Celebrating 250 Years of America: The Orthodox Jewish Experience

In celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial—the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which will be officially marked on July 4, 2026—it is fitting to pause and reflect on the American Jewish experience, and specifically the Orthodox Jewish experience. First, we must recognize the deep sense of gratitude—mentioned more than once in this cover story—that we owe to a country that welcomed our Jewish brothers and sisters during immensely difficult moments across the centuries, often saving them from religious persecution, from the Inquisition in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to Communism in the twentieth century. Second, we are grateful to America for enabling the Jewish people to prosper, both materially and spiritually.

No doubt, the remarkable growth of Orthodoxy in a country once referred to as the treifa medinah would have shocked many of the personalities profiled in this issue. Yet the vibrancy of contemporary Orthodoxy is due, in no small part, to the mesirut nefesh and ongoing struggles of these very Jews who defended Torah and traditional Jewish life in every way they could during exceptionally challenging times. Their stories are told in the pages ahead.

As we take a moment to celebrate 250 years of Jewish life in this country, we give thanks to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who enabled Torah to flourish despite extraordinary obstacles, placing these spiritually courageous individuals in the right place at the right time to help shape the future of Orthodox Jewish life in America.

The history of Jews in America is deep and rich. Unfortunately, in this limited space, we can only touch on some of the issues and figures in order to offer a taste of the history.

This cover story does not attempt to trace all 250 years of American Jewish life, but instead focuses on three formative eras of early American Jewish life: the Colonial and Revolutionary Era, the Pre–Civil War Era, and the Post–Civil War Era through the early twentieth century. We deliberately do not focus on more modern American Jewish history, as that period tends to be more familiar to readers.

1654–1830s: The Colonial & Revolutionary Era/Early Republic

The first Jews arrived in North America in September 1654. These twenty-three Jews, refugees fleeing from the Portuguese conquest of Brazil, disembarked from the St. Catherine. Few, if any, remained in New Amsterdam for very long. However, their brief presence convinced other Jews to settle in the New World.

By 1700, about 300 Jews relocated to Colonial America. Jews initially settled in strategic port cities such as Charleston, South Carolina; New York, New York; Newport, Rhode Island; and Savannah, Georgia. Many were former conversos, eager to reconstitute their openly Jewish lives beyond the reach of the Inquisition. The few congregations established in this period practiced the Spanish-Portuguese customs.

As more Ashkenazic Jews settled in Colonial America, they, too, adopted Sephardic practices. Colonial Jews were, on the whole, punctilious about religious observance, particularly when it came to Shabbat.

By the time of the Revolution, as many as 2,000 Jews—most aligning with the Patriots—lived in the nascent United States. Exiled from their British-occupied communities, many took up residence, albeit temporarily, in Philadelphia.

1830s–1860s: Pre–Civil War/Early Nineteenth Century

American Jewry during the Early Republic underwent major changes. Drawing primarily from Central Europe, the population grew from 2,500 women and men at the turn of the century to more than 50,000 souls by 1850.

By the start of the Civil War, there were more than 100,000 Jews in the United States. In 1800, there were just eight synagogues in six states. Four decades later, those figures increased to twenty synagogues in twelve states.

By the midpoint of the nineteenth century, American Jews could boast a total of fifty-six congregations. Religious life also changed in this epoch. The records report a heightened sense of religious laxities. Many young Jews kept Shabbat imperfectly and some intermarried. Yet, it was also a time for increased religious infrastructure.

Rebecca Gratz, for example, founded the first Jewish Sunday School in 1838. Her disciples established similar schools in other Jewish communities. In 1840, Rabbi Abraham Rice arrived in Baltimore, marking the arrival of the first ordained rabbi to the United States. Finally, as early as the 1820s, men such as Jacob Mordecai and Isaac Leeser started to define themselves as “Orthodox” in response to the growing trend toward religious reform.

1870s–1930s: Post–Civil War through Early Twentieth Century

The postbellum era, continuing to the close of the nineteenth century, was a period of religious retrenchment for Orthodox Jews. Earlier traditionalist champions such as Rebecca Gratz, Rabbi Abraham J. Rice, Rabbi Morris Raphall and Reverend Isaac Leeser had died in the 1860s. The new guard of Jewish leaders—particularly the ordained rabbis—embraced religious reform. Orthodox Judaism was at a nadir until the late 1870s. It was in that time that a core of young Jews, many of whom were disciples of Isaac Leeser, established newspapers (the American Hebrew) and programs to catalyze traditional Jewish life in the United States.

In the 1880s, a wave of migration from Eastern Europe increased the national Jewish population from 250,000 to about a million Jews at the turn of the twentieth century. These Eastern European Jews brought with them new cultural and religious sensibilities. Unofficially headquartered on New York’s Lower East Side, these Jews invested in new rabbinic institutions and schools. They opened butcher shops, sold etrogs, and published religious texts for the benefit of a much-enlarged Orthodox community.

In June 1898, the Orthodox establishment of the prior epoch and these new Eastern European Jews came together to form the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, now known as the Orthodox Union.