July 4th – A Jewish Holiday?
July 4th is unquestionably a Jewish holiday, just as it is an American holiday for all Americans.
Once upon a time, I was giving a talk to the Daughters of the American Revolution. My topic was the Jewish contribution to the Revolutionary War. The ladies listened very carefully and when I was done speaking, I was approached by one of the women who introduced herself as “Sergeant Baskin.” She said to me: “You are married to a Baskin girl!” I retorted that I was quite aware of that. She went on to say, “Well, we would like your wife, Kim, to be the first Jewish member of the Daughters of the American Revolution!” I was somewhat taken aback, considering the history of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The incident with the DAR led me on a quest for information about Kim’s family, but also other Jews who were instrumental in the independence and founding of our great Republic.
Jews were among the earliest settlers in the Americas. Many of them were fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition. On the same day that Columbus left for his first trip to the undiscovered New World, Jews were crowding the same harbor from which Columbus left to flee the edict from the Spanish Royal Court expelling all Jewish citizens from the realm. Some of those Jews fled to Portugal, where they were treated even worse than in Spain, some fled to the East, others to Africa, and a sizeable group fled to the Caribbean islands, South America, and New York which was New Amsterdam under the jurisdiction of the Dutch.
The Jews in Brazil were forced to leave when the Dutch were forced out, succeeded by the Spanish. The Jews who left South America were captured by pirates. Those same fleeing Jews were recaptured by the French who told the Jews that they could go back to Europe, which would be a bad idea, or they could be taken to New Amsterdam where the Dutch were likely to be more favorable. Unfortunately, when the Jews reached New Amsterdam, the antisemitic ruler of the city, Peter Stuyvesant, attempted to kick out the new immigrants, who had been welcomed by Native Americans. The Jews filed a plea with the Dutch East Indiana company, which intervened to the let the Jews stay in New Amsterdam.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, New Amsterdam was New York, thanks to the British. The first great victory of the British in the Revolutionary War was the battle of Long Island and New York, where continental forces lost decisively. Among those who fled New York were most of the city’s Jews. They went to Philadelphia and other safe havens.
Overwhelmingly, the Jewish community in North America supported the colonialists, fought in the war, giving both blood and money to the cause.
A British admiral, Sir George Rodney, Commander of the British Fleet, said that the patriots would never have won the war were it not for the Jews smuggling gunpowder from the Caribbean to North America.
So many Jews volunteered to fight for the Continental Army, that a group of Southern Jews were called by some the “Jews Brigade.” Those Jews were Southerners, most of whom were Sephardi Jews, meaning those of Spanish and Eastern extraction. They were led by Francis Salvador in South Carolina and Mordecai Sheftel in Georgia. They served with Jews and gentiles alike.
My wife’s family, several members of them, served as Washington’s secretaries, two of them were captains, and one a private. They made their way from Virginia, to Pennsylvania, and eventually to North Central Pennsylvania, even before Williamsport was incorporated. The story of the family is harrowing. Several family members, particularly the women, were captured by Native Americans, and two of those women actually escaped. Thanks to a non-family member at William & Mary College, the family history found its way into a 118-page “paper” filed in the archives of the College.
Those familiar with the Revolutionary War will know the name Haym Salomon. He was a Polish immigrant, like my mother’s parents, who loved America and the patriotic cause. The story goes that when Washington was desperate and the troops were starving in Valley Forge, he sent Gouverneur Morris, his official fundraiser, to see if the Jews of Philadelphia would help. Allegedly, so the story goes, Morris refused because of his antisemitic leanings. Washington ordered him to do it anyway. Morris arrived at Congregation Mikva Israel on 4th Street in Philadelphia just before the start of the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. The Jewish community responded by anteing up every penny they had to assure the safety and security of the soldiers at Valley Forge. The Jewish community also helped to win the decisive Battle of Yorktown that ended the war.
It is also said that on Christmas Eve, Washington asked the Jewish soldiers to guard the encampment, since the British were close by. Of course, they agreed and kept the Colonial Army safe.
Washington was unique in his eleemosynary attitude towards the Jewish community. History has it that Alexander Hamilton had a lot to do with that. Washington thought that Hamilton might be his successor, notwithstanding Hamilton’s very public affair with Maria Reynolds. Martha Washington was a bit more discreet. She simply named her aggressive male cat, “Alexander Hamilton.”
Hamilton was raised on the Caribbean island of Nevis. That put him in contact with many members of the Jewish community. He could not go to a Christian school because his parents had a questionable divorce under English Church law. His father was Scottish, and his mother had some relationship to English royalty. Since the Christian school on Nevis would not take him, his mother sent him to a Jewish school, run by the Jewish women of the island.
According to Ron Churnow’s definitive history of Alexander Hamilton, the future patriot said that he could recite the Decalogue – The Ten Commandments, in Hebrew before he knew it in English. Hamilton’s teachers saw that he was brilliant and encouraged his family to take him to St. Thomas which later became the United States Virgin Islands. From there, Hamilton made his way to New York where he not only was a leader in attempting to abolish slavery, but also the greatest supporter that the Jewish community had in the new Republic.
The famous letter that Washington wrote to the Jewish community in 1790, after they congratulated him on this election to the Presidency, was allegedly ghost written by Alexander Hamilton. America’s first President was responding to congratulations from Moses Seixas. Washington said, “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” This at a time when in Eastern Europe genocide against the Jewish people was ongoing and commonplace. Hamilton, the father of American capitalism, changed the course of Jewish history in North America.
There were many other well known Jews who served in the Continental Army and provided the sustenance needed for Adams, Madison, and others to attend the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. They all publicly thanked the Jewish community in Philadelphia for making that possible.
Whatever became of Haym Salomon? He bankrupted himself in order to assure the financial integrity of the Continental Congress, the Army, and the proto American government. Although many U.S. Presidents acknowledge the debt of Haym Salomon and his family, it has to this day not been repaid.
There are those in the United States who argue for reparations to groups that also faced very real discrimination. However, no modern politician has ever suggested that the Jewish community be repaid a debt which it is agreed by all historians is unquestionably owed.
On this July 4th, when we celebrate the greatness of the American experience, let us remember that success was built on the hard work, blood, and tears of those who lived on this continent and the future generations. The story of the Jewish contribution to the Revolutionary cause and the founding of this Republic cannot be overstated. It is part of our legacy, not taught in school, but which brings shame to extremists on the left and the right who doubtless are unaware of Jewish American history.
Happy birthday and congratulations America.