There would have been no Jews In the English Colonies if it had not been for Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel of Amsterdam, Holland. A four hundred year old law forbids Jews to settle in English lands. Rabbi Manasseh addresses Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, with a fervent messianic argument that England must allow Jews to live on its soil or else the D-day of Judgement will never come for Christian or Jew for..."Before all (prophesies ?) be fulfilled the people of God must first be dispersed into all the places and countries of the world." This thesis coincides with Cromwell's desire to speed the development of trade and commerce in the colonies. The ban of Jews is revoked and settlement follows. The Newport settlement forms congregation Jeshuat Israel, begjns soap manufacturing by 1702, and becomes the center of an important sperm oil and whaling industry. The indigo Industry begins in South Carolina.

Portrait by Rembrandt.

Joseph Senior, AKA Joseph Simon, establishes a trading post on the frontier in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1735. Judah Monis is the flrst Jew to graduate from Harvard. He publishes an English/Hebrew dictionary in 1735. Meyer Meyers establishes a reputation for craftsmanship as a silversmith and is the only smith to create Judaic ritual silver.