Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826

Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 is a collection of out-of-print primary sources and rare archival materials that document the diversity of Jewish experiences in the Caribbean, Suriname, the United States, and Canada during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (xxvi). Building on influential recent works of early American Jewish history that have embraced an Atlantic history approach, such as Atlantic Diasporas and The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, the materials in Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 highlight a “profoundly transnational cultural and religious community” that spanned much of the Atlantic world of the era (xxvii).1 Indeed, a third of the documents in the volume emerged from or make reference to a Jewish community located outside of North America, while a number of sources reveal how some Jewish families circulated throughout multiple American settlements during the period. Ultimately, Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 fits squarely within the new Atlantic world historiography by presenting a more fluid and broader geographical understanding of early American Jewry.In addition to an expanded understanding of the term “American,” the sources in Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 broaden the definition of who or what is a Jew in this period of great change between the high point of Sephardic immigration and the first major wave of German Jewish migration (xxvii). Rather than privileging religion, ethnicity, genealogy, or culture to define Jews, the editors employ “five variables in community identity: religious expression, language, race, gender, and age” (xl). This makes it possible for readers to appreciate a variety of Jewish experiences during the era, especially related to hybridity, syncretism, and the creole nature of early American Jewish life (xl).Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 consists of an introduction and five chapters: “Family Life,” “Life Cycles,” “Synagogue,” “Politics, Slavery, and Trade,” and “Literary Works and Religious Discourses.” A portion of the Introduction is dedicated to brief histories of the communities represented in the volume, but it is the editors’ review of the historiography of early American Jewish history and their explanation of the book’s methodological scope that make this section particularly worthwhile. Their goal is to move beyond prior collections that mainly focused on social history to provide a resource for those interested in material religion, intellectual history, and cultural studies (xliv). It is their belief that these types of sources will enable scholars to better access “the role previously under-represented groups played in early American Jewish life” (xlvii).“Family Life,” the book’s first chapter, consists of letters, estate inventories, a diary, family register, genealogy, account book, and a land transfer between a mother and daughter. These materials document the wide dispersal of Jewish kin and business networks throughout the ports of the Atlantic world and beyond (one letter is from a father to his son about to depart New York City for Calcutta) (38). They also highlight the intersection of family and commerce and the persistence of affectionate ties between people often separated by great distances. In keeping with the editors’ agenda to privilege sources that give voice to groups typically missing from previous collections of early American Jewish history, twelve of the documents in this section were written by or to women.“Life Cycles” is next and appropriately features material related to key milestones in the lives of community members. There is a registry of circumcisions, ketubot and marriage contracts, wills, epitaphs, and more in the chapter. Included in this section is an 1812 record of the conversion and subsequent circumcision of former Barbadian slave Isaac Lopez Brandon in Suriname, which is just one example of several sources that “pay special attention to the variety of experiences related to descendants of Jewish men and women of color” (xliii, 161–62). Additionally, the documents in “Life Cycles” are particularly noteworthy in illustrating the multiplicity of languages utilized by America’s Jews during this era. While all sources in Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 are presented in English, their original language—Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, French, or English—is listed along with who completed the modern translation for the book.“Synagogue,” the brief third chapter, consists primarily of congregational constitutions, laws, and protocols. These documents emphasize the centrality of the synagogue to the communal lives of Jews of the era, as well as the level of control the Mahamads attempted to exercise over their congregations. But, as indicated in the 1790 Constitution, Bylaws, and Charter of New York’s Shearith Israel, a degree of democratization can be observed in how congregations were now organizing themselves, which perhaps reflects the influence of republicanism on Jewish communities during the Age of Atlantic Revolutions (218–22). Other documents in this section highlight the continued religious connections of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries’ diasporic Sephardic communities. For example, a Misheberarkh prayer from Curaçao mentions coreligionists in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Jamaica, and Suriname (202–4).The fourth chapter, “Politics, Slavery, and Trade,” features the greatest number of sources in the collection that relate to the Jewish involvement with the American Revolution. Particularly interesting are the materials that highlight the British retaliation against St. Eustatius for its support of American revolutionaries, which was especially devastating for the island’s vibrant Jewish population, who were banished. Even after the island was returned to Dutch control, the Jewish community never truly recovered and was all but nonexistent by the end of the period covered in this book. Other documents address privileges and rights of Jews in colonies or states, such as Canada, Suriname, and Maryland, including the latter’s famous 1826 “Jew Bill.” The Jewish engagement with slavery is another major theme of the chapter and there are several runaway slave advertisements along with a notice of a private slave sale. As this era also marked the beginning of the transatlantic abolitionist movement there are some manumission records as well, including two by leading Jewish Jamaican slave trafficker Alexandre Lindo in 1791 (305–8).The book’s last chapter, “Literary Works and Religious Discourses,” is its briefest, containing just thirteen documents. Nevertheless, this chapter is a crucial part of the editors’ efforts to utilize cultural materials to explore Jewish identity. To this end, they have included literature written by and about Jews, such as selections from Moses Hart’s Modern Religion and Richard Cumberland’s The Jew, A Comedy. Accordingly, the diversity of sources in this chapter calls attention to “how Jews created and perpetuated Jewish practices and identity in an era of change” (xlvii). Also in this section are inventories of books in personal collections or for sale by Jewish booksellers, highlighting this community’s immersion in the wider Atlantic world of ideas. One curious note is the decision to include in this volume an excerpt from John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative, of Five Years’ Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America, since this source is already widely available to scholars.One of the great strengths of Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 is that each of the volume’s 130 primary sources is accompanied by an introductory paragraph, which provides biographical information about individuals mentioned, along with other pertinent details, supplying the reader with the contemporary context in which a particular document was created. For example, the introduction to Mordecai Sheftall’s will, dated April 25, 1778, explains how he was taken prisoner by the British following their capture of Savannah during the American War of Independence. Because of his prominent role in supplying both the Georgia militia and the Continental Army with provisions, Sheftall was incarcerated aboard a prison ship, which was a notoriously deadly place to be confined during the war (91). These details thus make the timing of Sheftall’s will much more understandable.There are several other useful tools to help the reader make sense of the material in the volume. Among these is a glossary containing definitions of Hebrew, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin words found in these early Jewish American documents. A chronology of major events that informed the lives of Jews in the Atlantic world during the period, such as the founding of the first Ashkenazi congregation in the Americas in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1787, is also included (xxi). Finally, there are nine illustrations, including a miniature portrait, details of gravestones, photos of a synagogue and ritual bath, and a map of the major American Jewish communities of the era. The miniature portrait of Sarah Brandon Moses, reproduced in the book courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society, is extremely appropriate because her life trajectory—born a mulatto Christian slave in Barbados in 1798, Moses was later reclassified as white and died a wealthy New York Jew in 1829—touches on many of the collection’s themes, while the image itself sheds light on the material culture of the early nineteenth-century Americas (1–2).There are a few minor typos and proofreading errors in the introduction, such as mistakenly noting Jacob Rader Marcus’s life span as only 1895–1896 (he in fact lived from 1896 to 1995) (xxviii). A more significant issue, however, is the collection’s prohibitive price. Indeed, at $160, it is likely that this publication is too expensive for the casual consumer of either Jewish or Atlantic history. Moreover, as archives are increasingly being digitized and made available online to researchers free of cost or for a small fee, one wonders how many professional scholars will find it necessary to purchase this particular book. Nevertheless, because the vast majority of the documents in Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 have yet to be scanned and made available online, and because the book features such excellent accompanying material, this volume is still a must-have acquisition for university libraries and Jewish historical institutions.

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