Since the beginning of the 20th century, New York has had the largest Jewish urban community in world history. Three new books explore the influence of the Jews and other immigrants on the city, from Jewish refugees first arriving here in the 17th century, to the 20th-century arrival of the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, which substantially changed the demographics of the city going into the new millennium.

In “Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People” (New York University Press), Deborah Dash Moore, Jeffrey S. Gurock, Annie Polland, Howard B. Rock and Daniel Soyer start with the arrival of 23 Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil, in 1654, and then chronicle the growth of Jewish influence on the city through the 21st century, citing the success of several prominent New Yorkers, including two former Brooklynites, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bernie Sanders.

The authors acknowledge that much of this history has been well-trodden, which is why this synthesis of the three-volume “City of Promises” (by the same authors) intentionally focuses on the periods before and after the great waves of immigration from the 1840s through the 1920s, which created what the essayist Milton Klonsky called the “Ghetto of Eden.”