Asser Levy

Asser Levy (died 1680), also known as Asher Levy, was one of the first Jewish settlers of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

Asser Levy was probably born in Vilna, present-day Lithuania. He left Poland for Amsterdam, possibly to escape the pogroms of the Khmelnytsky uprising. Although he lived for a time in Amsterdam, he was not given burgher (citizenship) rights, and probably was not granted poorter (permanent residency) rights either. He might also have lived for a time in Schwelm, a town in the County of Mark in modern-day Germany. Two archived documents from Amsterdam reveal that on April 26, 1660, he was there seeking payment of a debt owed to him, and on May 24, 1660, he announced he was going to Germany. Levy might have married his wife Miriam (whose maiden name was probably Israel) while living in Amsterdam, but this cannot be verified; no record of this marriage exists in the Amsterdam archives, but this might be due to the fact that Jews were not required to register their marriages in Amsterdam until 1695. While in Amsterdam, he learned about the opportunities in the New World, and migrated there. Levy might have initially moved to Dutch Brazil; he has been mentioned as one of the 23 Jewish refugees who fled from Recife after the end of Dutch rule in the area. However, Levy is not listed in the extant congregational minute books of the Brazilian Jewish community, which casts serious doubt on this theory. It is known that he eventually ended up in New Netherland, having possibly arrived in New Amsterdam aboard the St. Catherine or St. Charles in early September 1654.

In 1655, Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of the colony, was ordered to attack New Sweden, the Swedish colony on the Delaware River, and accordingly issued orders for the enlistment of all adults. Several Jews, among them Asser Levy, appear to have been ready to serve, but the governor and council passed an ordinance "that Jews can not be permitted to serve as soldiers, but shall instead pay a monthly contribution for the exemption." Levy and his comrades at once refused to pay, and on November 5, 1655, petitioned for leave to stand guard like other burghers or to be relieved from the tax. The petition was rejected with the comment that if the petitioners were not satisfied with the law they might go elsewhere. Levy successfully appealed to Holland, and was subsequently permitted to do guard duty like other citizens.

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