There have been Jewish communities in the United States since colonial times, with individuals living in various cities before the American Revolution. Early Jewish communities were primarily composed of Sephardi immigrants from Brazil, Amsterdam, or England.
Galveston Island is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about 50 miles (80.5 km) southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston in Galveston County.
The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.
Abraham Cohen Labatt was an American Sephardic Jew who was a prominent pioneer of Reform Judaism in the United States in the 19th century, founding several early congregations in the South and in San Francisco after the Gold Rush. A merchant, in the 1830s he helped pioneer trade between United States interests in Charleston and those in Texas and Mexico.
The First Aliyah, also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (aliyah) to Ottoman Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen, stimulated by pogroms and violence against the Jewish communities in those areas. An estimated 25,000 Jews immigrated. Many of the European Jewish immigrants during the late 19th-early 20th century period gave up after a few months and went back to their country of origin, often suffering from hunger and disease.
Congregation B'nai Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located in Galveston, Texas, in the United States. Organized by German Jewish immigrants in 1868, it is the oldest Reform congregation and the second chartered Jewish congregation in the state.
The history of the Jews in Mexico began in 1519 with the arrival of Conversos, often called Marranos or "Crypto-Jews", referring to those Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism and that then became subject to the Spanish Inquisition.
Jewish Texans have been a part of the history of Texas since the first European explorers arrived in the region in the 16th century. In 1990, there were around 108,000 adherents to Judaism in Texas. More recent estimates place the number at around 120,000.
Henry Cohen was a British-American rabbi, scholar, community activist and writer who served most of his career at Congregation B'nai Israel in Galveston, Texas, from 1888 to 1949. He came to the United States in 1885, during a period of rapid and massive growth related to early 20th-century immigration from eastern and southern Europe. In Texas, he organized the Galveston Movement, which worked from 1907 to 1914 to attract eastern European Jewish immigrants to Galveston and the Gulf Coast as a destination, as an alternative to the better known Northeastern cities. Ten thousand such immigrants entered at Galveston.
James Lee Kessler, the founder of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, was the first native Texan to serve as rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Galveston, Texas.
Congregation Beth Jacob is a Conservative Jewish synagogue located at 2401 Avenue K, Galveston, on Galveston Island, Texas, in the United States. The present synagogue was built by Austrian, Russian and Hungarian immigrants in 1931. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
Jews have inhabited the city of Galveston, Texas, for almost two centuries. The first known Jewish immigrant to the Galveston area was Jao de la Porta, who, along with his brother Morin, financed the first settlement by Europeans on Galveston Island in 1816. de la Porta was born in Portugal of Jewish parentage and later became a Jewish Texan trader. In 1818, Jean Laffite appointed de la Porta supercargo for the Karankawa Indian trade. When Laffite left Galveston Island in 1820, de la Porta became a full-time trader.
The history of the Jews in Brenham, Texas; covers a period of over 140 years. As one of the first areas in Texas, outside of major population centers, to develop a sizable Jewish population, the community boasts many things of historical note. The Brenham community was formally organized in 1885.
David Lefkowitz, a rabbi, led Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas from 1920 to 1949, after having worked at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio. He opposed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which had been revived in 1915; it was strongly opposed to immigrants who were Jews and Catholics from eastern and southern Europe. He was a Founding Executive Committee Member of the Dayton Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The history of Galveston, Texas, begins with the archaeological record of Native Americans who used the island. The first European settlements on the island were constructed around 1816. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its successful revolution from Spain. The city served as the main port for the Texas Navy during the Texas Revolution. Galveston was founded in 1836 by Michel Menard, Samuel May Williams, and Thomas F. McKinney, and briefly served as the capital of the Republic of Texas. The Battle of Galveston was fought in Galveston Bay during the American Civil War when Confederate forces under Major General John B. Magruder attacked and expelled occupying Union troops from the city.
The migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel has been made all over the centuries. Moroccan Jews in Israel have been the founders of many pioneer neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberias and others.
Judaism, the second-largest religion practiced in New York, with over 2.2 million followers in New York State; and with approximately 1.6 million adherents in New York City as of 2022, represents the largest Jewish community of any city in the world, greater than the combined totals of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Nearly half of the city's Jews live in Brooklyn. The ethno-religious population makes up 18.4% of the city and its religious demographic makes up 8%. The first recorded Jewish settler was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company. Following the assassination of Alexander II of Russia, for which many blamed "the Jews", the 36 years beginning in 1881 experienced the largest wave of Jewish immigration to the United States. In 2012, the largest Jewish denominations were Orthodox, Haredi, and Conservative Judaism. Reform Jewish communities are prevalent through the area. Congregation Emanu-El of New York in Manhattan is the largest Reform synagogue in the world.
The immigrant inspection station at the Port of Galveston, in Galveston, Texas, was the gateway for tens of thousands of immigrants to the Southwest of the United States. Galveston was one of the largest cities in Texas until the hurricane of 1900 devastated the city
The Industrial Removal Office (IRO) was an agency assisting European Jewish immigrants to the United States in the early 20th century. It was formed in 1901 by the Jewish Agricultural Society. The Jewish Immigrant Information Bureau was founded in 1907 as an offshoot of the IRO. The IRO also had an uncertain relationship with the Jewish Territorial Organization, led by Israel Zangwill.
