The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America
by Beth Wenger
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Book Summary Information
Author: Beth WengerEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-23
ISBN: 0385521391
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America
Book Review: Did Ms. Wenger check her "facts"?
Summary: 3 Stars
As the Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame I was especially looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately it starts off with a glaring error (on page 2); I can only hope that the rest of the scholarship is better than this. Ms. Wenger writes "These Jews had fled the island of Recife when the Portuguese seized it from the Dutch. They took refuge aboard the Sainte Catherine, which happened to be sailing for New Amsterdam."
Here are the real facts according to references in the Jewish Section NYP Library http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/jewes/index.html:
The first book indicates that these refugees boarded a Portuguese ship, which was then captured by Spanish pirates; the Spanish pirate ship was in turn captured by a French ship, which brought the refugees to New Amsterdam.
Here's the summary from the New York Public Library's web site:
Saul Levi Mortera, Providencia de Dios con Ysrael, Verdad y Eternidad de la Ley de Moseh y Nulidad de las Demas Leies [God's Providential Care for Israel, the Truth and Permanence of the Law of Moses, and the Nullity of Other Religions] Translated from the Portuguese by Moses Raphael d'Aguilar (rabbi in Recife, 1642-8) and copied by Solomon the Salonikan, Amsterdam, 1689
Dorot Jewish Division, Jack and Helen Nash Fund
The Jews had everything to fear from the siege of Recife. The Portuguese were, as Amsterdam's chief rabbi Mortera observed, their worst enemy, "a people accustomed to take intense pleasure in making human sacrifices" of Jews. And yet, as Mortera continues in his magnum opus of 1659, a rebuttal of the then-standard Catholic contention that the Jews were doomed to unremitting misfortune (which proved their rejection by God): "God inspired Governor Barreto to have it proclaimed in the streets that nobody should so much as touch anyone of the Hebrew nation on pain of severe punishment. Not only that, but he allowed them to sell their possessions and provided passage to Holland for all 600 that remained. For want of Dutch ships, he managed to find them Portuguese ones, and so they boarded 16 vessels, many old and rickety--yet, by divine grace and providence, every one of them arrived safely. Such were the risks of the voyage and such the degree of providence, that when one of the ships was captured en route by Spaniards, who resolved to take the Jews to the Inquisition, before they could carry out their design, God provided a French vessel, which took them out of the Spaniards' hands and brought them safely to Florida or New Netherland, whence they continued in peace to Holland."
These facts are confirmed by another document on the same web site:
Minutes of the Burgomasters and Schepens
New Amsterdam, 1654
Municipal Archives of the City of New York
"September 7: Jacques de la Motte, skipper of the bark___ [illegible] requests payment of passage and board for the Jews whom he brought here from Cape St. Anthony [Cuba]. Solomon Pietersen, a Jew, appears and says that there are 23 souls, big and little, who must pay equally." It was off Cuba, then, that the French privateer attacked the Spanish ship that had attacked the Portuguese ship that was taking the Recife refugees to the Netherlands (per item 23) and now the boat came into New Amsterdam. But after an eventful trip, the Jewish passengers--perhaps half a dozen families, it is very unclear--lacked means, or friends ashore, to pay for the ride. "September 10: Skipper of the bark St. C____[page torn; St. Charles? St. Catherine?] v. various Jews. Court orders Jews' possessions sold at auction. September 16: Auction fails to cover obligation. Principal debtors to be confined until debt is paid. October 5: Sailors' spokesman demands 106 florins outstanding. Jew, Assar Leeven [Asser Levy], says no funds remain. Representative debtors ordered to stay in jail." By spring, though, there were signs of stability--and threat: "March 1, 1655: Abram de la Sina [i.e., de Lucena], a Jew, has kept his store open during the [Sunday] sermon and sold by retail and therefore shall be deprived of his trade and fined six hundred florins. Director General and [New Netherland] Council have resolved that the Jews, who came last year from the West Indies and now from the fatherland, must prepare to depart herewith."
If an amateur historian like myself can check these facts, we deserve better from an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania who serves as Director of the Jewish Studies Program.
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