Earlier American Jewish anniversary celebrations: 1905 and 1954.

As the Jewish semisepcentennial, the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam approached, Jewish community leaders and historians examined earlier anniversary celebrations to see how they were commemorated. Some of the undertakings set precedents which forged the path for a stronger, more self-assured community. Some created a structure and ceremonial procedures that were worthy of being made more traditional. Yet, there were also controversies and perceptions that revealed differences within the American Jewish community.

On April 9, 1905, two hundred fifty years after the first permanent Jewish immigrants to settle on the mainland of North America received permission from the Dutch West India Company to remain in New Amsterdam, a planning meeting of Jewish leaders convened in New York City in the vestry of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, to appoint an executive committee and a general committee of two hundred fifty male Jewish lay leaders and clergy, with "representatives in every State and Territory and in most important cities of the Union" to coordinate the approaching anniversary. (1)

To make the celebration a truly national event, the executive committee determined "that every Jewish congregation in the United States is requested to hold appropriate services on Saturday (November 25th) preceding the National Thanksgiving Day, 1905," and that "every Jewish Sabbath School shall be urged to hold similar festivities on the Sunday (November 26th) preceding Thanksgiving Day, to the end that the significance is impressed upon every American Jew." (2)

The executive committee chaired by banking philanthropist and community leader Jacob Schiff, consisted of prominent Ashkenazi members of nineteenth-century German descent including Louis Marshall and Cyrus Adler and the Reverend Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes of the Sephardic Shearith Israel Congregation. The committee had a keen sense of history and deep commitment to the Jewish community. Its members began the American Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Publication Society, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. They would shortly found the American Jewish Committee and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. As post-Civil War communal leaders, they were beginning t...

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