No, it is autochthonous to North America but now you can find it through Europe and South America as well. In fact, Wikipedia explains its name as a result of italian immigrants who arrived to North America and started calling this plant "girasole" (JA belongs to the same family of sunflowers). Time after time, Americans started to mispronounce "girasole" as "jerusalem"...and that is one possible explanation of its name.
My mother was the first one who told me that I could eat these roots and plant them in my garden. "Watch out" she said "they could infest your whole garden if you don't harvest them".