Notes
Matches 251 to 300 of 2,256
| # | Notes | Linked to |
|---|---|---|
| 251 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in the town of Furth in Bavaria, Hart arrived in Baltimore in 1775. He established himself as a merchant, and though in America only a year at the outbreak of war, aligned himself with the patriot cause. He supplied clothing and shoes to General Lafayette during his 1781 campaign. In 1778 he married Leah Nathan, the daughter of Caroline Webb and Lyon Nathan of Pennsylvania. The couple was married in Philadelphia where her father served as shammash of congregation Mikveh Israel. They soon moved to New York where he emerged as an important member of the Jewish community, serving as parnas of Shearith Israel. They had thirteen children, including Nathan and Rebecca who married the actor Moses Phillips. | Hart, Jacob Naphtali (I3938)
|
| 252 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in Zamosc, Poland, by 1788 Mordecai Mordecai Cohen had made his way to Charleston, where he found work initially as a peddler. From there he became a shopkeeper, then a merchant, a planter, until eventually he was one of the wealthiest men in Charleston, well established among the planter elite. He owned a plantation on the Ashley River and a three-story brick house in town, among his numerous other properties. In 1795 Cohen married Leah Lazarus, daughter of a prominent, though financially struggling, Sephardic family. They had five children. | Cohen, Mordecai (I3881)
|
| 253 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born on the island of Jamaica, where two previous generations of De Leons lie buried, Jacob made his way to America at a young age. Very likely he arrived during the Revolution and he may have fought, although family legend that attributed to him a captaincy under DeKalb seems apocryphal. His first location was New York, where he must have early established himself within the city's Jewish elite. In 1789 he married Hannah Hendricks, daughter of Uriah and Eve Esther Gomez Hendricks, and sister of the celebrated Harmon Hendricks. The following year their first son, Abraham, was born. He was named for De Leon's father who had died a few years earlier in Spanish Town. By 1796 the family— now including three more children— had moved to Charleston. There, De Leon again rose through the ranks of the Sephardic mercantile class. De Leon involved himself extensively in freemasonry, and was followed in this by his sons. Indeed, his eldest, Worshipful Master of Camden's Kershaw Masonic Lounge Lodge No. 29 Abraham De Leon would help welcome Marquis the de Lafayette on his visit to South Carolina, and so impressed was the marquis with De Leon's French, that he presented him with his own grand master's jewel. South Carolina was to prove the De Leon home for a number of generations. Jacob died in Columbia and Hannah in Camden. Ten of his eleven male descendants would serve in the Confederacy, eight losing their lives in battle. | De Leon, Jacob (I3856)
|
| 254 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Daughter of Richea Myers-Cohen and pioneer merchant and trader Barnard Gratz, Rachel Gratz was born in Philadelphia in 1764. Her only sibling Fanny died in infancy, making her nuclear family unusually small for the time. Her extended family, on the other hand, constituted a vast network of prominent business and civic leaders that stretched from central Europe through Amsterdam and London to the American frontier of western Pennsylvania. In 1791 she married the young widower Solomon Etting. Etting was a close associate of her father, who had taught the young businessman to be a shohet, the first trained America. The couple soon moved to Baltimore, where Etting's mother Shinah had set up her family more than a decade earlier. On November 13, two weeks after her wedding, Rachel wrote her father from her new home in Baltimore, assuring him of her comfort and happiness: "From what little I have seen of this place, think I shall like it very much, as it far exceeds my expectations." This was the first of many Gratz-Etting marriages that would interlock these two families into an early American Jewish dynasty. She raised not only the eight children she had with Solomon, including daughter Richea, but also the three children who had survived infancy from his previous marriage, including Miriam Etting Myers. | Gratz, Rachel (I1789)
|
| 255 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Jacob (or James or Joshua) da Fonseca Brandon was not American. Indeed, it is likely he never left London in his life. He is included here not just because his descendants would arrive in the New World, but because of the varied threads of the Sephardic experience running through the details of life. Tracing them, one ranges over vast temporal and geographic distances, and Brandon comes to seem not only a representative of the Sephardic merchants of the eighteenth century Atlantic, but of the very processes of historical change and the restless and curious movements of peoples. From a prominent Sephardic family, Brandon traced his lineage back to a variety of illustrious ancestors, both real and imagined. Among these were the Fonsecas of Madrid, and he may well have had in his family tree a converso archbishop who helped preside over the Inquisition, Cardinal da Fonseca. On the Brandon side, he claimed to be related to Charles Brandon, first Duke of Suffolk, whose father had been slain beside Henry VII at the hands of Richard III on Bosworth Field, but there exists no evidence for such a claim. What is more likely, however, is that he was related to Alvaro da Fonseca (a.k.a. Jacob Jessurun Alvares), a Lisbon born crypto Jew who fled to Amsterdam and then to London after his uncle was put to death by the Inquisition, and later spent years living in India trading in diamonds and luxury goods, becoming one of the wealthiest Londoners of his day. Brandon too was involved in East Indian trade. A shipping magnate with several Asian fleets, Brandon displayed his wealth in what served as one of eighteenth-century London's principal arenas for ostentation— windows. The window tax, introduced in 1696 and not repealed until 1851, was a means of levying taxes based on wealth at a time when income tax was considered by the English an infringement on personal liberty. Thus, windows became a status symbol, and Brandon's house had so many that it came to be a minor London attraction. Brandon was also engaged with London's Jewish community. In 1824 he is on the record as one of the governors of the Society Mihel Sedaca for Granting Marriage Portions to Fatherless Girls, which provided dowries for orphaned Sephardic girls. In 1788 he married Sarah Mendes Da Costa, daughter of wealthy New World plantation owners. Though the couple remained Londoners, it is telling that both families had profited so handsomely from opportunities afforded by New World colonial expansion. The movements of these two families through the Atlantic sketches a network of opportunities and connections, transience and community. Sarah's family had, in a sense, gone and come back from the New World. Of Jacob and Sarah's eight children, one would migrate to Jamaica, one to Curacao, one to Surinam and another to New York. | Brandon, Jacob da Fonseca (I4055)
|
| 256 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Jochabed was the third of five children born to Moses and Catherine Hachar Michaels, German Jews who had settled in New York in the first years of the 18th century. Her father became active in the West Indian trade, shipping merchandise between New York and Curacao. In the early 1730s she married merchant Judah Mears, a merchant also involved in Caribbean trade. The couple had seven children. We know that Jochabed was not particularly well-liked within New York's small 18th-century Jewish community. "There is something in Agitation with Mears and his mate," wrote Abigail Levy Franks, in one of her gossipy letter to her son Naphtali. "You certainly will be surprised to hear [of] my mother [Grace Mears Levy] and Josey [Jochabed Mears] friendship. The Latter lives in Huntington. She came to town the week after her sister was marrid when my Mother went to See her And Saluted her with as much kind[ness] as the dearest friends could doe they was frequently together and I have of a night Seen 'em walk with Mears between that I have acutely blushed for it to think what has been Said amongst 'em tho' all this friendship is but Outwardly for I am told my Mother Spares Jose as Little as Ever if you Say anything to Uncle Nat[han Levy] abouth this desire him Not to write it back Again as from me tho' Tell him in Conformity I hope he will recant all the Cruell Things he has Said I think he Showed a Vast deall of Weekness If it be true as Mrs. Levey Tells me He has Sat Whole Eavenings as Is[aac] Levy's Railing at Josey. | Michaels, Jochabed (I372)
|
| 257 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Judith Solomon was born in Liverpool, England probably to a Sephardic family. In 1786 she married Israel I. Cohen in Bristol, and the following year the couple set sail for Richmond, Virginia. Israel's brother Jacob had come over a decade prior, and had engaged in business first in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was attracting a small group of pioneering German Jews; then in Charleston, South Carolina where he fought with Lushington's brigade during the Revolution; and finally Richmond. The Cohen brothers were financially very successful and civically involved. Both served as grandjurymen, and Jacob as a city council member and trustee of the Masonic hall. Israel also served as a volunteer constable. In 1803 Israel died, and Judith had to care for their eight children alone. Five years later, she moved to Baltimore. The move paralleled that of another Jewish widow, Shinah Solomon Etting. The families of these two strong women would become the leading Jewish families of Baltimore. Her sons as they grew became involved in finance. Her eldest, Jacob I. Cohen, founded a bank that bore his name and served as director of the B&O Railroad. Jacob would also be closely associated, along with Solomon Etting, with the fight for Jewish liberties in Maryland. Two others, Benjamin and David, founded the Baltimore Stock Exchange. Benjamin would marry Kitty Etting, linking these two widows who had so much in common. Another son, Mendes I. Cohen, would quit finance and travel the world for six years, writing his mother letters from the distant shores of Europe and the Middle East. | Solomon, Judith I. (I4009)
|
| 258 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Leah Nathan and her twin sister Rachel were the first children born to Lyon and Caroline Webb Nathan. Lyon, an immigrant from Germany, had been naturalized in Reading Pennsylvania in 1763. In 1770 Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia decided to employ a full-time shammash, and Lyon was the recipient of the appointment. His duties were described as follows: "to keep shull [synagogue] and everything belonging in it clean and in good order, he is to make all the candles— light them when they are wanted, and see them properly set out. He is to attend whenever there is prayers, and see the shull secured afterwards… He is to see the lamp is kept constantly burning. He is to attend all circumcisions, wedding and funerals, which are according to our religion, and no others." On Noveber 4, 1778, the twins celebrated a double marriage— Leah to Jacob Hart, Sr. and Rachel to Dr. Isaac Abrahams. Leah and her new husband moved to Baltimore and later to New York. They had thirteen children, among them Rebecca and Nathan, and she lived to the incredible age of ninety-three, thirty-five years after this portrait was painted. | Nathan, Leah (I3939)
|
| 259 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Maria Cecil Gist married the young lawyer Benjamin Gratz in Philadelphia in 1819. Her initial excitement must have been tempered somewhat by the tepid reception she was given by Gratz's sister Rebecca. Rebecca disapproved of the marriage because Maria was Christian. In time, however, Rebecca, the founder of Jewish education in America, warmed up to Maria and agreed "not to remember that there is a difference of opinion on any subject between us." The two became close friends and corresponded frequently. Maria and Benjamin moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where her husband became dominant in the city's business life. Their five children were raised Christian. At forty-four in 1841 Maria passed away. | Gist, Maria Cecil (I1848)
|
| 260 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Miriam Simon was the oldest surviving child born to Rose Bunn and Joseph Simon. Her father was the founder of the Jewish community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which thrived for a few decades as a frontier town and central point of the Indian trade. In 1794 she married Michael Gratz, the younger of the Gratz brothers. They became the most prominent Jewish family in Philadelphia. Among their children were Benjamin, Frances and Rebecca. | Simon, Miriam (I1798)
|
| 261 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Nathan Hart and his twin brother Lyon were born to Leah Nathan and Jacob Hart, Sr. in New York. Neither of the twins ever married. The records from his estate demonstrate that included among his modest possessions were to be found substantial Judaica— the Bible, both in Hebrew and Isaac Leeser's English translation, several Jewish calendars, and books of Jewish tales. | Hart, Nathan (I3954)
|
| 262 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Previously identified as Phila Franks, the young woman represented in this portrait is now believed to be her sister Richa. Although fewer details are available from Richa's life than some of her siblings, we do find some descriptions of her from around this time in the letters of her mother, Abigail Levy Franks, to her brother Naphtali in England. For instance, in 1834 Abigail wrote her son, "Your Sister Richa has bin out of town this three weeks at huntington & Oyster Bay. She will Not be at home this fortnight. She has Learned to ride horseback and intends to come down in that Manner." Skeptical of her daughter's intentions to ride from their property on Long Island to Manhattan, she continues, "but I hardly believe She rides well enough to make a Jurney of fourty Mile." The following year she wrote, "Your sister Richa has begun to learn the harpsichord and playas three Very good tunes in a months Teaching." She then goes on to write, "Richa is Like'd by all that know her. And I hope she will Allways have that happyness." Like the rest of her family, Loyalists who found it uncomfortable or impossible to remain in America after the Revolution, Richa moved to England where she married Abraham de Fries. | Franks, Richa (I443)
|
| 263 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Solomon Etting was the second oldest of eight children born to York, Pennsylvania Indian trader Elijah Etting and Shinah Solomon Etting. When Elijah died in 1778, Shinah was only thirty-four years old, Solomon fourteen, and the youngest Etting child, Joseph, not yet born. In 1780 Shinah moved down to Baltimore with five of her children. Though sixteen-year-old Solomon stayed behind in Pennsylvania, twelve years later he would follow his family to Baltimore, the city that would eventually serve as the arena for his varied and assiduous efforts in politics and business. At eighteen, under the training of Barnard Gratz, an old friend of his father, Etting became the first American-born shohet. The following year he was married to Reyna (Rachel) Simon, daughter of Joseph Simon, a prominent Lancaster merchant and another associate of Etting's father. The marriage linked Etting and Simon in business and together they ran a general store serving Lancaster and outfitting westward bound pack trains heading for the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. During these years in Lancaster, Etting rose through the ranks of the Masonic lodge. Then in 1790 Reyna, twenty-six years old and a mother of four, passed away. A year later Etting remarried, this time to the daughter of Barnard Gratz, again named Rachel. The Gratz-Etting ties would be further strengthened two years later when Etting's brother Reuben would marry Rachel's first cousin Frances. All four would soon settle in Baltimore. Etting's first business in Baltimore was running a hardware store. This was followed by increasingly vast ventures in shipping and commerce. In 1796 he became head of the Union Bank, and in 1807 helped found the Baltimore East India Company. He would eventually serve as director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, America's first railroad company. In the civic realm, Etting was equally active. His signature was one of seven on a resolution of disapproval over the Jay Treaty sent to President Washington, and he served as a member of the Baltimore Republican Society. In 1814 when the British attacked Baltimore, Etting volunteered for the Committee of Vigilance and Safety where he was responsible for finding housing for soldiers and founding a hospital. Etting also served on the Maryland State Colonization Society, an organization concerned with a largely futile effort to resettle freed slaves in Africa. However, it was in the struggle for Jewish civil liberties that Etting was to be best remembered. Maryland had in their state constitution a provision which stated that in order to hold office one had to make "a declaration of belief in the Christian religion." For thirty years Etting and others were engaged in a fight for the right of Jews to serve in government. As early as 1797, Etting had signed a petition to the House of Delegates, "praying to be placed upon the same footing with other good citizens." Another signatory and surely an influence on these early efforts was Etting's father-in-law Barnard Gratz, who had been involved in similar efforts in Pennsylvania and who had moved to Baltimore several years before. This petition was not successful, nor was the so-called "Jew Bill" of 1818 proposed by state legislator Thomas Kennedy. Indeed, the Jews would have to wait until 1826 for the provision to be struck from the constitution. A few months later, Etting along with Jacob I. Cohen became the first Jews elected to the Baltimore City Council. | Etting, Solomon (I1790)
|
| 264 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Solomon Jacobs was the second child born to Bernard and Judica Jacobs of Heidelberg, Pennsylvania. His father, a Yiddish speaking peddler, served as mohel to the scattered Jewish population of eastern Pennsylvania. In 1815 he married Esther (Hetty) Nones, daughter of Revolutionary War hero Benjamin Nones They moved to Richmond, Virginia where they would bring up their six children and where Jacobs established himself as important businessman and banker. For some time he served as an agent for the London Rothschilds. During the war of 1812, Jacobs volunteered with the Richmond Light Infantry Blues. He attended congregation Beth Shalome, and served as parnas. He developed a significant renown outside of the Jewish community in Richmond. Three times Jacobs served as grandmaster of the state's freemasons. When Lafayette visited the city in 1824 Jacobs, along with Jacob De Leon, was among those selected to serve on the welcoming committee. A few years earlier, in 1818 and 1819, he served as acting mayor of Richmond. | Jacobs, Solomon (I4101)
|
| 265 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The daughter of Marks and Richa Lazarus, Leah was the second of seventeen born into this Sephardic South Carolina family. We can be certain that she helped her mother raise her numerous younger siblings— including Benjamin Dores, Emma and Joshua— not only given the size of the family, but because of their financial instability. Her father, who had served in Lushington's company during the Revolutionary War, was not particularly successful in business, and in 1785 he had Leah's mother declared a sole trader. After that she had the responsibility of running the family shop on top of her maternal duties. Leah, at seventeen, suddenly entered a world of greater luxury and financial ease. She married Mordecai Cohen, a successful Polish peddler who had become a merchant. They came to own a plantation on the Ashley River, which served as their entrée into the elite of Carolina planter society. Leah and Mordecai had five children. The oldest to survive childhood, daughter Cornelia, would marry one of Leah's youngest siblings, Benjamin Dores. | Lazarus, Leah (I3882)
|
| 266 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The daughter of merchant Joseph Solomon and Bilah Myers-Cohen, Shinah grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her father was one of a handful of Jews who had moved to the frontier towns of Pennsylvania seeking opportunity afforded by Indian trade and the vast natural resources of the interior. In the mid-eighteenth century, Lancaster was perhaps the most important land-locked city in America, with 3-400 citizens in 1740. Though its Jewish community in this period never grew above a small collection of shopkeepers and traders, Lancaster was, by some accounts, the fourth American city with a known Jewish presence, following New York, Newport and Philadelphia. The founder and unofficial leader of Lancaster's Jewish community, Joseph Simon was in business with Shinah's father, and the numerous marriages between these two families underlines the importance of business as much as the scarcity of Jews. Simon's daughter Reyna would marry Shinah's son Solomon Etting, while Simon's granddaughter, Frances Gratz would marry Shinah's son Reuben Etting. By no means restricted to Pennsylvania, Shinah was connected to some of the biggest names in colonial American Jewry. One of her first cousins would marry Gershom Mendes Seixas, another would marry famed silversmith Myer Myers, and a third Barnard Gratz. At fourteen Shinah married Indian trader Elijah Etting, a merchant from Frankfurt-am-Main, who a year earlier had become the first Jew to settle in York, Pennsylvania. She joined her husband in York, where there first of eight children, Rueben, was born four years later. Elijah Etting engaged in business not only with Joseph Simon and Joseph Solomon, but with Barnard and Michael Gratz and David Franks. In 1773 Alexander Graydon, future Revolutionary War captain, prominent Philadelphia lawyer and author spent a summer in York. Graydon would publish a popular memoir in 1811, and though his memories of York were not generally fond, he had this to say for the Ettings: "Those who have known York… cannot fail to recollect the sprightly and engaging Mrs. E, the life of all gaiety that could be mustered in the village; always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably, she was an indispensable ingredient in the little parties of pleasure…The master of the house, though much less brilliant than the mistress of the house, was always good humored and kind; and as they kept a small store, I repaid as well as I could the hospitality of a frequent dish or tea, by purchasing there what articles I wanted." In 1778 her husband was asked by Joseph Simon and other merchants to petition the Continental Congress, then meeting in York, on their behalf concerning a financial matter. That same year, Elijah Etting died suddenly, leaving Shinah to care for eight children, the oldest sixteen, the youngest not yet born. The final child, Joseph, would not live past two. Two years later Shinah moved her family to Baltimore, though her two oldest, Rueben and Solomon, remained in Pennsylvania. Lancaster was no place to stay. The town had been declining in prominence since the 1760s, as Pittsburgh and Carlisle became the western American outposts. Baltimore was a growing seaport with no formal Jewish community. In 1780 there were six Jewish household in the city. Shinah's move to Baltimore would profoundly shape the city. The resolute mother with five daughters, the "sprightly and engaging Mrs. E," opened a boardinghouse in part of her home at Baltimore and Calvert Streets, and cared for her family through her energetic entrepreneurialism. She later became a shopkeeper, a profession into which her daughter Sally would follow. Her two sons and three brothers soon followed her to Baltimore, and the Ettings would emerge as one of the wealthiest and preeminent of Baltimore's Jewish families. Her sons would lead the fight for Jewish liberties in Maryland. | Solomon, Shinah (I1728)
|
| 267 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The daughter of Solomon and Rebecca Eve Hendricks Levy, Augusta Levy Feuchtwanger was born in 1801 in New York. In 1835 in Philadelphia she married Lewis Feuchtwanger, an immigrant from Bavaria. Together they had five children. Lewis was a mineralogist, metallurgist, and chemist, who had received a doctorate from the University of Jena in 1827 and came to America two years later. He opened the first German pharmacy in New York and practiced medicine, especially during the 1832 cholera epidemic. Feuchtwanger wrote several important works including Popular Treatise on Gems in 1838 and Elements of Mineralogy in 1839. He manufactured and traded in rare chemicals and metals, and in 1829 introduced in the United States the alloy of copper and nickel called German silver, calling the attention of the government to the possibility of nickel for small coins. During the Panic of 1837, with people hording vast numbers of coins, Feuchtwanger issued from his pharmacy thousands of one-cent pieces made of German silver, now known as the Feuchtwanger Cent. This, of course, was before legislation banning private coinage. | Levy, Augusta (I2806)
|
| 268 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The leading American Jewish woman of the nineteenth century, Rebecca Gratz founded several organizations that poignantly defined American Jewish public life for years to come and helped move women to the center of that life. The daughter of Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz, Rebecca grew up in Philadelphia, surrounded by older and younger siblings, among them Frances and Benjamin. Her mother instilled in Rebecca a sense of charitable duty, and the two of them were among the founders of the Female Association for Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, an organization that provided assistance to women whose families had suffered economic losses during the Revolution and one of the first female societies in the country. She would serve as secretary for over forty years. Though Rebecca never married, she was surrounded by her numerous nieces and nephews, perhaps the source of her profound love for and interest in children. In 1815 she helped found the Philadelphia Orphans Asylum. In the wake of her sister Sarah's death in 1817, Rebecca increased her engagement with Judaism and the Jewish community. At Mikveh Israel she founded the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society. The organization offered financial assistance to Jewish women in need, especially among European immigrants then arriving in increasing numbers. It would serve as a template for Jewish charitable organizations in other communities. Gratz also organized and founded a Sunday school at Mikveh Israel. Based on the pedagogy of Isaac Leeser, this marked the start of the Jewish Sunday school movement. In addition to her numerous accomplishments, Gratz was known to be one of Philadelphia's great beauties. It has often been repeated that Rebecca served as the model for the character bearing the same name in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. | Gratz, Rebecca (I1839)
|
| 269 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The life of Lorenzo Da Ponte bears little similarity to those of the merchants, peddlers and pioneers who make up this database. In fact, it is safe to say that few biographies— anywhere— read anything like Da Ponte's. Born Emanuele Conegliano in the Jewish ghetto of Ceneda in the Republic of Venice, the oldest of Geremia Conegliano and Rachel Pincerle's three sons, Da Ponte suffered the death of his mother at the age of five. In 1763 the Coneglianos— father and sons— converted to Catholicism so Geremia could marry Orsola Pasqua Paietta, who at seventeen was only three years older than the newly christened Lorenzo Da Ponte. This new name derived from the Bishop of Ceneda who performed the family's baptism. To this point, Da Ponte's education had been largely neglected, though the young autodidact plunged himself into what literature was available, with particular passion for Metastasio, the eighteenth century poet and librettist. The Bishop saw in his namesake a native, if uncultivated, intelligence and arranged for Da Ponte to study at the seminary, putting the Jewish born teenager on a path to the priesthood. And that's exactly where he found himself in 1769— ordained and serving on the faculty of the seminary in Portogruaro. Chafing under the restrictions of life at the seminary, Da Ponte traveled to Venice where he became involved with more than a few women— both single and married— and developed a passion for gambling. He stood trial for having published a series of seditious poems, and found himself declared unfit to teach in the Republic of Venice. Over the next few years, he would father children with a married woman, befriend the famous Casanova and operate a brothel before finally being charged with public concubinage. Fearing the worst, Da Ponte absconded from Venice. He was tried in absentia and banned from reentry for fifteen years. Meanwhile, he made his way to Vienna where he established himself in literary and artistic circles, befriending Salieri, his childhood idol, Metastasio, and the young composer with whom he would most fruitfully collaborate, Mozart. Da Ponte used his still unworn out connections to secure for himself the position of official poet for the Italian Theatre, which the Emperor opened in 1783. His first commission, a libretto for a composition by Salieri, Il ricco d'un giorno, was such a failure that the latter remarked that he would sooner cut off his fingers than compose to lyrics by Da Ponte. Success did follow, however, with Vincenzo Martin y Soler's Il Burbero, which premiered in 1786 and proved tremendously popular. His next project, however, was far riskier, adapting Beaumarchais' controversial Marriage of Figaro with Mozart, who had not written an opera in four years for lack of a competent librettist. Figaro too proved phenomenally popular. Yet, despite the eventual status it would achieve within the operatic canon, that year it was eclipsed Martin y Soler's Una Rara Cosa, the reception of which was so enthusiastic, the ladies of Viennese society began appearing in public dressed as characters from the opera. Another Da Ponte libretto. During his eight years in Vienna, he wrote libretti in Italian, German, Spanish and French. He continued to collaborate with Martin y Soler, managed to get Salieri to retract his threat of self-mutilation, writing for him two libretti, and, most famously, worked with Mozart on Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni. In 1790 Emperor Joseph II, who had been a great patron of Da Ponte, died. This was followed by the emergence of the sort of amorous intrigues and scandals that had haunted Da Ponte in Venice. The last straw, however, came when he circulated a defamatory poem concerning a major public official. He was given twenty-four hours to leave Vienna. The next years of life were marked by uncertainty, debt, and frequent moves. Da Ponte went to Trieste and then to Prague. He married Ann Celestine Grahl with whom he had four children. They moved to London where Da Ponte first continued to write and work with the opera, but eventually opened an Italian bookshop. In 1805, to escape debt, he set sail for America. He spent the next twenty years running a grocery, first in Manhattan and then in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. These pursuits too all ended in bankruptcy. Only in 1825 did things start to turn around— again— for Da Ponte, now in his mid-seventies. New York had begun to cultivate a greater interest and institutional apparatuses for opera. In 1825 Don Giovanni was performed there for the first time as part of a visiting season of Italian opera. That same year, a friend managed to secure for Da Ponte an appointment as a professor of Italian at Columbia University. The man who has run from the seminary in his early twenties— after an extraordinary and bizarre life— had returned to the classroom. | Da Ponte, Lorenzo (I2248)
|
| 270 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Samson Levy and Martha Lampley Levy, and the grandson of Moses Raphael Levy and Grace Mears Levy, Samson Levy, Jr. grew up among Philadelphia's social elite. Raised Episcopalian, his family attended Saint George's Church. In 1793 he married Sarah Coates, daughter of William Coates and Margaret Norris. They had two daughters— Sophia and Margaret— and their family maintained its position within the upper strata of Philadelphia society. They attended balls, belonged to exclusive clubs, and Samson became an incorporator of the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. Samson, like his older brother Moses, sought a career in law. Indeed he studied under his brother, and after his apprenticeship joined the practice in 1787. Known for his ebullience in the courtroom, one contemporary observer described Levy's courtroom oratory this way: "his manner of speaking was so energetic, and his voice so agreeable, that the uninitiated considered him— to borrow a figure from his name— 'the very Samson of the bar.' Indeed, it seems that Levy was something of a celebrity in early 19th-century Philadelphia, known for outrageous and brilliant courtroom antics. | Levy, Samson Jr. (I1201)
|
| 271 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Samson Levy and Martha Lampley Levy, and the grandson of Moses Raphael Levy and Grace Mears Levy, Samson Levy, Jr. grew up among Philadelphia's social elite. Raised Episcopalian, his family attended Saint George's Church. In 1793 he married Sarah Coates, daughter of William Coates and Margaret Norris. They had two daughters— Sophia and Margaret— and their family maintained its position within the upper strata of Philadelphia society. They attended balls, belonged to exclusive clubs, and Samson became an incorporator of the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. Samson, like his older brother Moses, sought a career in law. Indeed he studied under his brother, and after his apprenticeship joined the practice in 1787. Known for his ebullience in the courtroom, one contemporary observer described Levy's courtroom oratory this way: "his manner of speaking was so energetic, and his voice so agreeable, that the uninitiated considered him— to borrow a figure from his name— 'the very Samson of the bar.' Indeed, it seems that Levy was something of a celebrity in early 19th-century Philadelphia, known for outrageous and brilliant courtroom antics. | Levy, Samson Jr. (I1201)
|
| 272 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Very little is known concerning the life of Asher Samuel Levy. He was born in Suriname and came to New York. He had at least two children, Samuel Asher and Mary. Mary married Judah Eleazer Lyons and while Samuel Asher married Belle Myers, the sister of Moses Myers. | Levy, Asher Samuel (I3910)
|
| 273 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Among the most important figures in nineteenth-century American Jewish life, Isaac Leeser played many roles— rabbi, writer, editor, organizer and translator. Born in Neuenkirchen in Westphalia, his Munster education included grounding in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Leeser arrived in America in the 1820s, and in 1828 he was elected to replace congregation Mikveh Israel's hazzan, Abraham I. Keys. The early years of Leeser's tenure in Philadelphia saw the development of two of his key innovations and greatest contributions to American Judaism. Inspired by the Reform movement among Jews in Germany, Leeser introduced English language sermons as a regular practice at Mikveh Israel. Next, after trying in vein to find a publisher for his manuscript, Jews and the Mosaic Law, Leeser opened his own publishing firm, the first in America to have an explicitly Jewish focus. Leeser's Jewish catechism served as the key text in Rebecca Gratz's Sunday school, laying the cornerstone of American Jewish pedagogy. From 1830 until his death, less than forty years later, he published numerous volumes of theological, historical and liturgical works. Most famously, he was responsible for the first English translation of the Bible in America. In 1843 Leeser founded the Occident, America's first Jewish periodical. He would continue to edit the publication until his death. He also helped found a Jewish foster home and Jewish hospital, and served as president of Maimonedes College, the earliest Jewish college in the country. Leeser retired from Mikveh Israel in 1850, though seven years later he took up a post at the newly formed Beth El Emeth in Philadelphia where he officiated until his death. More than any other public figure of his time, Leeser can be said through his tireless efforts to have formed a scattered group of Jews in America into an American Jewish community. | Leeser, Isaac (I4133)
|
| 274 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Asher was the third child and oldest son of Israel Baer Kursheedt and Sarah Abigail Seixas Kursheedt. He was brought up in New York. In 1839 he married Abigail Judah, daughter of Manuel Judah and Grace Seixas Judah. They had twelve children. Kursheedt proved extremely successful in business, establishing what would become one of the nation's largest textile companies, Kursheedt Manufacturing Company, in New York, producer of lace and embroidery among other fabrics. He was, like his father and his brother Gershom, a prominent member of the Jewish community. He was a founder of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, an organization that advocated for Jews in the United States and abroad. He served as chairman of the building committee at Shearith Israel, overseeing the construction of the congregation's 19th street synagogue. He also worked with the Hebrew Relief Society, a Jewish charitable organization. | Kursheedt, Asher (I2272)
|
| 275 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Benjamin Levy was the first major Jewish printer and publisher in the south, possibly in the country. The son of Simeon and Hetty Levy, his younger sisters were Julia Levy Solomons and Miriam levy. Born in New York in 1786, Levy moved to New Orleans around 1810, among the frist Jews to settle there. In 1817, he married Emilie prieur 1817. They had 2 children, Alexander and Mathilda. He trained as bookbinder, and in 1811 opened a book and stationery shop in New Orleans. In 1817 he began publishing and in 1822 started a printing company specializing in law books. That same year he founded the New Orleans Price-Current and Commercial Intelligencer, the city's first business journal. However, with the banking crisis of 1837, Levy's luck began to change. He declared bankruptcy in 1843. Although he tried his luck again in printing, creating a company under his son's name, Alexander Levy & Co. in 1858, it met the same fate as its predecessor. | Levy, Benjamin (I3310)
|
| 276 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Benjamin was among the youngest of the numerous children born to Marks and Richa Lazarus. Among the older siblings that he had to look up to during his Charleston childhood were Emma and Joshua. His middle name— Dores— is a testament to his Sephardic heritage and to the process of acculturation: it condenses the Spanish "De Torres." His father was a middleclass shopkeeper. He had served during the Revolutionary War, eventually achieving the rank of major, in Lushington's company— known as Jews' company for their prevalence within its ranks. In 1840 he married his niece, Cornelia Cohen, daughter of his sister Leah Lazarus Cohen and a wealthy Polish peddler-turned-planter Mordecai Cohen. The couple remained in Charleston and had six children. | Lazarus, Benjamin Dores (I4120)
|
| 277 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in Bremen, Joseph Marx was the oldest of seven born to Frances and Jacob Marx, the court physician to the elector of Hanover. He came to the United States late in the 18th century and Richea Myers. They had ten children. Marx became a prominent and successful merchant in Richmond. He was an acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson, had large real estate holdings, and participated in both the civic and Jewish life of Richmond. | Marx, Joseph (I1614)
|
| 278 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in Camden, South Carolina on the fourth of July 1787, Chapman Levy was the son of Sarah Moses and Samuel Levy and younger brother to Eliza Levy. He was to pursue a career in law, and was admitted to the bar in 1806. He served in a militia during the War of 1812, from which he took the honorific "colonel," which would adorn his name throughout his considerable career. Based out of Kershaw County, Levy developed into a lawyer well known throughout the state. His highest profile case was his prosecution William Taylor, brother of Governor John Taylor, on a murder charge. A sensational trial in which Taylor stood accused of murdering the man with whom his wife was allegedly carrying on an affair, Levy eventually lost, however it made him something of a South Carolina celebrity. Levy served as a state legislator and senator from Kershaw Country. He also ran a brickyard near the Columbia Canal at which more than thirty slaves worked, making him the largest Jewish slaveholder of his time. He was also involved in numerous financial enterprises, dealing in credit and banking. Among his other accomplishments, Levy climbed the ranks of freemasonry. He was also considered the leading expert on the etiquette and rules of dueling. According to one contemporary observer, Levy was consulted "in every duel…fought in the upper part of South Carolina." Levy walked the line between maintaining his faith and converting, incorporating the Camden Protestant Episcopal Church in 1808 while helping found the Jewish burial society in 1822. His wife, Flora, who died young, only five years after they were married, was given a Jewish burial. In the late 1820s, Levy returned to Camden, the city of his birth, and their formed a law partnership with William McWillie. The duo moved to Mississippi in 1838 and there found considerable success. Levy was nominated for governor, but turned it down; years later McWillie would run and win. Levy would eventually be buried on McWillie's plantation in Kirkwood, Mississippi. | Levy, Colonel Chapman (I4204)
|
| 279 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in London in 1704, Moses Levy and his brother Benjamin immigrated to America, settling in Newport. There Levy, a wealthy ship owner, became a friend and occasional business partner of Aaron Lopez. He later relocated to New York and became naturalized in 1743. This sketch was done for a miniature of Levy. | Levy, Moses (I1910)
|
| 280 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in London, Judah was the oldest of three children of German parents Sampson and Joy Tabitha Franks Mears. His father and his uncle Jacob developed an active stake in the Caribbean trade, shipping between Jamaica and London. Judah followed his father into business, selling North American produce to West Indian sugar planters. In 1718 Judah's sister Grace married New York shipping magnate and widower Moses Raphael Levy and returned with him to begin a life in the colonies. Mears' new brother-in-law was one of colonial America's most prosperous Jews, and some time after the wedding he joined his sister in New York. Mears formed a partnership with merchant Jacob Franks, who was married to Levy's daughter Abigail. Theirs proved a successful alliance, and Mears eventually acquired properties in Manhattan and Long Island. In the early 1730s Mears married Jochabed Michaels. Joachabed was the daughter of Moses and Catherine Michaels who, like the Mearses, were German Jews engaged in trade in the West Indies. Their first of seven children, Catherine, was born in 1735 or 36. A few later, on May 30, 1738, Mears became a freeman of New York. While this meant that he now enjoyed full economic and political rights, his new status also brought with it additional responsibilities. In 1741 Mears was elected constable of New York's East Ward, a position widely considered a burden, and one which those who could afford to generally opted out of with the payment of a fine. Mears, however, served his term as constable, during which service he fell victim to an attack by Oliver DeLancey. A wild and notorious figure from one of New York's most prominent Dutch Protestant families, DeLancey had recently wed, in a secret ceremony, Moses Levy's granddaughter, Phila Franks. Mears played an active role in congregation Shearith Israel, serving as parnas in 1741. He also survives in the synagogues records through a minor controversy from 1760, in which Mears entered the cramped women's section on Sabbath to reclaim a seat he believed to have been taken from his daughter. The infraction resulted in a 40 shilling fine "in order to prevent for the future any persons assuming to themselves the authority of determining the property of seats in the Sinagogue…" In 1762 he died while traveling in the Caribbean, most likely on business. | Mears, Judah (I371)
|
| 281 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in the Giessen in Hesse, Germany, Isaac Moses made his way to New York as a young man. He prospered in finance and became a freeman in 1766. Four years later he married his niece Reyna Levy. They had ten children, including Joshua Moses. A strong supporter of the American cause, during the Revolutionary War he and Robert Morris outfitted eight privateers to prey on British shipping. In 1784 Moses co-founded the Bank of New York with Alexander Hamilton. | Moses, Isaac (I2426)
|
| 282 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Cornelia Cohen was the second oldest of the children born to Leah Lazarus and Mordecai Cohen. Her older sister, Eliza, died at age eleven. Cornelia's mother came from a well established, though financially troubled, Sephardic family in Charleston, and her father, a Polish emigrant and peddler, had made a fortune. The family owned a plantation on the Ashley River, and Cornelia was brought up in a three and half story brick house on Broad Street in Charleston. In 1840 she married her uncle, her mother's younger brother Benjamin, though he was only five years her senior. They remained in Charleston and had six children. | Cohen, Cornelia (I4121)
|
| 283 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Israel Jacobs came from London to Philadelphia in 1739. In Philadelphia he became involved with Mikveh Israel and in the late 1740s or early 50s married Maria Caetana (Zipporah) Nunez Machado, a widow whose first husband, David Mendes Machado, had served as hazzan at the Philadelphia synagogue. Of the children from her first marriage, the eldest, Rebecca, had married Jonas Phillips. Israel and Maria had one daughter, Rachel, who would marry Jacob I. Cohen. | Jacobs, Israel (I3986)
|
| 284 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Joshua Lazarus, the son of Sephardic shop owners, grew up in Charleston— one in a huge family that included siblings Leah, Benjamin and Emma, the latter of whom with which he was very close. In 1817 he traveled with his friend Jacob Clavius Levy to Europe. There the two Americans each fell in love with same girl— Fanny Yates. Rather than compete with his friend for her affections, Lazarus backed off. Levy married Yates in Liverpool, and soon after they returned to Charleston. Nearly twenty years later, in Liverpool, Lazarus married Fanny's sister Phebe, forty-one years old and two years his senior. They too sailed for Charleston, and would have one child. Joshua served as the president of the Gas Light Company in Charleston and as president of a bank in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was very involved with congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, serving as chairman of the building committee that dedicated a new synagogue in 1841, and later as parnas. Shortly after their marriage, the couple went on a trip to France, along with Lazarus' sister Emma. It was on this vacation that they had their portraits painted. | Lazarus, Joshua (I4092)
|
| 285 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Little is known about Rachel Phillips' early life. It is believed she came to America as an indentured servant; legend will have to stand in for fact in this case. A story is told that Rachel was sitting on a doorstep in Philadelphia, crying, when Aaron Levy stopped her and asked what was wrong. She explained that she was a Jewish indentured servant, and that her master was making her work on the Sabbath. At that, Aaron purchased her indenture and the couple was married. Aaron had acquired a sizable plot of land in Pennsylvania on the hopes that the town of Aaronburg, his town, would become the state capital. The couple lived in Aaronsburg for several years, but when nothing became of this land speculation, they moved to Philadelphia. Childless, they took Simon Gratz, son of Michael and Miriam Simon Gratz, as something of an adopted son. | Phillips, Rachel (I3372)
|
| 286 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Phebe Yates was one of eight children born to Samuel and Martha Yates of Liverpool, England. The Yates family was very prominent in trade and Jewish life in Liverpool, and her uncle, Benjamin, served as the head of the Jewish community there. In 1817 two young American men from Charleston, South Carolina, came through Liverpool. Both of them— Joshua Lazarus and Jacob Clavius Levy— fell in love, not with Phebe, but with her younger sister, Fanny. Levy ended up marrying her, and the couple moved back to Charleston. It would be nearly twenty years before Phebe was married, and, indeed, to Joshua Lazarus. At forty-one she moved with her new husband to South Carolina. They were very active in Jewish life in Charleston and were very close to Joshua's sister Emma. They had one child, Edgar Marks. | Yates, Phoebe (I4093)
|
| 287 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Sarah Coates was born in Philadelphia in 1776, the daughter of William Coates and Margaret Norris. At age twenty-three she married Samson Levy, Jr., the Episcopalian grandson of famed New York Merchant Moses Raphael Levy. The couple participated in the highest reaches of Philadelphia society, and her husband, a lawyer, was known for his ardent and affecting eloquence before a jury. They had two children— Sophia and Margaret. | Coates, Sarah (I1205)
|
| 288 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Sarah Coates was born in Philadelphia in 1776, the daughter of William Coates and Margaret Norris. At age twenty-three she married Samson Levy, Jr., the Episcopalian grandson of famed New York Merchant Moses Raphael Levy. The couple participated in the highest reaches of Philadelphia society, and her husband, a lawyer, was known for his ardent and affecting eloquence before a jury. They had two children— Sophia and Margaret. | Coates, Sarah (I1205)
|
| 289 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Sarah Moses married Samuel Levy. They lived in Camden South Carolina and had two children, Chapman and Eliza. Appended to her shirt in this image is the miniature of her son Chapman, which also appears on this website. | Moses, Sarah (I4210)
|
| 290 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 Simeon Levy was the youngest of four children born to Judith and Benjamin Levy. The family had ties both to New York and Newport. He married Hetty Levy, and together they had six children, including Benjamin, Julia and Miriam. | Levy, Simeon (I1908)
|
| 291 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The child of Dutch Jewish immigrants, Eleazer Lyons and Hannah Levy Lyons, Judah Eleazer was born in Philadelphia in 1779. He married Mary Asser Levy in 1804 in New York. In the late 18th century, much of his family— including his parents— relocated to Surinam. In fact his youngest siblings— the twins, Mordecai and Catherine— were born in that Caribbean Dutch colony. Judah and Mary settled in Paramaribo, the capital and largest city. They had 9 children, including Jacques Judah, and then resettled in the United States. | Lyons, Judah Eleazer (I3908)
|
| 292 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The oldest son born to Samson Levy and Martha Lampley Levy, Moses grew up among Philadelphia's Protestant elite, ensconced in the mores of society life and the Episcopal Church. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, at the time still known as the Academy and College of Philadelphia. In 1778 Levy was accepted to the bar, and went on to become a leader in Philadelphia's legal community. His brother Samson would follow him into the profession, and while the younger brother achieved a kind of fame for his eccentric and ardent oratory, Moses was said to possess "the most persuasive eloquence." In 1791 he married Mary Pearce, and the couple would have a number of children, including Henrietta and Martha. Levy served a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the state legislature. He was appointed Recorder of Philadelphia in 1802 and served in that capacity for the next twenty years when he was appointed judge. He held this position until his death three years later. | Levy, Judge Moses (I1143)
|
| 293 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The oldest son born to Samson Levy and Martha Lampley Levy, Moses grew up among Philadelphia's Protestant elite, ensconced in the mores of society life and the Episcopal Church. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, at the time still known as the Academy and College of Philadelphia. In 1778 Levy was accepted to the bar, and went on to become a leader in Philadelphia's legal community. His brother Samson would follow him into the profession, and while the younger brother achieved a kind of fame for his eccentric and ardent oratory, Moses was said to possess "the most persuasive eloquence." In 1791 he married Mary Pearce, and the couple would have a number of children, including Henrietta and Martha. Levy served a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the state legislature. He was appointed Recorder of Philadelphia in 1802 and served in that capacity for the next twenty years when he was appointed judge. He held this position until his death three years later. | Levy, Judge Moses (I1143)
|
| 294 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Israel Baer Kursheedt and Abigail Seixas Kursheedt, Gershom's family instilled in him a profound connection to Judaism. His father was probably the most Talmudically learned person in America at the time, a man widely consulted on questions of Jewish law. His maternal grandfather— Gershom Mednes Seixas— for whom he was named and who died a year before his birth, had served as the first widely recognized public representative of American Judaism. At twenty-one he moved to New Orleans, and from 1845 to 1849 served as the publisher of the New Orleans Commercial Times. Around this time he became increasingly involved in charitable work in the city, helping to raise funds for those suffering from the yellow fever and cholera epidemics. He also began an involvement with freemasonry, and became a broker. Dissatisfied with the state of Jewish life in the city— the rabbi, he believed, was a charlatan, and the community lacked such basics as a torah and a shofar— Kursheedt sought to establish a new synagogue. In order to raise funds for this venture, he contacted one of the wealthiest men in New Orleans, Judah Touro, convincing him of the importance of the benefaction of Jewish institutions, and initiating him to the world of philanthropy. It was a field in which Touro would excel. The new congregation was named Nefutzoth Yehudah— "the dispersed of Judah"— an homage to Touro. Kursheedt served as its first parnas. He also organized New Orleans' first Hebrew benevolent society. In 1861 he married Grace Guyedalla. Two years later Kursheedt died, and his wife remarried his older brother Alexander. | Kursheedt, Gershom (I3963)
|
| 295 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Samuel and Jessie Jonas Judah, Benjamin was born into a distinguished New York Sephardic family. His grandfather, Baruch, had been one of the founders of Shearith Israel. Early in life Benjamin had found success in trade, however he suffered significant financial losses during the war of 1812. In 1803 he married Eliza Israel and fathered ten children. | Judah, Benjamin S. (I4111)
|
| 296 | (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011 The youngest of Rebecca Levy Tobias and Tobias Tobias' seven children, Amelia Barned Tobias Lazarus was born in 1825 in New York. The family established strong links with the Hendricks clan, with sisters Fanny and Harriet and brothers Isaac Alfred and Henry all marrying children of Harmon and Frances Hendricks. In 1851 Amelia married painter Jacob Hart Lazarus, author not only this portrait of Amelia, but several others in the collection— especially of members of the Tobias and Hendricks families. They had only one child, Emily. A generous philanthropist, upon her death Amelia left thousands of dollars to organizations, both Jewish and secular, including Mt. Sinai Hospital, Hebrew Technical School, United Henrew Charityies of the City of new York, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and and the Manhattan Eye an Ear Hospital. Her greatest patronage, however, went to the arts, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Corocran Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art each receiving large bequests. At the latter she established a fund for acquiring American art and also bequeathed some of her private collection of art and objects. Several years earlier Amelia and Emily had made a contribution to the museum for the establishment of the Jacob H. Lazarus Traveling Fund. | Tobias, Amelia Barned (I937)
|
| 297 | (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011 The Gomez family was among the wealthiest and most influential in New York throughout much of the eighteenth century. They were certainly well settled in America by the time Benjamin was born in 1769— his was the fourth generation of the Gomez family on these shores. Members of the Sephardic elite, the family claimed their lineage traced back to a court Jew who was warned by King Ferdinand of the imminent expulsion. The Gomezes of New York had vast real estate holdings as well as significant mercantile, shipping and retail interests. Benjamin was the son of Matthias and Rachel Gomez. He became a bookseller, perhaps the first Jew to take up this profession in New York, and his shop served as a gathering place for intellectually engaged New Yorkers of the late eighteenth century. Unfortunately the book trade failed to prove a lucrative one, and soon "Benjamin Gomez, Bookseller and Stationer, N0. 32 Maiden Lane, near the Flymarket" shut its doors, and he pursued other business interests. He served as the head of the Fortunate Lottery Office, worked as a grocer and a tobacconist. In 1797 he married Charlotte Hendricks, sister of Harmon Hendricks, celebrated early American industrialist. They had three daughters and a son, Mathias, who was killed in a duel in New Orleans. PEIS - de Sola Poole ""his mother died when he was a lad of seven." "He was 14 when his father died in patriotic exile in Philadelphia." | Gomez, Benjamin (I3863)
|
| 298 | (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011 Born in New York City, Moses Michael Hays was the son of Dutch immigrants, Judah Hays and Rebecca Michaels Hays. His father, a merchant, brought him into business, and Moses too would make an impressive name for himself in shipping and retail. On August 13, 1766, Hays married Rachel Myers in a double wedding, as her sister Rebecca married Solomon Marache. In 1769 the couple moved to Newport, booming from international shipping, where Hays continued to pursue his fortunes in mercantilism. Meanwhile, Hays became involved with New York synagogue Shearith Israel, and served as parnas in 1767. Success for Hays in Newport, however, was proving more elusive, and he ended up briefly in debtor's prison. After managing to pay back his creditors, Hays succeeded in reestablishing himself in trade. With the Revolution on the horizon, Hays became a supporter of the American cause. However, in 1775 he refused to sign a declaration of loyalty to the colonies, because it contained the wording, "upon the true faith of the Christian." He instead wrote a public letter explaining his support for the cause and why he couldn't sign. When the phrase had been removed from the oath, he gladly appended his name. Meanwhile, Hays and his family evacuated the city before the British occupation of Newport. Arriving in Boston, he perhaps did not realize that he would call it home for the rest of his life. But the city seemed to suit Hays, and his luck in business vastly improved. One of the largest importers, shipbuilders and insurers in the Far East trade, in 1784 Hays became founder and initial depositor in the First Bank of Massachusetts. In addition he founded several companies, including one with friend Paul Revere. Hays engaged as well with freemasonry, and he helped establish the masons in New England. He was admitted to the Massachusetts lodge in 1782, a rare accomplishment for a Jew. A decade later, Hays was serving as grandmaster, Paul Revere his deputy. Hays also proved himself an important philanthropist for the city of Boston, helping to endow Harvard College, building theaters in Boston and paying for the upkeep of Boston Commons. In addition to Moses and Rachel's seven children, Hays had taken in his sister Reyna Touro and her four children after her husband died. When she too passed away in 1787, Hays took full responsibility for the upbringing of his nieces and nephews, including Judah and Abraham Touro. They lived in a fifteen-room brick house, which was frequented by, among other guests, Samuel May, grandfather of Lousia May Alcott and childhood friend of the Hays and Touro children. Years later, thinking back on his visits, he recalled: If the children of my day were taught among other foolish things to dread, if not despise Jews, a very different lesson was impressed upon my young heart. … [The Hays] house … was the abode of hospitality. … He and his truly good wife were hospitable, not to the rich alone, but also to the poor. … I witnessed their religious exercise, their fastings and their prayers. … [As a result] I grew up without prejudice against Jews---or any other religionists. | Hays, Moses Michael (I609)
|
| 299 | (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Justina Bradly Lazarus Isaacs and Joshua Isaacs, Jr., Solomon was born and raised in New York. His father was a leading member of the Jewish community there, and served as parnas of Shearith Israel. After his sister Frances married copper manufacturer Harmon Hendricks, Isaacs apprenticed with his brother-in-law, running one of America's first copper mills. Isaacs eventually became a partner in Hendricks' business, which included among its clients Paul Revere and Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat. In fact, Solomon was known as "Steamboat Isaacs" for the copper boilers he and Hendricks provided for Fulton and his followers. The steamboat was to revolutionize transportation in America, and dominate internal shipping until the advent of the railroad. The connection between the Isaacs and Hendricks was very strong and Isaacs, who remained a bachelor into his forties, lived with his sister, brother-in-law, and their numerous children, including Henry and Uriah. When these boys were old enough, they became partners in the business, and Isaacs left to pursue other business ventures. At forty-four he married Elkalah Kursheedt, daughter of Israel Baer Kursheedt. Despite their late start, the couple had ten children. | Isaacs, Solomon J. (I4066)
|
| 300 | (Research):AJLLJ Portraits Database 5 Aug 2011 The son of Justina Bradly Lazarus Isaacs and Joshua Isaacs, Jr., Solomon was born and raised in New York. His father was a leading member of the Jewish community there, and served as parnas of Shearith Israel. After his sister Frances married copper manufacturer Harmon Hendricks, Isaacs apprenticed with his brother-in-law, running one of America's first copper mills. Isaacs eventually became a partner in Hendricks' business, which included among its clients Paul Revere and Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat. In fact, Solomon was known as "Steamboat Isaacs" for the copper boilers he and Hendricks provided for Fulton and his followers. The steamboat was to revolutionize transportation in America, and dominate internal shipping until the advent of the railroad. The connection between the Isaacs and Hendricks was very strong and Isaacs, who remained a bachelor into his forties, lived with his sister, brother-in-law, and their numerous children, including Henry and Uriah. When these boys were old enough, they became partners in the business, and Isaacs left to pursue other business ventures. At forty-four he married Elkalah Kursheedt, daughter of Israel Baer Kursheedt. Despite their late start, the couple had ten children. | Isaacs, Solomon J. (I4066)
|