BY FRED SHUSTER>LA.COM

The first Jews arrived in America a little more than 350 years ago when 23 impoverished people arrived by ship in New Amsterdam after having been bounced out of Brazil.

There was no warm welcome. New York Gov. Peter Stuyvesant tried to expel them as soon as they arrived. He failed.

"Only in America," a five-part radio series that traces the history of Jews in America and debuts Monday, Dec. 3, on KCRW-FM (89.9) -- with podcasts now available at  www.onlyinamerica.info -- shows how and why. The series, co-produced by longtime public radio figure Larry Josephson, reveals the progress of American Jews from this trickle of poor immigrants to today's thriving community of 6 million.

The broadcast coincides with the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which begins at sundown Tuesday.

A forthcoming PBS series, "The Jewish Americans," covers similar ground. The four-part weekly TV series, which debuts Jan. 9 on the public television network, looks at the trials and accomplishments of the Jewish-American community from the mid-17th century to the present day.

But radio's "Only in America" gets to the airwaves first. The programs move from Asher Levy, who fought for Jewish civil rights in colonial times, to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who climbed from working-class roots in Brooklyn to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

It also covers composers like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Harold Arlen as well as anti-Semitism, the Jewish Lower East Side of New York, Jewish contributions to the entertainment world, and touches on personalities of Jewish women and men, from the present and the past, who have achieved success in America.

We reached Josephson, 68, at home in New York about the series.

Q: What surprised you?
A: There's this history where some American Jews can trace their origins back to Colonial times and through the Revolutionary War period. It was interesting to learn that Jews fought in and financed the American Revolution. People who've heard the show say, "I didn't know that."

Q: Even among Jews, not a great deal is known about the history.
A: American Jews know more about the Exodus (the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, as related in the Torah) than they know about their history in America. They have no idea of the virulance of anti-Semitism in this country. It was on the radio;, Henry Ford said in his newspaper that the Jew was the world's foremost problem; Charles Lindbergh accused Jews of pushing the U.S. into World War II. One Jew was even lynched. Neighborhoods were restricted. Nobody was hiding it.

Q: They made great inroads in Hollywood, but being Jewish was still something to be hidden.
A: So many actors changed their names -- Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall. It sure wasn't as accepted as it is today.

Q: What kind of research went into the series?
A: We started four years ago. We combed archives for oral histories of factory workers and others. Even my own grandmother didn't want to talk about her earliest years here. Most American Jews don't know their own history. But non-Jews are very interested in this stuff. With all the intermarriages, sometimes the non-Jewish partners are more interested than their partners.

Q: What's the potential audience?
A: There could be 100,000 listeners. The payoff is podcasting on our Web site (www.onlyinamerica.info). People can download it anytime they want forever. It has a life of its own.

Fred Shuster (818) 713-3676