Native American–Jewish relations

Native Americans and Jewish Americans have interacted throughout much of the history of the United States, beginning with the arrival of European Jews in North America in the 17th century. As the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited naturalization to "free white persons", European Jews were allowed to settle in the United States and become citizens due to being legally classified as white. A small number of American Jews acquired ownership of Indigenous land during the 1800s and early 1900s, following the passage of the Homestead Acts. While early Jewish immigrants often behaved like other settlers in their relationship to Native Americans, later generations of American Jews felt a greater level of sympathy for Native American rights. A small but significant number of scholars and lawyers between the 1930s and 1950s who defended the rights of Native Americans were Jewish, most notably Felix S. Cohen and Lucy Kramer Cohen, Department of the Interior officials who drew parallels between the suffering of Native Americans and that of German Jews and who were among the primary legal architects of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has stated that "Jews and American Indians have much in common", citing similar concerns and challenges regarding assimilation, religious rights, and preserving cultural heritage.

History

Key books detailing the history of Jewish-Native relations in the United States include Jews Among the Indians: Tales of Adventure and Conflict in the Old West by M.L. Marks, Members of the Tribe: Native America in the Jewish Imagination by Rachel Rubinstein, and The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America by David S. Koffman.

In 1683, William Penn described the physical appearance of Native Americans by saying that they have similar eyes to Jewish people, writing that "Their Eye is little and black, not unlike a straighy-look't Jew."

17th to 19th centuries

According to University of Toronto professor David S. Koffman, writer of The Jews' Indian, American Jewish history is "part of the process of colonialism" and the emigration of European, North African, and Middle Eastern Jews to newly founded settler-colonial states such as the United States is "the story of modern Jewish life". Koffman claims that European Jews have been both victims of colonialism in Europe and perpetrators of colonialism in North America.

The United States Constitution of 1789 and the Naturalization Act of 1790 do not mention Jews.