American Jewish Archives Devoted to the preservation and study of American Jewish historical records DIRECTOR: JACOB RADER MARCUS, PH.D. Milton and Hattie Kutz Distinguished Service Professor of American Jewish History ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: STANLEY F. CHYET, PH.D. Professor of American Jewish History Published by THE AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, CINCINNATI, OHIO 45220 on the Cincinnati campus of the HEBREWUNION COLLEGE - JEWISHINSTITUTE OF RELIGION VOL. XXVII NOVEMBER, 1975 NO. 2 In This Issue Jews and the American Revolution A Bicentennial Documentary When the civil war which we call the American Revolution entered its military phase in 1775, it proved impossible for British North America's tiny Jewish community of perhaps.2,500 souls to remain aloof from the conflict. Most of them, for political or socio-economic reasons or a combination of the two, abandoned their loyalty to the British crown and attached themselves to the Revolutionary cause. When the United States won its independence in 1783, it seemed to the Jews that the world had begun again. Index to Volume XXVII 259 Illustrations Haim Isaac Carigal; Mordecai Sheftall; Moses Michael Hays; Jonas Phillips; Gershom Seixas; Jacob Rodriguez Rivera; Abigail Minis; Statue of Robert Morris, George Washington, and Haym Salomon; Manuel Josephson; The Moses Myers Mansion. following p. 144 American Jewish Archives is indexed in Index to Jewish Periodicals, The Journal of American History, and The American Historical Review. Patron for 1975 THE NEUMANN MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND Published by THE AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES on the Cincinnati campus of the HEBREWUNION COLLEGE - JEWISH INSTITUTEOF RELIGION ALFREDGOTTSCHALK, President @ 1975 by the American Jewish Archives Jews and the American Revolution A Bicentennial Documentary Edited and with an Introduction by Jacob R. Marcus TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Jew and the American Revolution .......... Georgia Jews: Liberty People and Violent Rebels-1775-1781 . Hiring a Religious Factotum.1776 .......................... Moses M . Hays Stands on His Rights-1776 ................. The Beginnings of the Political Emancipation of the American Jew-1776-1777 ......................................... Francis Salvador Rouses the Countryside Against the Indians and the Loyalists-1776 ................................. Jonas Phillips. Blockade Runner-1776 ...................... Samuel Jacobs. British Supplyman-1776-1777 ............... Benjamin Levy Throws His Home Open to Robert Morris-1776 Solomon Bush Wishes to Avenge the "Rongs" of His Injured Country-1777 .......................................... Sheftall Sheftall Describes His Career as a Revolutionary Soldier-1777-1783 ...................................... Rebecca Franks Has a Marvelous Time-1778 ............... Elias Pollock. A Continental Regular-1778-1780 ............. Haym Salomon Goes Underground-1778 ................... Isaac Seixas Arranges for the Marriage of His Son. Benjamin- 1778 ................................................... A True-Hearted Israelite Answers a Slanderer-1778 ......... Mordecai Sheftall. Captive of the British-1778 .............. Aaron Lopez Retails Some War Gossip to an Old Friend-1779 Prisoner of War Mordecai Sheftall and Frances. His Wife- 1779- 1780 .............................................. Daniel Gomez Asks that His Grandson Be Permitted to Go to British-Occupied New York-1779 ........................ Isaac Moses Asks the Continental Congress to Furnish Gunpow- der for His Privateer-1779 .............................. Aaron Nunez Cardoza Opens His Home to War Refugees-1779 Rachel Gratz Writes to Her Dear Daddy-1779 ............... Abigail Minis. Georgia Pioneer. Decides to Leave Town-1779 Mordecai Sheftall Petitions Congress to Pay Him What They Owe Him-1780 ........................................ Samuel Jacobs and His Son. Samuel. Jr., Problem Child-1780- 1785 ................................................... Michael Judah and Joseph DePass: Hard Times and a Jewish Will-1780-1784 ......................................... Two Jewish Loyalists Appeal to the British-1781-1782 ....... Yale Receives a Rabbi's Portrait-1781-1782 ................. Rebecca Franks Enjoys Her Exile in New York-1781 ........ Moses M . Hays. Masonic Leader. Comforts a Bereaved Widow-1781 ........................................... Samuel Jacobs' Daughters-1781-1786 ....................... Ezra Stiles. President of Yale. Writes Aaron Lopez' Obituary- 1782 ................................................... The Privateer Hetty Receives Her Sailing Orders-1782 ....... Philadelphia Jewry Dedicates Its First Synagogue Building-1782 Haym Salomon. Broker to the Office of Finance-1782 ....... We Have the World to Begin Againe: America is Independent- 1783 ................................................... Haym Salomon Stops to Gossip-1783 ...................... Haym Salomon Says No to an Importunate Uncle-1783 ...... Pennsylvania Jewry Politely Demands Political Rights-1783 ... Rabbi Gershom Seixas Considers Returning to Shearith Israel- 1783 ................................................... The New York Returning Exiles Welcome Back the Governor- 1784 ................................................... Manuel Josephson Petitions the Philadelphia Congregation to Build a Ritual Bathhouse-1784 .......................... Levy Solomons of Montreal Helps the Americans-1784 ...... Jews Set the Christians an Example-1784 ................... The Burial of Benjamin Moses Clava-1785 .................. Jacob Rodriguez Rivera Writes to the Captain of One of His Slave Ships-1785 ....................................... Moses Hart Spends Passover in New York City-1786 ........ Moses Myers Scouts Around for a Likely Business Town-1786 A Jewish Marriage Ceremony-1787 ........................ Jonas Phillips of Pennsylvania Appeals to the National Govern- ment for Equal Rights-1787 ............................. The Gentiles of Philadelphia Help the Synagogue-1788 ....... A Christian Seeks Conversion to Judaism-1788 .............. The Federal Parade and the Jewish Snack Bar-1788 ......... Salomon Raffeld Asks Permission to be Wed-1788 ........... The Emancipation of the Jew on a Federal Level-1789 ....... The Lack of a Fixed Minhag in the American Synagogue-1790 Newport Jewry Welcomes George Washington-1790 ......... INTRODUCTION The Jew and the American Revolution THE WARAND ITSBEGINNINGS, 1775 The United States in 1975 finds Jews, together with their fel- low-citizens, celebrating the bicentennial of the American Revo- lution. From the ranks of the Jewish community-now 6,000,000 strong-have emerged about two dozen Nobel Prize winners during the last generation. It is the most affluent, the most gener- ous Jewry the world has yet known; the gross national product of its social and cultural institutions totals annually about $1,500,- 000,000. This imposing complex of societies and organizations is a fir cry from the Jewry of 1776 with its maximum total of 2,500 men, women, and children ensconced for the most part in the tidewater towns of Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Charles- ton, and Savannah. Like their neighbors, this miniscule American Jewry of the 1770's was not happy with the new fiscal and political policies Great Britain was formulating for her empire. With the French driven out of North America after the Seven Years' War, the colonists were expected to carry their share of the burden by defraying part of the expense of the long, hard conflict. To achieve this end, imperial controls were tightened; the new em- pire was to be much more closely integrated. The American people reacted to these pressures in the mid-1760's by signing nonimportation and nonconsumption agreements, boycotting English goods and industry. Since the menace of the French had been removed, the colonists no longer needed the mother country and moved toward autonomy. Taking advantage of the emergent national consciousness which had been shaping itself for almost a generation, the extremists pushed for independence and began piling up military supplies. In the attempt to anticipate an upris- ing, the British marched on Lexington and Concord in April, 1775, and the war was on. This introduction appeared originally as a separate brochure published by the American Jewish Archives in 1974. LOYALISTS The overwhelming majority of Americans were not happy about the thought of war that spring and summer of 1775. Even after the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress hoped to evade a full-scale struggle and ordered a fast day in July. There is reason to believe that the Jews assembled in their chapels all the way from Newport to Savannah and prayed devoutly for peace. Out on the Pennsylvania frontier, in the growing village of North- umberland, Mrs. Aaron Levy and her nephew attended a make- shift Presbyterian service and prayed with their neighbors for the cessation of hostilities. But this war, too, was irrepressible, and Jews, like all others, had to take a stand. In determining their loyalties, Jews did not differ from their fellow-Americans. Some were Loyalists (Tories); others were Whigs; in between were those who swung from side to side as need and circumstances dictated. No one will ever know with any exactitude where the American people and the Jews among them stood in those sad days. Even families split-there were Go- mezes, Frankses, and Hayses in both camps. This was a civil war. In the larger towns, some Jews too poor even to go into exile and hoping to keep their little shops open accepted the authority