Jacob Barsimson was one of the earliest Jewish settlers at New Amsterdam (New York City), and the earliest identified Jewish settler within the present limits of the state of New York.
Barsimson had been sent out by the Jewish leaders of Amsterdam, Holland, to determine the possibilities of an extensive Jewish immigration to New Amsterdam. With the fall of Dutch Brazil it was imperative for Jews planning to leave Europe to find other new homes. He arrived at that port on the ship Pear Tree on August 22, 1654, having left Holland on July 8. Barsimson was succeeded by a party of twenty-three Jews, who arrived at New Amsterdam in October, from Recife, Brazil, and established the first Jewish Settlement in the United States.
Read more about Jacob Barsimson: Jewish Rights
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“As for me, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are now only the subtlest imaginable essences, which would not stain the morning sky.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)