Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D.Joan Myerson Shrager, M.Ed.

Edward Percy Moran 1913

TOURO SYNAGOGUENEWPORT, RHODE

ISLAND

FROM COLONIAL KEHILLAH TO AMERICAN COMMUNITY

In Their Eyes: Images of the

Jew in the Early National

Period

Hannah Adams,

History of the Jews

(1812)

Charles Dibden,

“The Jew and the

Doctor” (1799), played

in Philadelphia

Hidden Identities:Lorenzo Da Ponte 1749-1838

Born Jewish in Italy, he was forcibly converted as a child. The librettist of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, The marriage of Figaro, and Cosi fan Tutte, Da Ponte emigrated to America in 1805 and became a professor of Italian at Columbia.

Alexander Hamilton 1755-1804

The 'progress of the Jews ... from their earliest history to the present time has been and is entirely out of the ordinary course of human affairs. Is it not then a fair conclusion that the cause also is an extraordinary one - in other words, that it is the effect of some great providential plan?' In a renowned legal case, Hamilton challenged the opposing counsel: 'Why distrust the evidence of

the Jews? Discredit them and you destroy the Christian religion....'

Sephardic Jewish Pirate? Jean Lafitte 1776-1823

Lafitte, The Corsair, established a pirate kingdom in swamps of New

Orleans, and led more than 1,000 men during the War of 1812.

Simon Magruder Levy, 1802,Cadet 1st Class West Point

Sampson Simson1800 Columbia College

US Army Officers 1805College Hall, 1800 NYC

American Jews Enter Higher Education

David Stone NC Governor1808-1810

Home of Jacob HenryBeaufort, NC

Beginning of speech he made inNorth Carolina House of Commons

ANTE-BELLUM AMERICA1815 -1860

First American Stained Glass Jewish Star Window, Baltimore 1844

In The Shadow of Shylock: Jews in Ante-Bellum American Literature

Charles F. BriggsBriggs’ Character Of Mr.

Isaacs, Ugly’ Jewish, Skinflint Swindler

Modeled After Shylock

1839

George Lippard

Portrays a malevolent hump-backed Jewish character, Gabriel

Van Gelt, who forges, swindles, blackmails, and

commits murder for money.

Bestselling book in US prior to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,published 1845

“But ah! what once has been shall be no more!

The groaning earth in travail and in pain

Brings forth its races, but does not restore,

And the dead nations never rise again.”

HWL 1854

“The Old Jewish Cemetery at Newport”

About Jews:

“The ugliest, most evil-minded

people…[who resemble]

maggots when they

overpopulate a

decaying cheese.” 1860

NEW PUBLIC IMAGES OF THE ANTE-BELLUM JEW

Maryland Jew Bill 1826

"The legislature of this state

adjourned on Saturday last. The

'Jew bill', as it is called--or a bill to

alter the constitution so as to

relieve persons from political

disqualifications on account of

their religious opinions, has again

passed both branches of the

legislature--in the house of

delegates by a vote of 26 to 25;

only 51 out of 80 members being

present. Before it is effective it

must be passed by the next

succeeding legislature..."

Thomas Kennedy, Legislator

David Levy Yulee

US Senator from Florida 1845-51Elected to the Senate again in 1855, Yulee served until January 21, 1861, when he withdrew from the Senate after Florida seceded. He joined the Congress of the Confederacy. In 1865 after the war, Yulee was imprisoned in Fort Pulaski for nine months due to his participation in the

Confederate government.

Member of U.S. House of RepresentativesPennsylvania's 1st district

(November 10, 1808-March 14, 1860) Philadelphia politician, prominent Know Nothing, and anti-

Catholic social activist of the 1840s and 1850s. Served three terms in Congress (U.S. House of

Representatives, 1845–51), representing the Pennsylvania 1st District. Considered to have been

first Jewish Congressman

Lewis Charles LevinPolitics

Rachel Mordechai and Maria Edgeworth

Harrington (1817) is the personal narrative of a recovering anti-Semite, a young man whose phobia of Jews is instilled in early childhood and who must unlearn his irrational prejudice when he falls in love with the daughter of a Spanish Jew. In this novel, Edgeworth attempts to challenge prejudice and to show how literary representations affect public policy, while

at the same time interrogating contemporary understandings of freedom in English society.

Ivanhoe (1820) and the

character Rebecca, daughter

of Isaac of York

La Juive (1835), A Painful Call ForTolerance By J.Halevy

Caruso as Eleazar c. 1920

French Jewish Composer,Founder of the Grand Opera tradition

First performed in New York in 1838, itbecame a staple of the Opera House of

New Orleans in the 1840’s and subsequentlyone of the most popular operas in the US.

Joseph FreyApostate

Solomon Henry Jackson, Hebrew Printerpublished the first American Jewish

newspaper,The Jew, 1820, in response to Joseph Frey’s

missionary work to convert the American Jews to Christianity.

Mordecai Manuel Noah 1785 - 1851

American playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. Born into family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry. Appointed by President Madison to American

Consulates in Riga 1811 and Tunis 1813. Later Noah was a well known Jacksonian politician.

Isaac Harby1788-1828

Letter to James Monroe

Penina Moïse1797-1880

Abraham Hart:

America’s Leading Book Publisher 1850’s

Rabbi Jacques Judah Lyonsand the

Beginning of ‘American Jewish History’

Early American Jewish Songwriters

John Payne 1823 Home Sweet Home Henry Russell The Old Armchair

“There’s No Place Like Home”

Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Virtuoso1828-1869

Solomon Nunes Carvalho, 1771-1817: Jews in the Visual Arts

Painting of Interior of Beth Elohim Synagogue 1838

Created in Our Image: Judaism In America

Dr. Jacob De La Motta Letter from James Madison

Isaac Leeser: Champion of AmericanJewish Orthodoxy

Issac M. Wise: Organizer of Reform Judaism

Letter from Leeser to WiseNot dated

At a service after Lincoln’s assassination

Wise said:“He is a sin-offering for

our iniquities.”

ANTE BELLUM JEWS IN BUSINESS

Joseph Seligman (1819–1880) prominent American banker and businessman. With his brothers,

he started a bank, J. & W. Seligman & Co., with branches in

New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, London, Paris and

Frankfurt.Underwrote Standard Oil Co.

Emanuel and Mayer Lehman.Originally from Germany, the

Lehman family arrived in America1844, settling in Alabama. In the late

1850’s, their business shiftedto New York City and they became

top cotton brokers.

AMERICAN JEWS DEBATE SLAVERY

Moses Mielziner

1861

David Einhorn 1809-1879Rabbi of Keneseth Israel Synagogue, PA, 1866

In sermon "War with Amalek!" based on Exodus 17, Einhorn said, "We are told that this crime [slavery] rests upon a

historical right! … Slavery is an institution sanctioned by the

Bible, hence war against it is war against, and not for, God! It has ever

been a strategy of the advocate of a bad cause to take refuge from the spirit of

the Bible to its letter… ."

Judah P. BenjaminLeading Jewish defender of slavery.

CSA Secretary Of State

Ernestine Rose: Women’s Rights And Suffrage, Abolition Of U.S. Slavery And Religious Free Thought

First Rabbinic Commentary Published In The United StatesBy Rabbi Y. Falk, 1860

CIVIL WAR BEGINS AND AN ERA ENDS