During the American Revolutionary War, Jews played
a tremendous part in defending and helping America become an independent
country. I wasn’t aware of this
until I choose this topic as my Hebrew School essay. I am fascinated with the American
Revolutionary War and didn’t expect to learn that Jews were active and
influential. When I learned of the
American Revolution at school, my teacher never taught us about famous Jews
in the war, he taught us about John Adams, George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and their contributions.
The first time I looked up “famous Jews in the Revolutionary War” on
Google, I was surprised that there were so many. I learned how Jews gave everything they
had to the American cause. In this
essay, I will explain the importance of three Jewish heroes; Mordecai
Sheftall, Francis Salvador and Haym Salomon, and how they contributed to
not only to the cause but America as a whole.
Mordecai Sheftall, born in Savannah, Georgia,
1735, had a very successful life as a merchant shipper and statesman. He set up his own network of contacts
across the globe and was well connected with friends and family in
mercantile and shipping. His
pre-revolutionary holdings were immeasurable. He was recognized by the authorities in
every level of society and government and was a highly visible participant
in civic activities. Angered by
Britain’s Stamp Act, Sheftall joined the Savannah Parochial Committee, a
group of people calling for American Independence. After hostilities began, Sheftall was
appointed Deputy Commissary General to the Continental troops of South
Carolina and Georgia and was later promoted to colonel, making him the
highest ranking Jewish officer at the time.
Sheftall used all his resources to support the
fight for freedom, using his own personal funds to care for the men he led
and making massive loans to pay for munitions, food, uniforms, and
horses. He also invested heavily in
Georgia notes and bonds, which eventually become worthless when the war
ended. In December 1778, Sheftall
and his oldest son were taken prisoner and sent to Antigua, from which he
implored unsuccessfully for the Continental Congress to negotiate a
prisoner exchange. He had helped the
country but they were unable or unwilling to come to his aid in return.
He was financially ruined after the
Revolutionary War. Sheftall’s loans
to the Continental Congress and Georgia were never repaid and most of his
property was seized by the British during his time in imprisonment. This didn’t stop Sheftall. He and his son settled in Philadelphia
and began a new shipping business.
His reputation for trustworthiness and leadership continued
untarnished.
In 1782, Sheftall returned to Savannah,
Georgia, a place that had a very small population of Jewish people. Despite a lack of Jewish education,
Mordecai was observant and devoted and found ways to show that he was part
of the Jewish community. He became
one of the founding members of the Congregation Mickve Israel and donated a
parcel of land to establish Georgia’s first Jewish cemetery. In 1790, he led the synagogue in a
successful petition for an official charter from the state and a year
later, he began a five-year term as president of the congregation. Sheftall was a Jewish Representative
among the Union Society, an ecumenical association formed by Savannah’s religious
groups’ to help widows, poor children, and support the town’s Bethesda
orphanage.
Sheftall died on July 6, 1797. Although he never earned back his
pre-revolution financial funds, he lived a life of great influence to his
local community and to the newly founded United States of America. What I admire about Mordecai Sheftall the
Humble is his dedication to help people in general, Jews and the colonists
alike. I admire his generosity, how
he willingly gave up all he had to help the continental troops and the
Jewish community. Throughout his
life, he demonstrated strong leadership abilities, strength of character
and trustworthiness; he is a man worthy of remembrance.
In my research, I discovered there were Jewish
congregations in Georgia and South Carolina. Francis Salvador was born in London in
1747, raised in luxury and was well educated by private tutors. Most of his family’s wealth came from his
great-grandfather Joseph, who was the first Jewish director of the East
India Company. Even before Salvador
was born, his family had developed great interests in America. Francis’s grandfather helped raise funds
with which to send London Jews to the new colony in Savannah, Georgia. In 1733, the Georgia trustees banned
Jewish immigration to the colony, but not before 42 Jewish families made
the journey, one of them Mordecai Sheftall’s parents.
Much of Francis’s actions during the war were
influenced by his Jewish beliefs and throughout the war, he would use his
wealth to help out the Continental Army.
Francis married and took a job in the family shipping firm and then
later moved to South Carolina and established himself as a plantation
owner. Shortly after his arrival in
1773, Salvador found himself being drawn into the American movement against
Britain and willingly charged into the Patriot cause. At the age of 27, Salvador was elected to
the General Assembly of South Carolina and became the first Jew to hold
that high of an elective office in the colonies. He was elected as a delegate to South Carolina’s
Provincial Congress in 1774. During
the assembly, Francis helped frame a bill of rights and a letter stating
the colonist’s grievances against the British crown. Salvador played a huge role in the
Provincial Congress, which appointed him to negotiate with Tories living in
the Northern and Western parts of the colony and beseech them turn against
the British government.
In November, 1775, the second Provincial
Congress assembled, during which Salvador urged the South Carolina
delegation in Philadelphia to vote for American Independence from
Britain. At this same time, the
English Superintendent of Indian Affairs made a treaty with the Cherokees
which motivated them to attack the colonists. On July 1, 1776, Cherokees attacked
settlements along the frontier, decimating and scalping a mass number of
colonists. Salvador, wanting to
help, mounted his noble steed and galloped nearly thirty miles to give the
alarm to the militias, similar to Paul Revere and giving him the nickname
“Paul Revere of the South.” He then
returned to the front line. In an
early morning Cherokee attack, Salvador was shot. He fell into some bushes where he was
eventually found and scalped. At the
young age of 29, he was the first Jew to die during the Revolutionary War. Furthermore, he probably never heard the
news that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, had, as he insisted,
adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Throughout my speech so far, I have spoken of
famous Jews during the Revolutionary War.
But the most famous Jewish hero by far is Haym Salomon. Born in Lesno, Poland in 1740, Salomon,
in his twenties, traveled around Europe, while acquiring knowledge of
currency and finance which would, in later years, serve him well. After traveling for ten years, he joined
Poland in its war with Russia.
Escaping from the Russians, he decided to go to England and after
earning enough money, sailed to America in 1772, arriving in New York City
that winter.
In New York, Haym started a brokerage company
and had a lot of clientele, including a large number of loyalists. When word got out about the fighting at
Lexington and Concord, Salomon sided with the colonials and joined the Sons
of Liberty. This decision would soon
get him into a lot of trouble. After
a fire in New York that destroyed 25% of the city, British General William
Howe blamed the Sons of Liberty, resulting in the arrest of the entire
organization, including Haym Salomon.
During his imprisonment, Salomon’s health suffered from the terrible
conditions. He was keen to notice
that the British could not understand their German soldiers and after
proving himself, he was appointed translator and was given a better room,
food, and treatment. During that
time, he persuaded over 500 Hessian men to convert to the Patriot cause.
Two years after being paroled, he was again
arrested and convicted of being a spy and was sentenced to hang until
death. Luckily, Salomon had planned
for this and used a couple gold coins to bribe the guard and escape. He fled to Philadelphia where he
reestablished his brokerage business and was appointed by Congress as
Postmaster Foriegn Ministers. At
this time, his abilities to make money were noticed by Robert Morris,
Congress’s Minister of Finance. He
appointed Haym to help the American cause by giving personal loans to
members of Congress, allowing them to stay in the city. He was personally asked by Washington to
finance a battle, raising $20,000 for George Washington and enabling him to
deliver the final blow at the Battle at Yorktown. After the Treaty of Paris was signed on
September 3, 1783, Haym Salomon continued to assist the debt ridden
government by coordinating repayment of the money owed to foreign
countries.
Salomon, besides helping out the American
patriots, also contributed to the Jewish society. He served as a member of Philadelphia’s
Congregation Mikveh Israel. He served as Treasurer for the society of
indigent travelers and participated in the first known rabbinic court of
arbitration. Furthermore, he helped
lead a successful fight to repeal the test oath which expelled Jews and
Non-Christians from holding a public office in the state of Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, heroes don’t live forever. Salomon was diagnosed with tuberculosis,
which was said to be the result of conditions while in prison, and at age
44 on January 6, 1785, he died leaving his wife and four children in
bankruptcy. Even after his death,
his children and grandchildren continuously pleaded to Congress to repay
the money back from Haym’s loans to the army, but none was repaid. What I admire about Haym Salomon the
Financier was his willingness to sacrifice his weatlth and well being to
help the American cause.
These three Jewish American heroes, Mordecai
Sheftall, the Humble, Francis Salvador, Paul Revere of the South and Haym
Salomon, the Financier, were all influenced by their religious
beliefs. All three had a religious
commitment participating in civic and social events to help the overall
community by contributing food, money and resources to the homeless and
people in need. Not all of them were
devoutly religious or prayed every day, but they exhibited their Jewish
beliefs by helping people in general and fighting for overall peace. This idea of helping others is expressed
in the song “Tikunolum”, which we sing at Hebrew school each year to remind
us to do what’s right to protect the peace and to hope for happiness for
everyone. That is what these men
fought for; they fought for the rights of the colonists and a peace between
Britain and America. One man fought
for that truth until his dying day, while another gave every penny he had
and every scrap of land he owned to help out the Continental forces. I may not be fighting in a war, but I
have contributed to society by donating my time to a New Jersey Food
Pantry, clean up on Earth Day, giving to charitable events like a food
drive, and even the smallest gesture of purchasing a Brandon Buddy bracelet
to support an ill South Brunswick student.
When you sacrifice something of yourself, large or small, you make a
difference that people will hopefully benefit from whether you are
personally remembered or not. I will
certainly remember these three brave Jewish American heroes, Mordecai
Sheftall, Francis Salvador and Haym Salomon.
