Zev Eleff: 250 Years of American Judaism [American Jewish History 2/4]
June 30, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn 1654, twenty-three Jews fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition in Dutch Brazil landed in New Amsterdam—present-day New York—not because they intended to start a new chapter of Jewish history, but because they ran out of fare to reach Amsterdam. That unglamorous arrival launched the American Jewish experience. By 1776, only about 2,000 Jews lived in the colonies. Over the next 250 years, that community would grow to nearly six million, passing through five distinct fifty-year periods, each defined by a different struggle: first for civic belonging, then for economic footing, then for religious definition, then for global responsibility, and finally for the very meaning of Jewish identity in an age of unprecedented freedom.
1776–1826: The Struggle for Civic Belonging
In the founding era, American Jews were overwhelmingly Whigs and patriots, not Tories. They had no long loyalty to the British crown—Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and only readmitted under Cromwell in the 1650s—so they felt little fealty. More importantly, they shared the colonists’ grievances about taxation without representation. The revolution’s leadership, including Ben Franklin, drew heavily on biblical imagery (Franklin proposed the parting of the Red Sea as a national symbol), and Jews saw themselves as potential full citizens in the new republic.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (04:31) **Episode Introduction & Framing** - Host David Bashevkin introduces the podcast series on Judaism in America for the 250th anniversary of the U.S., framing the journey of Jewish history through different exiles.
- 2 (15:07) **Period 1: 1776–1826 – Founding & Religious Liberty** - Professor Zev Eleff describes the anxieties of the tiny colonial Jewish community (approx. 2,000 people) about their place in the new republic.
- 3 (32:24) **Period 2: 1826–1876 – Manifest Destiny & Peddling** - The Jewish population grows from ~5,000 to ~200,000, driven by poor German Jews fleeing failed revolutions and seeking economic opportunity as peddlers.
- 4 (38:42) **Civil War & Slavery** - The Civil War divided Jews geographically, not religiously; most Jews in the South supported slavery, while northern Jews were split.
- 5 (44:50) **Period 3: 1876–1926 – Mass Migration & Religious Splintering** - The Jewish population explodes from 200,000 to 4 million, driven by Eastern European Jews fleeing pogroms and seeking economic opportunity.
- 6 (59:02) **Period 4: 1926–1976 – Responsibility & Global Leadership** - American Jews stop looking to Europe for authenticity and become the world’s largest Jewish community, taking responsibility for global Jewry.
- 7 (68:02) **Period 5: 1976–2026 – Integration vs. Distinctiveness** - The central struggle is whether Jews can remain distinct and confident while fully integrating into American society.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
In this episode we discuss:
—Why did colonial Jews support the American Revolution despite knowing the dangers of opposing those in power?
—How did Jewish denominations and institutions as we know them emerge in America, and what roles did Zionism and U.S. immigration policy play in this?
—Where are we headed on our American Jewish journey, and what have we learned along the way?
Tune in to hear a conversation about the intersection of the Jewish story and American exceptionalism.
Interview begins at 11:00.
Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff is the president of Gratz College. Zev is the author and editor of nine books and more than 50 scholarly articles in the fields of Jewish Studies and American Religion, including Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History, Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith, and Remaking Harvard’s America, and Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life. His research focuses on American Jewish history, sports, and Modern Orthodox history.
References:
Jeremiah 29:7
The Greatest of All Time: A History of an American Obsession by Zev Eleff
Authentically Orthodox: A Tradition-Bound Faith in American Life by Zev Eleff
18Forty Podcast: “Zev Eleff: Is This the End of American Judaism?”
American Judaism: A History by Jonathan D. Sarna
The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Success in America and the British Empire by Adam D. Mendelsohn
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