Faraan Zionist Research Base; According to the available books and sources on how the Jews of the world migrated and settled in United States of America, it can be said that the discovery of the American continent by “Christopher Columbus” coincided with the mass expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal. The debate over the inquisition in these countries led to the persecution of the Jews, and the thought of a way out of this deplorable situation.
The first Jews to enter North America were a group of 23 Brazilian immigrants who arrived in New Amsterdam in September 1654; A town inhabited by a small Dutch population of agents from the Dutch West Indies Company headed by Rod Hudson. [1]
According to historical sources, these people form the first Jewish core of the United States and the Jewish people themselves refer to this as a very important event. It was a step that later led to the widespread influence of Jews in various areas of American society, such as economic, political, and cultural.
The situation of the Jews of the New Continent improved in the 18th century, when the United States Parliament passed a law in 1740 in which not only the Jews, but even the Protestants [2] and the Quakers, [3] automatically became US citizens, after 7 Years permanent residence in the British colonies of America, and enjoyed all the benefits of being an American citizens.
The second major migration of European Jews to the United States took place in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1827 and 1828, more than 10,000 Germans disembarked in New York. In 1848 another 50,000 Germans left for the United States. So the second migration of Europeans was from Germany. Which led to an increase in the American Jewish population. [4]
In the late nineteenth century, in 1881, a third wave of Jewish emigration began from Eastern Europe to the United States. [5] The main reason for the increase in Jewish immigration to the United States over the years was that they found the new land a safe and comfortable environment for living and developing their economic activities. If before emigration, Jews were persecuted as second-class citizens because of the church’s influence and dominance in European countries, now in the new land [the United States] they saw that the government had separated the account of religion from politics, abolished religious prejudices, and provided a wide arena for their activity, authority, and influence.
It must be acknowledged, however, that over the centuries, the US political leaders, because of their mysterious spirits, insidious behavior, and dishonest intentions, have not only been looking the Jews with distrust, but also have been considering them dangerous, and believed that the Jews were the instigators of all kinds of seditions, riots and internal convulsions in this country.
One of the American independence leaders “Benjamin Franklin”, said during the passage of the United States Constitution in 1789, in his speech: “There is a terrible threat to the United States, and that is the Jewish threat. Gentlemen! “wherever the Jews have entered in the world, they have destroyed morality and ruined the foundations of the economy.” [6]
The leader of the Wars of Independence and the first US president States, George Washington, has also emphasized: The Jewish threat is more harmful to us than all the enemy forces; “They are a hundred times more dangerous than the enemy.” [7]
George Washington had also said that: “They (the Jews) work more effectively against us, more than the enemies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we engaged in.. It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted the them down as pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.” [8]
This is to mention that In the time of George Washington there were about 4,000 Jews in the US, most of them well-to-do traders! [9]
According to Jeremy Jonathan [J.J] Goldberg in The Jewish Influence in the United States, the history of Jewish influence in the United States dates back to 1790. Following the election of George Washington as President of the United States, Jewish leaders sent letters to George Washington.
One of these letters read: “Praise be to the God of Israel, who is the supporter [George] Washington and establishes a government in which there is no prejudice and no place for persecution.” [10] Washington responded to the letters, and this correspondence between the Jewish leaders and the first president of the United States, marked the beginning of relations between American Jews and the US government.
Footnotes
1. Abba Eban, My People: The Story of the Jews, p 409
2. Protestantism is a branch of Christianity whose foundations were first introduced by Martin Luther.
3. Quakers – the followers of Quakerism – belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the “Religious Society of Friends.” A Christian mystic George Fox, is the founder of the Quakerism.
4. Mohsen Eslami, The Zionist Lobby in the United States, [Persian book: لابی صهیونیسم در ایالات متحده آمریکا] p.102.
5. Ibid., P. 103.
6. Ahmad Karimian, Judaism and Zionism [Persian Book: [یهود و صهیونیسم], pp. 615 and 616.
7. Translator: Akram Momin, اليهود العالمي[The arbic Translation of H. Ford’s book “THE INTERNATIONAL JEW”] footnote, p. 36.
8. Hatonn, Gyeorgos Ceres, Birthing The Phoenix, Vol. 3, p. 06.
9. Henry Ford, THE INTERNATIONAL JEW: The World’s Foremost Problem, p. 18.
10. Ahmed Mansour, The Jewish Influence in the American Administration, [Arabic book: النفوذ اليهودي في الإدارة الأمريكية] p. 14.
