In I got It!
New York – a Jewish state
With the influx of Jews, New York was destined to open its arms to the newcomers.
It was in the year 5414 (1654ce) that the first Jew settled in America, 162 years after the discovery of the new continent by the Spaniard, Columbus. The first Jew settled in New York, which was at the time called New Amsterdam.
In the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, Jewish settlement was concentrated in New York, although Jewish communities were also established in Newport and Philadelphia.
From the beginning of the 19th century, a great wave of immigrants began to arrive from Poland, Germany and other central European countries, numbering some 300,000 Jews. Unlike the previous nuclear concentration of communities, now the Jews spread all over America, as far as San Francisco on the west coast.
Between the years 5641 and 5674 (1881 – 1914), two million Jews immigrated to the United States. This great influx of immigrants was dubbed ‘the great wave of immigration’.
As of today, the Jewish community in the United States is the second largest in the world, after that of Israel, and numbers some 5 ¼ million souls.
New York, location of the first Jewish settlement in America around 350 years ago, is the largest Jewish community in the United States, numbering some 1.9 million souls – 15% of the total population of New York itself.