Speech #840035035

I confess that the American Jewish Tercentenary celebration has stimulated me personally to look back at the history of that earliest of New York known then as New Amsterdam. You are. no doubt. familiar with the facts. When that first band of 23 Jewish refugees landed at Fort Amsterdam in September of 1654. they were not entirely welcome. There was no immigration legislation in those dayshappily for them. perhaps. There is no record that the Dutch burghers were unfriendly. far from that. It seems that the deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church extended alms to those newcomers to enable them to endure that first hard winter.