Daniela Weil
THE DIARY OF ASSER LEVY, FIRST JEWISH CITIZEN OF NEW YORK
Pelican Publishing, 2020, ISBN: 978 1455625215
Reviewed by Rochelle Strauss1
In New York City, on Asser Levy Place there is the Asser Levy Recreation Center; Public School 19 is the Asher Levy Elementary School; in Coney Island, Brooklyn there is an Asser Levy Park. Each honors the legacy of the first Jewish citizen of New Amsterdam, who was granted citizenship rights on April 21, 1657. The historical man behind these honors is not a household name in New York or in the Jewish community at large, an unfamiliarity that The Diary of Asser Levy helps to resolve. Weil offers us a fictionalized history of real people and events told in diary form. Asser Levy is our narrator in an adventure of survival and hope.
It is after the fall of the last stronghold, Recife, and the Dutch surrender, that the diary of the teenager Asser Levy begins. After the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many Jews first fled to Portugal to escape the Inquisition. When their existence there was threatened again, many found a safer haven in the Netherlands. When the Dutch West India Company, one of the largest international trading companies, captured the northeastern Brazilian colony of Pernambuco from the Portuguese, they recruited people to live there. Portuguese Jews of the Netherlands, who spoke both languages and were experienced shippers and traders, were willing to adventure to the Americas. The Dutch West India Company established a religiously tolerant community there. Recife, the colonial capital known as “colonial Jerusalem,” had a community of almost one thousand Jews .The rather peaceful existence of the Jews in Dutch-controlled Recife came to an end in 1654, however, for in that year the Portuguese recaptured Recife. All the inhabitants living there were given three months to leave. The diary of the teenaged Asser Levy begins after the fall of Recife, the last stronghold, and the Dutch surrender.
The diary entries are all narrated by Asser in the present tense. We learn how he and his father, Benjamin, have left his sister behind in the Netherlands after his mother died, to begin their life in Recife with his father serving as the shochet or kosher butcher. When father and son are forced to leave, their first priority is arranging passage on a ship back to the Netherlands. Asser takes responsibility for arranging passage for his father to leave first, and then successfully sells the butcher shop. His father gives Asser his butcher knives, in a gesture of optimism, hopeful that another generation will use them. Two weeks later, February 1654, Asser boards the Falcon with over twenty fellow Jews. Once aboard ship, his diary entries give us the details of the key events he and his compatriots experience on the voyage. We share their worries of the voyage as a storm buffets the ship and blows them off course. The battered ship is attacked by pirates and we fear for the passengers’ well-being after their provisions are stolen. They reach land in Jamaica, but their relief is short-lived. They are taken into custody by the Spanish Inquisition and questioned for heresy; they have to prove they were never New Christians who returned to Judaism. After three months in custody, Asser along with twenty-three of the Jewish passengers reboard the Falcon, only to go as far as Cuba. In Cuba, they hope to find passage on another ship going to the Netherlands, but their only recourse is to accept passage on the St. Catherine going to the Dutch West India colony of New Amsterdam.
Asser describes how he and his fellow Jews face further unexpected difficulties in this last part of their voyage. Once they can convince the Captain of the St. Catherine to wait for full payment when they reach New Amsterdam, they set sail, expecting to meet Jews in New Amsterdam who will help reimburse the Captain. However, they are surprised to discover when they arrive in September 1654, that they are the first Jewish colonists to land there. Asser describes how they finally manage to work out a plan to pay off their debt. When the Dutch Jews arrive in March 1655, with the needed funds, they also bring Asser a letter from his sister informing him that his father arrived safely. The money and the letter relieve Asser of two worries. The unexpected cargo of a Torah scroll for the fledgling community encouraged a sense of hope and optimism, that they will successfully establish a Jewish community. Nevertheless, they are faced with eviction by the director-general, Petrus Stuyvesant, who considers them to be a burden in his colony; not only are they indigent, but they are Jews. In order to avoid expulsion, they decide to petition their employer, the Dutch West India Company, to grant them the same rights as the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam. The Company responds in favor of their requests in April 1655, but it is not until Stuyvesant receives a letter of reprimand in June 1656, that the privileges of trade, travel, business and home ownership, and private religious practice were permitted to the Jewish colonists. Asser Levy relates to his readers how he becomes a leading member of the Jewish community, finally becoming a citizen. In fulfillment of his father’s confidence, he is granted a license in October 1660, to be the first kosher butcher. The diary ends with these positive events that enable him to carry on the traditions of his father and grandfather in this new land.
The book is written for middle grade readers and is Daniela Weil’s first novel. She was born in Brazil, her own family finding refuge there after fleeing Europe during the Holocaust. As a Brazilian Jew, the history of the Dutch Jews of Recife is also part of her heritage. The experience of seventeenth century refugees resonated with Weil because of her personal history and also because it is a timely topic that reflects the experiences of so many of today’s refugees around the world. The Diary of Asser Levy describes a familiar pattern: lives in upheaval, dangers of the unknown, yet courage and determination to survive and succeed.
The diary format is a popular one for middle grade readers. There are numerous fictional diaries covering different historical periods. Rather than the development of characters, our diarist's observations focus on what is happening in the present. With Asser, we are storm tossed, fearful of pirates and Inquisitors, vulnerable to the weather and physical harm, bullied, anxious, and ultimately proud as we experience this challenging journey. Weil has taken the historical and documented information and created an engrossing adventure story that gives readers insight into what life might have been like for early settlers. Weil is an experienced researcher, having written scientific and historical articles. She includes a timeline, a glossary, reference sources, and pictures to enrich our knowledge of what is known and how she created Asser Levy's story. Exactly how the historic Asser Levy arrived in New Amsterdam is uncertain. Yet, he is a fitting narrator of the journey of Dutch Jews from colonial Brazil to New Amsterdam. His persistence gaining the rights of citizenship for Jews and being the first to be granted that right personifies the universal hope of the refugee to reach a safe haven.
Interestingly, Pelican Publishing has printed the text in Open Dyslexic typeface; this type increases the readability for those with dyslexia. Thus, the story can be enjoyed by a more inclusive readership, especially one that can personally relate to the persistence necessary to succeed and overcome obstacles, as did the refugees.
1 Rochelle Strauss is a retired librarian, Brooklyn Public Library, New York.