Jacob Barsimson

Paved the way for full Citizenship rights

By Seymour Brody

The first Jewish settler who came to New Amsterdam, later to be called New York, was Jacob Barsimson, a Hollander who arrived on August 22, 1654. He was soon followed by other Jews from the West Indies and Brazil who were unhappy with their homelands’ religious and political situations.

The Jews settling in New Amsterdam sought equality, hoping to worship freely and have equal opportunities and obligations alongside Christian citizens. But Barsimson and the other Jews found New Amsterdam no different from where they came from. Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the Province of New York, treated them as separate citizens. They couldn’t engage in retail trade, practice handicrafts, hold a public position, serve in the militia or practice their religion in a synagogue or gatherings.

Even the simplest rights had to be fought for. Barsimson was among those who presented a petition to Governor Stuyvesant for the right to buy burial plots. The petition was initially denied, but later, under pressure from the New Amsterdam Jews, Stuyvesant allowed Jews the right to buy burial plots.

Stuyvesant imposed many restrictions on the Jews in the colony, limiting them from training in the militia and serving guard duty but requiring each male over 16 and under 60 years of age to pay a monthly fee of 65 stivers, a former nickel coin of the Netherlands, for their exemption.

On September 22, 1654, Stuyvesant wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce to complain about the presence of Jewish refugees from Brazil who had recently arrived in New Amsterdam, claiming they would infect the colony with trouble.

These were mostly descendants of Portuguese Jews who had escaped the Spanish Inquisition to Holland. Those descendants then made their way to Brazil and then to New Amsterdam. By 1654, many Portuguese Jews were investors in the West India Company, which controlled New Amsterdam. They petitioned the West India Company to allow the Brazilian Jews to remain in New Amsterdam.

In the meantime, Barsimson, Asser Levy, Abraham de Lucena, Jacob Cohen Henricques, and other New Amsterdam Jews were pressuring Stuyvesant for full citizenship rights. Among other things, they pursued the right to serve in the militia and do guard duty on the city walls to protect the settlers and the cattle kept inside the walls. They continued their petitions and pressure until the Governor finally granted them full citizenship.

Barsimson and the other Jews proudly did their guard duty on the colony’s walls alongside the Christian militiamen. When the British conquered New Amsterdam and changed its name to New York, the Jewish settlers continued to have full citizenship.

Under the leadership of Jacob Barsimson, this tiny group of Jews displayed persistence, courage and bravery to obtain equal citizenship for all Jews coming to the New World for future generations.

- Originally published in Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America: 150 True Stories of American Jewish Heroism (Frederick Fell Publishers, ISBN-13: 978-0811908238)