U.S. 250: Liberty, Citizenship, and the First American Jews

Discover the remarkable story of the first Jews in North America and how they helped shape—and were shaped by—the American experience. This course explores how Jews first settled in the American Colonies, their role in Colonial life, and how the American Revolution and early republic (up to the 1820s) caused a history-making transformation in Jewish religious, cultural, and political life. As the United States emerged as the world's first free, democratic, and voluntaristic society, it became an unprecedented testing ground for what it meant to live as Jews with full religious liberty and expanding civil rights.

Our time period extends from 1585, when the first known Jewish individual arrived with the Roanoke Expedition, to 1826, when the passage of the Maryland Jew Bill settled the last major questions surrounding Jewish civil rights in the United States. The primary focus, however, is on the formative years from 1654 to 1776, when enduring Jewish communities first took root in colonial America.

Instructor: Dr. Eric Goldstein