What was the name of the ship who brought the the first Jews and their possessions, in what is now the United States of America?

"The first group of Jews to settle in North America were 23 refugees from Recife, Brazil. In 1654, they arrived at the docks of Dutch New Amsterdam on board a French privateer, the Saint Charles (sometimes dubbed the "Jewish Mayflower"). They were escaping persecution that resulted when Portugal reconquered Dutch Brazil in 1654. Most were descendants of Shephardic Jews, who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. These first Jews who landed in Dutch New Amsterdam had little freedom. Initially, they were forbidden by law to own land or houses, worship in public, hold public office, vote, travel, stand guard, serve in the militia, or to enter trades and professions. - ourjerusalem.com

"In 1655, under the law of new amsterdam, jews of military age were formally NOT allowed to serve in the military. Asser Levy and another Jewish settler, Jacob Barsimon, petitioned the new amsterdam council for the right to keep guard with the other burghers. although their original petition was denied, they appeared regularly with their muscats for military training and stood guard on the city walls. After two years the council finally relented and enrolled the men in the militia.
Their perservance planted the seeds of a tradition of Jewish American patriotism and service that has flourished throughout the history of the United States.

"Asser Levy was the first jew to reside permanently in north america -- although many arrived before and after." - aish.com

"Joachim Gaunse, a Jewish metallurgist and mining engineer from Prague, was invited to England by the Royal Mining Company in 1581. Britain, preparing for war with Spain, was desperately in need of copper. Copper was a critical element in the production of bronze, from which the English manufactured the accurate cannons that gave their warships an advantage over the cast iron cannons of the Spaniards.

"n 1584, in the hope of finding copper, silver and gold, Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Walter Raleigh a royal patent to explore the Virginia territory. Raleigh, then, asked Gaunse to serve as metallurgist and mining supervisor to the Roanoke expedition. Thus, in 1585, Gaunse became the first recorded Jew to set foot on English soil in North America." - Judaism.about.com

I found more references to 1654 than to 1585, but I suspect that the earlier date is factual. Actually, it may depend on how far north the Spanish got in (now) Mexico. If they crossed into (now) US territory, they may have had a Jew in their group.

Excellent reply DG, the "St-Charles" was what I was looking for.

On a side footnote, I also found a site claiming that there was a Jew on first trip of Columbus in 1492,but I didn't find it credible.

I'm fairly sure that there was at least one person on Columbus' ship that qualified.

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Originally posted by DorianGreyed:
I'm fairly sure that there was at least one person on Columbus' ship that qualified.

Sort of, for sure! At the time of Columbus' voyage some Spanish cities had just expelled Jews and there was suddenly a general movement against Jews.Columbus himself noted that when the Jews were expelled and their property seized he was told that the money for the voyage was now available Quite a number of Jews in Spain became crypto-Jews who continued to follow their religion but in secret and some Jews converted and got baptised. Certainly three of his crewmen fell into these categories: Rodrigo de Torres took baptism shortly before the voyage, Luis de Torres, who was an interpreter for Columbus, was another Jew who had been baptised and Rodrigo de Triana was a crypto-Jew.

And then we have the fact that nobody really knows much about Columbus' ancestry. What is known is that all the writing he left was in Spanish. He wrote nothing in any Italian dialect. His father and (stretching my memory here), I think, his grandfather were known to be living in Genoa, but there is nothing else known about his antecedents. (There were and are birth and death registrations from prior to that date for many Genoese.) There were also a few symbols written on some of his papers that are almost identical to Hebrew.

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Most were descendants of Shephardic Jews, who had been expelled from Spain in 1492

Not to be pedantic, but this mistake has been repeated so much it is taken as gospel. The Jews were expelled from Castile in 1492, but not Aragon (much of present day Catalonia). The idea that Ferdinand and Isabella united the two kingdoms to form Spain is not accurate. They had compeletely separate governments, languages, and cultures.