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tolstoyamericanrevolution · 3 years

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The Seixas Brothers; Jewish Patriots

A family of Portuguese origins and first generation colonial Americans- The Seixas family had a powerful influence on the Jewish communities of New York, Rhode Island and Philadelphia- particularly through the eldest two surviving sons. Moses & Gershom.

Being of Portuguese origin the family were Sephardic Jews. Sephardic Jews being Jews from Iberia and later the Middle East, post inquisition. They had different customs to the modern culturally dominant Ashkenazi Jews, Jews from Northern and Eastern Europe- an elder contemporary of the Seixas brothers would be Moses Mendelssohn who was a Berlin based Ashkenazi Jews who helped the cultural integration and gaining of civil rights for Jews in Germany then Prussia.

Religious customs between the two groups differed significantly particularly in language with Sephardic synagogues mainly being in Portuguese or Ladino when not speaking Hebrew. The Sephardi Jews also were seen as more refined and educated than the Ashkenazi Jews, as well as wealthier, in internal community dynamics. Hence the saying that the Sephardic Jews were the descendants “of Poets and Philosophers” see Judah Halevi or Maimonides as examples of a Sephardi Poet and Philosopher, from Spain and Egypt respectively. In Europe these communities were often segregated from each other, internally, seeing inter community involvement outside of business as distasteful. This included prayer & marriage.

The situation for American Jews were quite different. The community of the Seixas brothers was small roughly 2,500 people barely a tenth of the population. Practising it was Sephardic due to the influence of the Dutch Jews, yet it was majority Ashkenazi in cultural and ethno-religious make up. Leading to a community that was small, spread out, cultural mixed and frankly too modern for the European rabbinical practises.

Now; to the Seixas brothers themselves. Born and raised in Rhode Island by Issac Mendes Seixas; born originally in Portugal and raised in London by Abraham and Abigail Seixas who were Marranos (Jews converted to Christianity, who continued to practise Judaism in secret due to the Inquisition) and Rachel Levy born in London, she was an Ashkenazi Jew related to the important Levy-Frank’s family. Her marriage caused such an uproar that many Sephardi members avoided it. As you can see like many Sephardic Jews their marriages were from across the world, and like many York City Jews they began the intermarriage of Ashkenazi and Sephardi. You can see more of their records in the image of the family register attached below.

Sexias family register

The ideologies of Moses and Gershom were shaped by the world around them, Great Britain had one of the most lenient policies towards Jews however this included the fact that they could not attend university, own property in the form of land or practise the law. The Jews rights bill in England would not come til the mid 19th century. Anti-Semitism was often seen in the writers of the day including Voltaire and English politicians. The Seixas brothers were of Portuguese origins which conducted the inquisition that oft burned Jews alive for either not converting or being secret converts, post expulsion. In the 18th century this continued in Goa, India & Brazil.

Russia conducted pogroms, which devastated the Jewish community until the early 20th century (although Soviet Anti-Semitism was by no means better post 1920s). This was also the era of the Pale of Settlement in which Eastern European Jews were restricted to modern day Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine unable to trade or live in any main city without a letter. Prussia, had begun the process of integrating Jews, however both sides were extremely cautious of the other.

The Middle East was mixed, on one hand it was more tolerant than Europe with Thessloniki being named the Shabbat City as it was mainly dark on Friday nights due to observance. Yet; Jews were also mistrusted in the Ottoman Empire having to be identified by dress often a yellow hat or a type of shoe (this identification also existed in different forms in East Europe). Religious persecution varied from region to region.

This was the time where Proto-Zionist thoughts were beginning, but it was mainly aimed at integrating in the current society. The idealogy popular among the American Colonial Jews (those with Wiggish leanings) was that the new state would allow for religious and economic freedoms in which they could be active, equal citizens of a country founded on the right of man to govern himself over a Christian or Muslim Monarch whose country saw them as deplorable. This is a bit of a history lesson but essential to understanding the context, in which these first generation Jews acted in who were likely spurred on by the revolutionary ideals and attitudes of the time, as well as their own.

Moses was born March 26th 1744 and married Jochebed Levy also of Newport. He was a merchant, operating from the city and a proud follower of the patriot cause, his main influence being post the war in his encouragement of Washington to uphold the religious freedoms promised. He frankly; asserted it, rather than requesting it.

Moses was a civic and religious leader, being an educated man who was apart of the Freemason’s in Rhode Island. He believed such institutions allowed natural brotherhood between men, no matter their background. Moses later became leader of the King David’s Lodge. He was also the warden of the Touro synagogue in Newport, one of the oldest in the country, founded in the 1760s. Warden was a civic leadership role in a religious community. He often spoke at community sermons, including reading his letter to Washington in 1790 aloud to the man and the community. He also wrote letters addressing Washington as a fellow freemason. Outside of religious and civic duties he also post war co-founded the Rhode Island Bank.

"a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance – but generously affording to All liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: deeming every one, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language, equal parts of the great governmental Machine." - Moses Mendes Seixas in his famous letter to Washington.

An interesting detail on Moses’s religious involvement, despite not being Hazzan like his brother, is the fact that in the 1770s he was entrusted by the Newport community to be the Mohel; The man who preforms circumcision on the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life. He received instruction only by letter, and circumcised his own son successfully. It shows how well trusted he was in the community and also how Jewish communities in America often divided duties among each other due to the lack of Rabbinical influence and population.

Moses’s letter to Washington 1790

Last but not least, Gershom. I know the most about him due to what is avalible on his life, I have to admit this post is quite long so I will do a seperate one going into more detail about the younger brother.

Gershom Mendes Seixas was born a year after his brother and became Chief Hazzan of the New York community synagogue at the early age of 23. Despite being young for a role which was the nearest they had to Rabbi, he was voted unanimously which demonstrates the breadth of knowledge and charisma the man had. Hazzan, as Jews canted their songs, tended to lead the singing and the reading of the Torah in synagogue, especially without a Rabbi.

As a Hazzan he was simply revolutionary. Not just in his politics. He was the first Jew to have a sermon in America in English, with the majority of his sermons from there onwards being in English. He pressed for the reconciliation between England and the Colonies, however his tone notes a man who clearly saw England in the wrong and the Colonies as having bargaining power over their overlord.

From the start he was an interfaith leader, many of his friends being Tory Christians, he resumed many of these correspondents post war with those who remained. In 1776 he was extremely active, including writing a prayer in Hebrew for the reconciliation of the colonies, as referred above. When invasion of New York by the British came near, his emotive words convinced the entire congregation to board up the doors of the Synagogue with many leaving the city. During this time, his wife Elchalah suffered a miscarriage. He escaped to Connecticut with some of his followers, bringing the religious ceremonial items with him including the scrolls.

With the take back of Philadelphia he was offered the role of Hazzan there which he served until 1784, there he actively argued against Protestant lawmakers who proposed changes to the constitution such as ensuring that only Christian’s could follow it and that it was impossible for those of other faiths to comprehend, like his brother he civilly fought these matters stating that it was "unjust to the members of a persuasion that had always been attached to the American cause and given a support to the country, some in the Continental army, some in the militia, and some by cheerfully paying taxes and sustaining the popular cause."

He would be present at Washington’s inauguration as apart of the significant fourteen religious leaders that supported him, he was the only Jew.

Post the war he would continue to actively be involved in Jewish ceremonies, having an annual Thanksgiving sermon back in New York where he returned afterwards. He became the first Jewish member to be elected a trustee of Colombia collage. He would also create a Jewish charitable organisation in 1802 called Hebra Hased Ve Amet.

To this day descendants of both brothers serve as leaders of America’s remaining Sephardi community.

Portrait of Gershom Mendes Seixas 1784

#turn washington's spies #turn amc #American revolution #revolutionary history #Jewish history #Gershom Mendes Seixas #Moses Mendes Seixas #The Seixas Brothers #my American jewish history rants #please enjoy #this means a lot to me #if you have any information feel free to add #also I did totally listen to the old man's back again as I wrote this #turn washingtons spies

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skgway · 4 years

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1828 Apr., Tues. 15

6 10/60

11 3/4

Young William K– [Keighley] came about 7 1/4 – Some time talking to him – It rained but did not like to send him away, so sent him into Lower brea wood to prune till after my breakfast or till it might be fair –

Then sent off my note by John to “Mr. James Briggs Wards end” – 20 minutes before William K– [Keighley] came, and in 1 1/2 hour afterwards wrote 3 pages, the ends, and under the seal, to Mrs. B– [Barlow]. Then in an hour copied the whole and breakfast at 10 35/60 in 1/2 hour –

From 11 10/60 to 6 (William K– [Keighley] came in at 1/2 – Had looked over Lower brea wood – So rainy, thought it best to go home. Went down and talked to him a little while) wrote out the last part of the itinerary in my traveling journal, and copied the whole of it into this volume from 15 June to 24 October last, and wrote very small and close the top of page 1 of my paper to Mrs. B– [Barlow] and 1/2 crossed the 1st page and then copied it –

Asked her to ask Madame de R– [Rosny] to get blonde pelerine like mine, for Mrs. B– [Barlow] to bring for M– [Mariana]. Gave her hints what Inns to go to (Wrights Ship Inn and Webb’s hotel Piccadilly) in Dover and London what to pay, etc. etc. Very kind letter – Surely affectionate and kind enough.

Say we (my aunt and I) shall be in Paris next winter – Should she (Mrs. B– [Barlow]) go, Paris will no longer have the same interest for me – Shall see her before she has been very long in England – Had almost promised Miss McL– [MacLean] to go to her the end of this month –

Dinner at 6 20/60 – Afterwards wrote the last 6 lines – Thoroughly rainy, soaking day – Hardly 5 minutes fair the whole day from 7 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. – Sent off my letter “Madame Madame Barlow, Rue des Champs Elysées No. 6, Paris” by John this evening –

Long talk with Marian about politics – She a read hot Tory and I, know not what, too moderate perhaps for Tory, and, if wiggish, as my father said, unwittingly so – I wish not for war with [her] – I cannot see how Canning would have ruined his country, how Huskingon will ruin it, or the duke of Wellington as if by magic redeem it – But as I said I know little about politics and care not to embroil myself in what I have neither time to study, nor opportunity to understand –

Came to my room at 10 25/60 – Wrote the last 4 lines –

#anne lister #anne lister code breaker #marian lister #Shibden Hall 1828 #isbergue de rosny #maria barlow

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