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Jewish Congregations of America - New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Georgia

American Jewish congregations were eager to send greetings to the new President. In June of 1789, the leaders of New York's Shearith Israel (following up on a proposal offered by Manuel Josephson of Mikve Israel in Philadelphia), circulated a letter to the Hebrew congregations of Newport, Philadelphia, Richmond and Charleston, asking that the congregations join together in writing to Washington. This effort was apparently prompted, in part, by the address sent in May 1790 to President Washington by the Mikveh Israel congregation of Savannah, Georgia, acting alone. They apologized for not congratulating the president earlier, then praised Washington's

"…unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy[that] have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition which has long, as a veil, shaded religion—unriveted the fetters of enthusiasm—[and has] enfranchised us with all the privileges and immunities of free citizens, and initiated us into the grand mass of legislative mechanism."

Washington echoed their sentiments by writing:

"I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth; and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive."

The congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond continued debating the wording of an address to the president and what congregations would participate. Finally in November, 1790, Manuel Josephson, leader of Philadelphia's Mikve Israel Congregation, wrote the letter and presented it personally to Washington on December 13, 1790. He excused the delay in congratulating Washington by writing:

"We have been hitherto prevented by various circumstances peculiar to our situation from adding our congratulations to those which the rest of America have offerd on your elevation to the Chair of the Fœderal governmt…."

Washington's reply was brief. He began by writing that:

"The liberality of sentiment toward each other which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this Country, stands unparalleled in the history of Nations," and ended with "May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me, rest upon your Congregations."

 josephson-holographic.jpg The first Jews came to New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1654. Not warmly welcomed by Peter Stuyvesant, governor of the Dutch colony, the Jews persevered; by 1658 another group had also settled in Newport, Rhode Island. Soon more Jewish communities, fueled by immigrants from Amsterdam, London, and the Caribbean, began in Philadelphia, Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond. At the time of the War for Independence, there were between 1,500 and 2,000 Jews in the United States.

 Read the Correspondence