250+ Years of American Jewish Life
Posted on 07/03/2026 @ 06:30 AM
By Dr. Carly Orshan, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Teen Department, & Congregational Education
As America marks its 250th year, I have been thinking about the place of Jews in our country’s story.
Many people are surprised to learn that Jews were present long before the founding of the United States.
In 1654, a group of just 23 Jewish refugees arrived in New Amsterdam, present-day New York City, seeking the opportunity to live openly as Jews.
More than a century later, when America declared its independence, the Jewish population of the colonies numbered only about 2,500 people.
Today, the United States is home to approximately 7.5 million Jews, making it one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.
The journey from 23 refugees to millions of Jews living openly and proudly across America tells a remarkable story about both the American experience and the Jewish experience.
The Jewish people are unusual in human history. Long before there was an America, a France, or an Italy, there was a Jewish people.
We trace our story to the twelve tribes of Israel, connected by a shared narrative, collective responsibility, and a covenant that has endured across thousands of years.
Through that shared connection, Jews maintained an identity that transcended borders, governments, and empires.
We were a people before the modern world organized itself into nations and were often tolerated (in the good times) but not fully accepted, welcomed (in the better times) but not always understood.
While America was far from perfect and continues to wrestle with the challenges of living up to its ideals, few places in Jewish history have offered such opportunity for Jewish life to flourish, contribute, and evolve ...so far.
Today, that story continues to unfold in communities like our own.
A recent article describing Miami as “The New Jerusalem” highlights the extraordinary diversity and growth of Jewish life in South Florida.
At first, the phrase caught me off guard.
Jerusalem is not simply a city. It is a symbol.
A place where history, identity, memory, faith, culture, and peoplehood intersect.
To compare Miami to Jerusalem felt a bit provocative.
But the more I sat with it, the more I understood what the authors were trying to capture.
As a third-generation Miami native, I have watched our Jewish community evolve over decades.
What strikes me most is not simply the size of our community today, but the diversity within it.
The article notes:
“Over the last five years, Miami has become one of the most significant internal migration stories in America: a magnet for families, entrepreneurs, religious communities, and ideological refugees. Some seek more affordable living, while others first fled COVID restrictions (and then never left). For many—especially Jews—the move wasn’t really about weather. It was about oxygen… What has emerged is one of the most diverse, vibrant, and active Jewish ecosystems in the United States — a refuge for Jews seeking a different civic atmosphere and new opportunities, where public safety and communal identity aren’t niche preferences but shared assumptions.”
The article describes Jewish Miami as “a dense collection of micro-civilizations.” That description feels familiar to anyone who has spent time in our community.
We meet Jews whose families came from New York, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Israel, Russia, France, South Africa, Mexico, and countless other places.
We pray differently. We celebrate differently. We tell different family stories. We even greet each other differently, from a handshake to a hug to the unmistakable Miami cheek-kiss hello.
For thousands of years, the Jewish people have been a collection of communities spread across continents and cultures.
Diversity has always been part of the Jewish story. The question has never been whether Jews are different from one another.
The question has always been: What holds us together?
What sustains Jewish communities over time is a shared sense of peoplehood, a commitment to learning, and a responsibility for one another.
That is why education matters.
As our community grows, the challenge is not simply accommodating more people.
The challenge is helping people see themselves as part of something larger than themselves.
That work happens in classrooms, synagogues, camps, schools, community programs, leadership initiatives, and cultural experiences.
The article concludes that Miami offers “the feeling that Jewish life can expand without constraints.”
But growth alone is not enough.
The future of Jewish Miami will depend not only on how much we grow, but on how deeply we connect.
At CAJE, we are privileged to do this work through early childhood education, day schools, congregational education, teen engagement, adult learning, Holocaust education, Israel education, leadership development, film viewership, and community-wide initiatives.
As we celebrate America's 250th year, we do so with both gratitude and responsibility.
Gratitude for the freedoms and opportunities that have allowed Jewish life to thrive, and responsibility to ensure that future generations know their story, take pride in who they are, and feel empowered to contribute to both the Jewish community and the broader society around them.
After all, the story of Jewish life in America is still being written. Today’s learners will help write its next chapter.
