Nadene Goldfoot
The USA is unlike any established European country. It was created by the failures of the world. What was going on in Europe in the 1600s was that the eldest son inherited the land, property, the estates of his fathers. The other sons received none of this. They had to make do some other way. "In law, primogeniture is the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in military tenure (see knight)". Real estate (land) passed to the eldest male descendant by operation of law.
The Puritans were unwanted in England as they didn't want to follow the established religion of the king's choice. They had moved to Holland for a better life but found their children speaking Dutch as their 1st language. They moved because their religious views weren't allowed. They realized that with the discovery of a new land, they had a chance to live the life they wanted and needed. Another group arrived earlier and made it to the South, Jamestown in Virginia. They were more business centered, and wanted a start in life.
There was more enthusiasm within the young sons of the establishments of Europe. A fleet of ships went over to America in 1630. This continued. They saw they could make their own fortunes in this new land.
By 1886 France sent over a gift; the Statue of Liberty, that said, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!". This was written by Emma Lazarus, part of her poem entitled, The Colossus.
The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
Emma Lazarus was born in New York City, July 22, 1849, into a large Sephardic Jewish family. She was the fourth of seven children of Moses Lazarus, a wealthy Jewish merchant and sugar refiner, and Esther Nathan. One of her great-grandfathers on the Lazarus side was from Germany; the rest of her Lazarus and Nathan ancestors were originally from Portugal and resident in New York long before the American Revolution, being among the original twenty-three Portuguese Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam fleeing the Inquisition from their settlement of Recife, Brazil. Lazarus's great-great-grandmother on her mother's side, Grace Seixas Nathan (born in New York in 1752) was also a poet. Lazarus was related through her mother to Benjamin N. Cardozo, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her siblings included sisters Josephine, Sarah, Mary, Agnes and Annie, and a brother, Frank.
Privately educated by tutors from an early age, she studied American and British literature as well as several languages, including German, French, and Italian. She was attracted in youth to poetry, writing her first lyrics when eleven years old.
Emma was fortunate to have come from a wealthy Jewish family, as later
Ashkenazi Jews of Europe who were of a poor lot came over and had
no one to help them except themselves which they did.
Emma's Sephardic background was also one of fear and hunger ever since 1492
and the Spanish inquisition with Jews leaving Spain, forced to leave as
unwanted people.
Jews have settled in New York state since the 17th century. In August 1654, the first known Jewish settler, Jacob Barsimson of Dutch or German origin, arrived a month before the 1st group of 23 Jews in 1654, came to New Amsterdam. The Dutch colonial port city was the seat of the government for the New Netherland territory and became New York City in 1664. One thing about Jacob was that he was a champion of equal rights for the Jews in New Amsterdam. He insisted upon his right to render guard duty in place of paying a fine or tax.
The first significant group of Jewish settlers came in September 1654 as refugees from Recife, Brazil to New Amsterdam. Portugal had just conquered Brazil from the Dutch Republic and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews there promptly fled. A group of 23 Jewish immigrants in New Amsterdam was greeted by director general Peter Stuyvesant who was at first unwilling to accept them.
The Jewish population in New York City went from about 80,000 in 1880 to 1.6 million in 1920. By 1910, more than 1 million Jews made up 25 percent of New York's population and made it the world's largest Jewish city. As of 2016, about 1.1 million residents of New York City, or about 12 percent of its residents, were Jewish. New York state has about 1.75 million Jews, comprising approximately 9 percent of its total population. Many Ashkenazi Jews came over in the late 1800s and early 1900s till about 1920 when the door closed to them.
This period of immigration came to an end with the passage of restrictive laws in 1921 and 1924. Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe to the United States never again reached the levels that it did before 1920. In 1921 and 1924, the US Congress passed immigration laws that severely limited the number and “national origin” of new immigrants. These laws did not change in the 1930s, as desperate Jewish refugees attempted to immigrate from Nazi Germany. Jews had problems entering the USA at this time and Palestine in the 30s; with Palestine by the English who held the mandate and who were allowing Arabs in instead. Other countries kept them out for reasons that they had no baptism certifications, needed to enter.
My grandfather, Nahum Abraham Goldfus/foot came over from Lithuania and was found on the 1910 census in Portland, Oregon, but was killed accidently with his horse and wagon in an accident in July 1912. He may have entered around 1905, as a son was born here in 1906.
All sorts of Robinsons followed John. Robinson became the 16th most popular surname, but John never made it over. He did send his son, Isaac over, though. Frank Hugh Robinson was born to an Abiathar Smith Robinson of Vermont or New York, since Vermont had been formed out of New York and Frank had lost track of his original ancestor who arrived from Great Britain. His father was a teamster, a popular choice of work since men of those days were so used to handling horses and Abiathar had a farm with horses and cattle, so was a farmer first. Frank became a teamster, too. All immigrants who first came over were farmers. They wanted land.
New England had been settled first by the English. There were plenty of French, Spanish, Dutch and even Russian colonial outposts on the American continent–but the story of those 13 colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) is an important one. It was those colonies that came together to form the United States.
The United states grew from the first 13. it became a melting pot, a mixture of all sorts of people from all corners of the world. The only other country following in these footsteps now, is Israel, a protective habitat for Jews from all corners of the world. It's the time of the prophesized Ingathering. Just as people chose America, Jews are choosing to return to Israel.
Israel has been the #1 leading nation of Start Ups, the starting up of new industry. In fact, there is a book out about it. "Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle is a 2009 book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer about the economy of Israel". Israel was the country in the waiting for 2,000 years since 70 CE that was rebirthed on May 14, 1948, a very new nation making waves of success with the aid of its big brother, the USA another new nation only 245 years old on July 4, 2021. Both are made up of immigrants and some native peoples. The immigrants were fighting for their lives to succeed as they had nowhere else to go. So were the natives.
it's important for the USA to remember why it has been a leader and are a country of leadership. They need not follow Europe, as Europe needs the USA to lead us into the future. What we need Europe for is to remember our past and not make similar mistakes that they have made, and to remember those efforts that were successful.
I like what our 35th President John Fitzgerald Kennedy reminded us of: "Ask not what can the country do for you, but what you can do for your country." We need to remember our Constitution and what it stands for-and have some self control and use our heads and think about our actions.
In 1790 we had 3,929,214 people.
In 2020 we had 330,000,000 people. A lot of people have immigrated to this country. They have wanted to be Americans for many reasons. It continues to be the grand young country and is just going through a growing pains period right now, but it will mature quickly and be better than ever for it, for it learns from its experiences. Remember, on July 4th it will only be 245 years old ! Compared to Europe, that's a baby, but a baby genius!
Now that land has been spoken for, and there is no more left like there was in the 1600s, we are facing a new frontier-outer space. That's where future dare-devils; people needing to explore and discover, will be going next. We even have a space program set up and have been doing some explorations already. We have NASA.
Resource:
updated: 1/13/21 at midnight
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/united-states-immigration-and-refugee-law-1921-1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_colonization_of_the_Americas#Southern_Colonies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_inheritance_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture#:~:text=In%20law%2C%20primogeniture%20is%20the,military%20tenure%20(see%20knight).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
https://poets.org/poem/new-colossus?gclid=Cj0KCQiArvX_BRCyARIsAKsnTxO52dqUdstKzLtYEjlW-ILBBLxecELx5MN8hhKx0uJl-GjTkLx1Oq4aAsBrEALw_wcB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/haven-century.html
https://2020census.gov/en/focus/years-counting.html
