American Independence Day and Sephardic Jewish History
David Shasha
American Independence Day and Sephardic Jewish History
The current crop of American Jewish Historians, led by Jonathan Sarna and Zev Eleff, and articulated in the popular press by Ashkenazi ethnocentrists like Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, have done little to teach the American Jewish community about the contribution of great figures like Gershom Mendes Seixas, Haym Salomon, Sabato Morais, and even Sephardi-influenced Ashkenazim like Isaac Leeser and Rebecca Gratz.
There was a time when the Warner Bros. movie studio produced a short feature directed by the great Michael “Casablanca” Curtiz called “Sons of Liberty” which provides the viewer with a stirring presentation of the life of Haym Salomon:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031953/
The movie is available for online viewing:
http://www.ovguide.com/sons-of-liberty-9202a8c04000641f8000000008e009b2
Since the halcyon days of educated American Jews and the great scholars who served them in the 20th century, we have had precious little information about this illustrious history.
Over the years I have collected a number of important articles that provide the basic facts of this history.
We begin this special newsletter with an excellent article on Sabato Morais written by Marc Saperstein and published in The Huffington Post. Professor Saperstein has published widely on Sephardic Judaism, particularly on the Amsterdam community. His excellent book on Rabbi Saul Morteira, Exile in Amsterdam, is essential reading for any serious student of Sephardic Judaism:
His article on Morais looks at a seminal Independence Day sermon delivered by the great Sephardic leader at his Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia in 1863. The sermon, as Saperstein relates, is connected to Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address delivered in November of that year and provides us with a very representative articulation of Sephardic Jewish Humanism at its most eloquent and insightful.
Howard Berman delivers an excellent portrait of Gershom Mendes Seixas, “George Washington’s Rabbi.” Seixas is an extraordinary figure, altogether typical of our religious leaders and their intense sense of commitment to the larger world and to the Jewish community. His biography presents us with an outstanding example of the depth and richness of the classic Sephardi Sage and our sacred religious values.
Our friend Mark Wolfson of Congregation Mikveh Israel provides us with two articles on Early American History and the Sephardim.
The first article reviews the history of the Jews of Philadelphia and their complex connections to some of the most important events in American History.
The second article provides the salient details of Haym Salomon’s legendary donation to the American Revolution that is depicted in “Sons of Liberty.” Indeed, it was on Yom Kippur 1781 that General Washington’s representatives came calling, and Salomon was there to serve his country and his friend.
We close this special newsletter with another two articles on the great Salomon.
Donald Moran once again reviews for us Salomon’s financial contributions to the Revolution, while Bob Blythe gives us a precis of his short life.
I recently discovered a two-part article on the Jews of New York by Richard Wheatley that was published in The Century Magazine way back in 1892 that fleshes out this Early American Jewish History in great detail:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1NQdm28qvvXRFJRbXF2M18wN1k/view?ths=true
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1NQdm28qvvXM1dSdDcwYkZSVms/view?ths=true
Taken together, all these resources provide us an important corrective to the current absence of Sephardic Jews from what has become an exclusively Ashkenazi preserve in American Jewish History.
I would like to close this brief introduction by recommending the two classic books on American Sephardic Jewish History by Rabbi David de Sola Pool of Congregation Shearith Israel:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Portraits_Etched_in_Stone.html?id=-j0OAQAAIAAJ
https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Old_Faith_in_the_New_World.html?id=P6YaAAAAIAAJ
Portraits Etched in Stone is an expansive history of the SI cemeteries here in New York with a plethora of information about the historical persons buried in them.
An Old Faith in the New World is a more general history of the Sephardic community in New York told through the prism of that glorious Synagogue in Manhattan that the pioneers established back in 1654!
Sadly, both these valuable books remain out of print and hard to find. But they are well worth seeking out, as they provide indispensable information about American Jewish History and the honored place of Sephardim in our country.
David Shasha
‘Four Score and Seven Years Ago’: A Jewish Connection
By: Marc Saperstein
The First American Jew: A Tribute to Gershom Mendes Seixas “Patriotic Rabbi of the Revolution”
By: Howard A. Berman
A Whirlwind Tour of the Origins of Jewish Life in Philadelphia
By: Mark Wolfson
Haym Salomon and Yom Kippur 1781
By: Mark Wolfson
Haym Salomon: The Revolution’s Indispensable Financial Genius
By: Donald N. Moran
Haym Salomon (ca. 1740-1785)
By: Bob Blythe