Source: The Jewish Ledger
http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2004/03/19/news/news04.txt
On March 19, 2004 The Jewish Ledger reported, "About 350 years ago, in 1654, a small vessel named the Ste. Catherine, or St. Catrina, sailed into the port of New Amsterdam. Most of the ship's passengers 'twenty-three souls, big and little,' according to an account at the time -- were bedraggled Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil, who had been expelled when the Portuguese recaptured the South American colony from the Dutch. The refugees were not the first Jews to arrive in North America. In 1585, a Jew named Joachim Gaunse served as the metallurgist and mining engineer for the ill-fated English colony on Roanoke Island. Thereafter, a small number of other Jews, mostly intrepid merchants bent on trade, made brief stops at American ports to conduct business. However, the 'big and little' refugees from Recife differed from the Jews who came before them. Though economically ruined, they sought to settle down and form a permanent Jewish community in North America, to 'navigate and trade near and in New Netherland, and to live and reside there.'"