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 Sephardi composed of immigrants from Brazil, Amsterdam, or England.
The history of the Jews in Colonial America begins upon their arrival as early as the 1650s. The first Jews that came to the New World were Sephardi Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam. Later major settlements of Jews would occur in New York, New England, and Pennsylvania.
Jews in Philadelphia can trace their history back to Colonial America. Jews have lived in Philadelphia since the arrival of William Penn in 1682.
The history of the Jews in Pennsylvania dates back to Colonial America.
The history of Jews in St Louis goes back to at least 1807. St. Louis has the largest Jewish population in Missouri and is the largest urban area in the state of Missouri. Today's Jewish community is primarily composed of the descendants of Jews who immigrated from Germany in the first few decades of the 19th century, as well as Jews who came from Eastern Europe slightly later.
The history of Jews in Charleston, South Carolina, was related to the 1669 charter of the Carolina Colony, drawn up by the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and his secretary John Locke, which granted liberty of conscience to all settlers, and expressly noted "Jews, heathens, and dissenters". Sephardi Jews from London were among the early settlers in the city and colony, and comprised most of its Jewish community into the early 1800s.
The history of the Jews in Cincinnati occupies a prominent place in the development of Jewish secular and religious life in the United States. Cincinnati is not only the oldest Jewish community west of the Allegheny Mountains but has also been an institutional center of American Reform Judaism for more than a century. The Israelite, the oldest American Jewish newspaper still (2019) being published, began publication in Cincinnati in 1854.
The history of Jews in Ohio dates back to 1817, when Joseph Jonas, a pioneer, came from England and made his home in Cincinnati. He drew after him a number of English Jews, who held Orthodox-style divine service for the first time in Ohio in 1819, and, as the community grew, organized themselves in 1824 into the first Jewish congregation of the Ohio Valley, the B'ne Israel. This English immigration was followed in the next two decades by the coming of German immigrants who, in contrast, were mostly Reform Jews. A Bavarian, Simson Thorman, settled in 1837 in Cleveland, then a considerable town, which thus became the second place in the state where Jews settled. Thorman was soon followed by countrymen of his, who in 1839 organized themselves into a congregation called the Israelitish Society. The same decade saw an influx of German Jews into Cincinnati, and these in 1841 founded the Bene Yeshurun congregation. To these two communities the Jewish history of Ohio was confined for the first half of the 19th century. In 1850 Ohio had six congregations: four in Cincinnati and two in Cleveland.
The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago is the official organization of the Episcopal Church in Chicago and Northern Illinois, US. The diocese is headed by Bishop Paula Clark, who is the first woman and first African-American to lead the diocese. The diocese was previously served by Jeffrey Lee, who served as bishop until December 31, 2020. The mother church of the diocese is St. James Cathedral, which is the oldest Episcopal congregation in the city of Chicago.
The history of the Jews in Omaha, Nebraska, goes back to the mid-1850s.
The 19th century saw Jews, like many other people, moving to the American West.
Abraham Jonas (born September 12, 1801, in Exeter, England; died June 8, 1864) was the first permanent Jewish resident in Quincy, Illinois. He was a member of the Illinois and Kentucky state legislatures, a leading lawyer, Freemason, and a valued friend of Abraham Lincoln.
Toronto's Jewish community is the most populous and one of the oldest in the country, forming a significant part of the history of the Jews in Canada. It numbered about 240,000 in the 2001 census, having overtaken Montreal in the 1970s. As of 2011, the Greater Toronto Area is home to 188,710 Jews. The community in Toronto is composed of many different Jewish ethnic divisions, reflecting waves of immigration which started in the early 19th century. Canada's largest city is a centre of Jewish Canadian culture, and Toronto's Jews have played an important role in the development of the city.
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.
Few Jews arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in its early years. As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life. Yet, the Jewish community of Baltimore has maintained its own distinctive character as well.
At the end of the 20th century there were a total of 270,000 Jews in the Chicago area, with 30% in the city limits. In 1995, over 80% of the suburban Jewish population lived in the northern and northwestern suburbs of Chicago. At this time, West Rogers Park was the largest Jewish community within the city of Chicago. However, the Jewish population within the city had been declining and tended to be older and more well-educated than the Chicago average. The Jewish immigrants to Chicago came from many different countries, with the most common being Eastern Europe and Germany.
Jews in Los Angeles comprise approximately 17.5 percent of the city's population, and 7% of the county's population, making the Jewish community the largest in the world outside of New York City and Israel. As of 2015, over 700,000 Jews live in the County of Los Angeles, and 1.232 million Jews live in California overall. Jews have immigrated to Los Angeles since it was part of the Mexican state of Alta California, but most notably beginning at the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Jewish population rose from about 2,500 in 1900 to at least 700,000 in 2015. The large Jewish population has led to a significant impact on the culture of Los Angeles. The Jewish population of Los Angeles has seen a sharp increase in the past several decades, owing to internal migration of Jews from the East Coast, as well as immigration from Israel, France, the former Soviet Union, the UK, South Africa, and Latin America, and also due to the high birth rate of the Hasidic and Orthodox communities who comprise about 10% of the community's population.
The history of the Jews in Atlanta began in the early years of the city's settlement, and the Jewish community continues to grow today. In its early decades, the Jewish community was largely made up of German Jewish immigrants who quickly assimilated and were active in broader Atlanta society. As with the rest of Atlanta, the Jewish community was affected greatly by the American Civil War. In the late 19th century, a wave of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe brought less wealthy, Yiddish speaking Jews to the area, in stark contrast to the established Jewish community. The community was deeply impacted by the Leo Frank case in 1913–1915, which caused many to re-evaluate what it meant to be Jewish in Atlanta and the South, and largely scarred the generation of Jews in the city who lived through it. In 1958, one of the centers of Jewish life in the city, the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, known as "The Temple" was bombed over its rabbi's support for the Civil Rights Movement. Unlike decades prior when Leo Frank was lynched, the bombing spurred an outpouring of support from the broader Atlanta community. In the last few decades, the community has steadily become one of the ten largest in the United States. As its population has risen, it has also become the Southern location of many national Jewish organizations, and today there are a multitude of Jewish institutions. The greater Atlanta area is considered to be home to the country's ninth largest Jewish population.
Bernhard Felsenthal was a German-born American rabbi.
