4. In Their Eyes: Images of the
Jew in the Early National
Period
Hannah Adams,
Charles Dibden, History of the Jews
“The Jew and the (1812)
Doctor” (1799), played
in Philadelphia
5. 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.
6. 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....'
7. 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.
8. American Jews Enter Higher Education
Sampson Simson
1800 Columbia College
College Hall, 1800 NYC
US Army Officers 1805
Simon Magruder Levy, 1802,
Cadet 1st Class West Point
9. David Stone NC Governor
1808-1810
Beginning of speech he made in
North Carolina House of Commons
Home of Jacob Henry
Beaufort, NC
10. ANTE-BELLUM AMERICA
1815 -1860
First American Stained Glass Jewish Star Window, Baltimore 1844
11. In The Shadow of Shylock: Jews in Ante-Bellum American Literature
12. Briggs’ Character Of Mr.
Charles F. Briggs Isaacs, Ugly’ Jewish, Skinflint
Swindler
Modeled After Shylock
1839
13. 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
14. “The Old Jewish Cemetery at Newport”
“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
15. About Jews:
“The ugliest, most evil-minded
people…[who resemble]
maggots when they
overpopulate a
decaying cheese.” 1860
17. Maryland Jew Bill 1826
Thomas Kennedy, Legislator
"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..."
18. Politics
David Levy Yulee Lewis Charles Levin
Member of U.S. House of Representatives
US Senator from Florida 1845-51
Pennsylvania's 1st district
Elected to the Senate again in 1855, Yulee served
(November 10, 1808-March 14, 1860) Philadelphia
until January 21, 1861, when he withdrew from
politician, prominent Know Nothing, and anti-
the Senate after Florida seceded. He joined the
Catholic social activist of the 1840s and 1850s. Served
Congress of the Confederacy. In 1865 after the
three terms in Congress (U.S. House of
war, Yulee was imprisoned in Fort Pulaski for
Representatives, 1845–51), representing the
nine months due to his participation in the
Pennsylvania 1st District. Considered to have been
Confederate government.
first Jewish Congressman
19. 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.
21. La Juive (1835), A Painful Call For
Tolerance By J.Halevy
First performed in New York in 1838, it
became a staple of the Opera House of
New Orleans in the 1840’s and subsequently
one of the most popular operas in the US.
French Jewish Composer,
Founder of the Grand Opera tradition
Caruso as Eleazar c. 1920
22. Solomon Henry Jackson, Hebrew Printer
published the first American Jewish
newspaper,
The Jew, 1820, in response to Joseph Frey’s
missionary work to convert the American Jews
to Christianity.
Joseph Frey
Apostate
23. 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.
34. Issac M. Wise:
Organizer of Reform Judaism
At a service after
Lincoln’s assassination
Wise said:
“He is a sin-offering for
our iniquities.”
Letter from Leeser to Wise
Not dated
35. ANTE BELLUM JEWS IN BUSINESS
Emanuel and Mayer Lehman. Joseph Seligman (1819–1880)
Originally from Germany, the prominent American banker and
Lehman family arrived in America businessman. With his brothers,
1844, settling in Alabama. In the late he started a bank, J. & W.
1850’s, their business shifted Seligman & Co., with branches in
to New York City and they became New York, San Francisco, New
top cotton brokers. Orleans, London, Paris and
Frankfurt.Underwrote Standard
Oil Co.
37. David Einhorn 1809-1879
Rabbi 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… ."
