[1654]

The first [23] Jewish settlers sail to American shores.

Unlike previous Jewish travelers (such as Bohemian Jewish metallurgist Joachim Gaunse, who was sent to Roanoke Island in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh), the approximately twenty-three Jewish arrivals who fled Recife, Brazil and disembarked in New Amsterdam in 1654 sought a permanent homea place where they could "travel," "trade," "live," and "remain"following the Portuguese recapture of the Dutch colony. "1654 has become a symbolic date," explains Dr. Gary Zola. "The refugees immediately encountered hostility [such as Peter Stuyvesant's assertion to the Dutch West India Company that they are 'a deceitful race, hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ'] and fought for opportunity–a dynamic that is emblematic of the whole flow of American Jewish history." One year later, the Dutch West India Company, dependent on Jewish investors, granted the New Amsterdam Jews the right to settle, provided that "the poor among them shall…be supported by their own nation."

[1730]

About fifty to sixty Spanish and Portuguese Jews build North America's first synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, on Mill Street in New York City.

The only New York City synagogue until 1825, Congregation Shearith Israel served the area's entire Jewish community, offering Sephardic and Ashkenazic men and women traditional services, religious education, and kosher meat as well as Passover provisions. "Even more than the arrival of Jews," says Professor Deborah Dash Moore, "the establishment of this synagogue bespeaks a concern for the perpetuation of Jewish lives and community."

[1787 & 1791]

Following the American Revolutiona war in which at least 100 American Jews are known to have foughtthe US Constitution and Bill of Rights are enacted, granting Jews equality under the law.

"The Federal Constitution [1787] and the Bill of Rights [1791] outlawed religious tests as qualification to any office or public trust and forbade Congress from making any law 'respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…,'" explains Professor Jonathan Sarna. "Jews thereby gained their religious rights in the United States (and in most but not all of the separate states), not through a special privilege or 'Jew bill' that set them apart as a group, but as individuals along with everybody else. Thus, by the end of the 18th century, Jews had achieved an unprecedented degree of 'equal footing' in America."

[1790]

The first president of the United States warmly addresses a synagogue–the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island.

In a letter to the congregation, George Washington proclaimed that liberty is "an inherent natural right" and assured the community that the US government "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." "George Washington's letter affirmed that America would be a place where Jews were welcomed as equals," says Rabbi David Ellenson, "and it reaffirmed the notion of tolerance as an American ideal."

…

https://reformjudaism.org/history-jews-united-states