250th
Anniversary of Jewish Settlement in North America
November, 1905
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In February 1905, Congregation Shearith Israel in New York
City and the American Jewish Historical Society begin planning
for the organization of the 250th Anniversary of Jewish
Settlement in North America.. On April 9, 1905, Jewish leaders
met and selected philanthropist and communal leader, Jacob
H. Schiff, to head an official planning committee that undertook
the task of planning a celebration in New York City and
creating a permanent monument commemorating the settlement
of Jews in New Amsterdam.
The year 1905 was chosen to celebrate the 250th anniversary because the
document granting the Jews permission to settle in New Amsterdam and
explicitly rejecting Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s efforts to expel
them, is dated April 26, 1655.
The committee organized a major celebratory event at Carnegie Hall on
Thanksgiving, 1905, where Ex-President Grover Cleveland, Governor Frank
W. Higgins of New York, and Mayor George B. McClellan of New York City
delivered speeches. The ceremony also included the performance of music
by Jewish composers and the reading of a letter from President Theodore
Roosevelt.
Plans for a permanent memorial were abandoned because the committee deemed
that the money would be better spent on aid for Russian Jews. However,
an anonymous patron commissioned a commemorative medal on behalf of the
committee.
Celebrations were not limited to Carnegie Hall. Jewish communal institutions,
such as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, and Jewish lodges,
also held celebrations although not on the scale as the one in New York
City.
The planning committee published a pamphlet, “Notes Relating to
the Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement
of Jews in the United States” and a monograph, History of the Jews
in the United States, for individuals interested in reading further about
the history of American Jewry.
LINKS:
Read President
Roosevelt’s letter to Jacob Schiff congratulating
American Jewry on the 250th Anniversary celebration.
Download the
full text of the pamphlet “Notes Relating to
the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary for the Settlement
of Jews in the United States.”
(PDF 1.8 MB)
View the
250th Anniversary commemorative medallion
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