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Our Past in Present Tense

Why Do I Refuse to Admit the Jews—An Interview with Peter Stuyvesant

By Yehuda Shabatay  
San Diego Jewish Times, October 12, 2000

It was a beautiful fall morning when I was finally granted an audience with the Honorable Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Netherland. as  i waited in the entrance hall of his drab New Amersterdam office, I could see the French boat Ste. Catherine anchored in Hudson Bay with 23 Jewish refugees on board who anxiously awaited the governor's permission to come ashore. This group of Jews had recently escaped from the Portuguese colony of Recife, in brazil. They hoped that the North American Dutch settlers would allow them to settle in their midst.

After exchanging brief greetings with the usually tightlipped governor, I asked what he planned to do with the refugees.

"I will never allow those infidels to invade our territory," responded Mr. Stuyvesant without the slightest hesitation. "As we all know, the Jews are notorious for their usury and for their deceitful dealings with the Christians. They have no experience in farming, and this group is too poor to engage in trade; therefore, they could survive only by sucking our blood. I will never grant them permission to enter New Amsterdam."

"But, Governor, may I respectfully remind you that you represent the Dutch West India Company, which has quite a few Jewish stockholders who may convince your board of directors to instruct you otherwise?"

"That may be true, but may I remind you," responded Mr. Stuyvesant with his voice rising, "that it takes weeks for any letter of complaint to reach Holland, and many more weeks for the Company to act and send its instructions to me? By then, winter may cause those servants of Baal to perish of cold and famine. They are penniless and could not even produce the balance of their passage money, so the captian obtained a court order to auction off their furniture and to put two of them in the stockade."

"Is there any hope for their survival?"

"Frankly, my dear sir, it's none of my business, or yours. Only yesterday, I met with Johannes Meapolensis and several of his colleagues of the Dutch Reformed Church and they, too, warned me that there are already enough Lutherans, Papists, and even atheists among us without allowing a bunch of obstinate and immovable Jews to settle here as well."

"Would 23 men, women and children make that much of a difference in our fast-growing colony?"

"Well, even 23 of those repugnant creatures are too many. And, once you admit even a handful of Jews, they are soon followed by innumerable relatives and friends. Look, what happened in Holland. As soon as we won our independence from Spain, shiploads of pigs, or 'marranos' as they are called in Spanish, began to arrive in our country, and now they control my company!"

"Can you envision something like that happening in the New World?"

"I certainly can!  At first they appear as poor refugees, weeping and bemoaning their misery. Then they multiply faster than one would ever anticipate, and enter every occupation and profession. Before you know it, they become judges, legislators, and, who knows, perhaps governors...The only precaution we can take is to keep them out now!"

"Governor, don't you exaggerate? Prior to your present assignment here, you were the Governor of Curacao.  Weren't there Jews in that Dutch colony?"

"Unfortunately, there were a few, though I would have liked to have gotten rid of those, too. But my astrologist warned me that New Amsterdam is a particularly vulnerable place. He could foresee a time when this city would be swarming with Jews. He warned me that unless I act right now, one day a Jew could be nominated for the second highest office in the land! He reminded me of the biblical Joseph who was second to the Pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago."

"Doesn't your astrologist exaggerate, too?"

"At first, I didn't want to believe him, but then he showed me all the planetary charts that proved him right. Now I am worried that two or three centuries from now another Joseph may rise to an even more powerful position than his biblical namesake did."

At this point, the governor's secretary entered the room and hastily whispered something in Mr. Stuyvesant's ear. The governor apologizewd for the interruption and for his inability to continue the interview.  I stood up, bowed, and left his office. On my way out, I cast another glance at the French boat on the Hudson and wondered what the fate of those Jews would be.

Will the governor prevail in his adamant refusal to allow their entry to New Amsterdam, or will his astrologist's forecast come true? Will the day come when Jews will become respected citizens of this town?  will someone named Joseph occupy an important position in this land?

(Acknowledgment: Some facts used in this interveiw relate to documents quoted in A History of the Jews in America by Howard M. Sachar, 1992)

Dr. Yehuda Shabatay received rabbinical training in Budapest, a master of jurisprudence degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his doctorate in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He was engaged in Jewish educational administration over most of his career and now teaches Jewish studies and history at Palomar and City Colleges.