 6,000, but the gradual drift of Polish and German Jews consequent upon political and religious persecutions increased that number to 15,000 in 1840. It is after this date that the second great wave of immigration took place, becoming greatest in the late forties. The character of these immigrants was quite different from the earlier immigrants. They were chiefly Germans from the smaller towns and villages, and though a sturdy stock, as results have proved, they were so far beneath the then American Jews in culture and refinement that lines were pretty sharply drawn. The American Jews aided the poor and suffering when necessary, but the German Jews formed their own congregations and social clubs and circles. This did not interfere with their success, for they were industrious and energetic, going even to the gold fields of California, where the foundations of many modern fortunes were laid. Shut out even by their own people from social fellowship, they founded clubs and secret orders with benevolent and social aims, and up to twenty-five years ago had become the controlling element in American Jewish life.

This was due not only to their greater numbers, for in 1882 there were some 250,000 Jews in the United States, of which a large majority were of German and Polish extraction, but to the active religious life of the Germans. They had seized upon the modern spirit, and were striving to bring their religion in accord therewith. The great practical leader in this reform movement was Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, who began his work in Albany in 1850, and then going to Cincinnati founded a great National Jewish organ. The American Israelite, by which he exercised a wide influence, founding in 1875 the Hebrew Union College, a seminary for the training of American rabbis, which has filled a hundred American pulpits with its graduates. Wise was the practical man, while Hirsch and Einhorn were the great theologians of this period, accomplishing in their way most important reforms by the power of their thought and personalities.

On the other hand, the more orthodox ideas were still retained by the Portuguese congregations, and some of the conservative Germans joined them in the formation of a theological seminary in New York which was founded in 1886, and has within the last few years been reorganized on a broader scale under the leadership of Dr. Solomon Schechter. It, too, is now sending out American rabbis who are proving acceptable to the more conservative congregations, of which the number has become very great within the last twenty years, due to the third great tide of Jewish immigration.

This third wave of immigration is the present one, constituting a very insistent and enormous problem;. It began to assume large proportions in 1882, when the severe proscriptive laws of Russia forced many thousand Jews to flee to America for safety. How large this immigration has been is easily seen when it is stated that the number of Jews now in the United States is a million and a half. In other words, within twenty-three years the 250,000 Jews then living in this country have been called upon to assimilate and care for 1,250,000 of their almost helpless brethren. That this process of absorption has not been a painless one is hardly astonishing, especially when it is considered that the character of the Russian immigrants has not been by any means the best for immigration purposesl. It is surprising that they have done as well as they have under the circumstances. Most of those who fled from Russia had little means and were ill prepared for American life, yet with the remarkable adaptiveness of the Jew they have become Americanized with astounding swiftness and thoroughness. Many who landed here helpless twenty years ago have not only established themselves upon a firm footing, but have helped those coming later in the most practical ways.

No argument is necessary to show what enormous multiplication of charitable agencies and institutions have been necessary within this short space of two decades, but millions have been expended, and the problem has been met and in large part solved. Where one hospital was enough, six have been needed; where one home for orphans was required, a dozen have been founded. Where the needs of the charities was fifty thousand dollars a year, a half a million is required every twelve month. And all these requirements have been met with sore struggling and hard striving.

From the outset the wise administrators at the head of affairs have felt that the money was to be expended, not to pauperize, but to make every man and woman able to become self-supporting, and one of the methods was to Americanize the immigrants, old and young, as swiftly as possible. Hence rose the Educational Alliance, which is devoted to the Americanization of the immigrants of all ages and both sexes. It does Settlement work on a huge scale, and is New York's People's Palace. Technical schools for girls and boys have been founded in New York and Chicago, and imitated on a smaller scale in other cities. The charities have been united in many cities, so as to avoid waste in administration, and there is co-operation between the charities of the different cities. Hospitals have been enlarged, and others founded like the one for consumptives in Denver and the Home for Incurables in New York.

Of the million and a half Jews in the United States about one-half live in Greater New York, sot that the problem is especially pressing in this city. Every effort is made to scatter the immigrants, and they are sent to all parts of the country by the Distribution Bureau, which has its representatives in all large centers. There are agricultural aid societies in New York and Chicago for distributing as many as possible upon farms, and the National Farm School near Philadelphia is engaged in the laudable work of training boys for the farms.

It is estimated that there are no less than 600 Jewish philanthropic institutions in the United States, ranging from the simple societies in the small towns that care for the poor that come there to the hospitals like the Mount Sinai, which expends $300,000 every year and treats Jew and non-Jew alike.

The influx of Russian Jews has had a reactionary influence upon the religious movement, for the Russians are chiefly orthodox in their ideas, and the conservatism coming from this large number has had its influence upon the rest of Jewry. Those who have gained a foothold, and they are many, have gained entrance into many of the best social circles and are doing their share in the uplifting work of the various communities in which they live. They are intensely interested in education, crowding the public schools, and gaining even the higher education, for no matter how poor the parents they make every sacrifice that their children may be educated properly.

That some vice resulted from the overcrowding in the tenements was only to be expected, yet this is being fought vigorously along the line of prevention wherever and whenever it is found.

The Jew appreciates the privileges which he enjoys in the United States, and he becomes a law-abiding citizen, striving always for the elevation of the community, and is found voting for the higher element in government.

The commemoration of this important anniversary was to have been celebrated all over the country in the spirit of thankfulness for the refuge that has been provided the Jew in this free land, and the jubilation will be perhaps all the deeper in the face of the terrible affliction that has come upon the Russian Jews within the last few weeks. It will loosen the purse-strings of the American Jew all the more when he contrasts his position with that woeful one of his persecuted Russian brethren, and the memorial which will be founded by the National Committee in New York City on Thanksgiving Day will be all the more firmly established in the heart of the American Jew.

Clifton Harby Levy.