The Entire History of Jewish Migration Into America — Three Peoples, One Name

Three completely different peoples arrived in America under one name — and most families no longer know which one they were. Sephardim expelled from Spain and Portugal, who reached New Amsterdam in 1654. German-speaking Jews who left Bavaria because a register said the quota of Jewish families was full. And more than two million people out of the Pale of Settlement, Galicia and Romania. They spoke different languages, ate different food, and when they finally met each other in New York they often could not stand one another. This is the complete history of Jewish immigration to America — the three migrations, why each one left, where they settled, and what the records can still tell you. And if you are not Jewish, there is something here for you too. This migration built industries you deal with every week, and a small unexpected slice of Ashkenazi ancestry turns up in an enormous number of DNA results belonging to people with no Jewish family at all. We cover why that happens near the end. In this video: The 23 refugees who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 and the ship whose name historians still argue about. Peter Stuyvesant's attempt to expel them, and why he was overruled. Asser Levy and the fight for the right to stand guard. Touro Synagogue and the colonial communities of Newport, Savannah and Charleston. George Washington's 1790 letter and who actually wrote its most famous line. The Bavarian Matrikel laws that stopped young Jewish men from marrying. The peddlers who became Levi Strauss, Macy's, Sears and Goldman Sachs. Jewish life in the small-town South. Isaac Mayer Wise and the banquet that split American Judaism. General Order Number 11 and how Lincoln reversed it. The Pale of Settlement, the pogroms of 1881, and Kishinev. The Lower East Side at 1,100 people per acre. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire. The Galveston Plan. The 1924 quota law and the census year it was built on. The St. Louis, and the door that stayed shut. Soviet, Persian, Syrian and Bukharan arrivals. Why most Ashkenazi surnames are barely 200 years old. And why names were never changed at Ellis Island. Chapters 0:00 Three peoples, one name 3:00 Twenty-three refugees, 1654 7:00 Stuyvesant tries to expel them 10:00 Asser Levy and the right to stand guard 13:00 The colonial communities 16:00 Washington's letter to Newport 19:00 The Bavarian marriage quota 23:00 From peddler to department store 27:00 The Jewish South and Midwest 30:00 The banquet that split American Judaism 33:00 The Civil War and General Order Number 11 36:00 The Pale of Settlement 40:00 Kishinev, 1903 43:00 Two million people 46:00 The Galveston Plan 48:00 The Lower East Side 52:00 Triangle Shirtwaist 55:00 Where they moved next 58:00 The door closes, 1924 62:00 The 1930s 66:00 The waves nobody talks about 69:00 Why Jewish surnames are so young 73:00 The Ellis Island myth 76:00 The records that survive 80:00 What Ashkenazi DNA can tell you 84:00 The unexpected two percent Tell me in the comments: if this is your family, which of the three migrations was it, and does anyone still know the name of the town? And if it is not — what brought you to this video? A DNA result you were not expecting is the most common answer. #JewishHistory #Genealogy #AmericanHistory #Ashkenazi