Present at the Creation, 1654-1820

The story of Jews in America is told in "Present at the Creation 1654-1820," the first installment of a series that was shown on PBS, They Came for Good. Beginning with the arrival of 23 Brazilian Jews who fled persecution and arrived unwelcome at the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in 1654, the story involves a number of heroic figures who fought for the rights of Jews to own property and practice their religion in the New World. One such colonist, Asher Levy, whose name is memorialized on several landmarks in New York City today, was a successful merchant who fought against being treated as a second-class citizen. During the American Revolution, Jewish financiers helped the Colonial cause, and in what would have been startling in a European country of that era, President George Washington wrote a letter expressing his wishes that America not practice bigotry directed at Jews. Actors in period costume appear as Jews of the time, telling stories derived from diaries and letters of how they managed to mesh in the new country while at the same time keeping to the strict Jewish customs. This is a very intelligently produced look at an aspect of early American history that is often overlooked.