1700 to 1800

1730	Congregation Shearith Israel is finally allowed to worship in public. Before this time, Jews could only worship in private homes. The Congregation built their first synagogue on Mill Street in lower Manhattan.
1766	Three years after the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the first New York blood of the Revolution is shed when the British injure several Sons of Liberty members who had raised a liberty pole on the Commons.
1773	Approximately 242 Jews live in New York.
1776	Jews participate in the Battle of Brooklyn (also referred to as the Battle of Long Island). The fighting at Gowanus in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, V1973.5.126 a,b,c; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC. 202; Brooklyn Historical Society.
1785	New York is made the first capital of the U.S after the ratification of the Constitution.
1787	Erasmus Hall Academy opens in Brooklyn. It was the first secondary school to be chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Learn more>> Untitled, ca. 1915, V1973.5.3520; Brooklyn Photograph and Illustration Collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society. The Original Erasmus Hall Academy
1792	Five Jews are among the twenty-four stockbrokers who, under a large buttonwood (sycamore) tree, signed the Buttonwood Agreement at 68 Wall Street. The agreement established what would later become the New York Stock Exchange (formally chartered in 1817).
1799	New York State’s Act for the Gradual Emancipation of Negroes and Other Slaves is passed.