So what does it mean to be Jewish? in the words of Rabbi Yehiel Poupko of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago: “Jews are a family that became a faith that stayed a family.” Jewish tradition has religious, cultural, historical, culinary, linguistic, social, and ethical aspects. Not all members of our Jewish family believe or practice in the same way, but we all care about each other – wherever we are and whatever branch of the family we are from. It means that Jews from Morocco care about Jews from China and Jews from Israel care about Jews from America (and vice versa). Familial connection and diversity of that family are strengths that have helped us remain a vibrant and living tradition for nearly four millennia.

Jews first came to what are now the United States before we were even a country. Jewish refugees from what is now Brazil fled the Portuguese and their renewal of the Inquisition against the Jews in their colonies as early as the 17th century. These Sephardic Jews came to New Amsterdam (the Dutch colonial precursor to New York City) by boat in 1654, but were kept offshore by the antisemitic governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant. Only after their coreligionists in the Netherlands intervened did these Sephardic Jews disembark and begin putting down roots.

The Jewish population remained rather small in the newly founded United States until the 1820s, with Jews settling in northeastern cities like New York and Philadelphia and southern cities like Charleston and Savannah.  When German Jews began to immigrate in search of opportunity, many settled in New York and became successful in business and contributed socially and philanthropically to the United States. These immigration patterns shifted as pogroms and antisemitism in Eastern Europe and Russia increased; the growth of railways and steam-powered boats along with open immigration laws enabled 2.5 million Jews to come to the United States between 1880 and 1924. 

These Eastern European Jews were poorer and more poorly educated on average than their German and Sephardic predecessors but rapidly acculturated, adding greatly to American culture, society, business, politics, labor organizing, civil rights and feminist movements, and higher education. Some scholars have suggested that these Eastern European Jews conformed to German Jewish ideals and institutions – joining education, hard work, family, and social progress with Jewish tradition, practices, and values. 

Yet Jews in America eventually came up with specific practices, prayer books, and norms. They have risen in every area of American life, showing a unique combination of a love of country and a sense of unique belonging in the Jewish family of families. With nearly 7.5 million Jews in America today, we celebrate some who have made transformational contributions to the country they call home.