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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Jewish Women of America
Though woman's activity in communal
affairs has been great and potent, its record is one of work so
modestly performed that while fully appreciated, there are but
few records to be procured on so important a topic. While men
have sacrificed property and even life itself for the faith of
their fathers, yet some of the most dramatic cases of
self-sacrifice and devotion on American soil were cases of
Jewish women during the colonization of South America, Mexico
and this country and during the wars for our independence and
the abolition of slavery. To this day the Spanish and Portuguese
congregation of New York shows its gratitude to the women who
gave substantial aid in effecting the building of the first
synagogue erected in that city in 1730.
In this manner their names have been preserved and all honor is
due to Abigail Franks, Simha de Torres, Rachel Louiza, Judith
Pacheco, Hannah Michaels and Miriam Lopez de Fonseca. Jewish
immigrants continued to come from Spain and Portugal as late as
1767 and in Georgia they were among the earliest settlers of
that colony in 1733. Another distinct group were the early
German Jews in America, and to this group belongs the Shetfall
family.
In 1740 the British government passed an act for the
naturalization of foreigners in the American colony and it is
remarkable that a large number of Jewish women availed
themselves of this act. In Jamaica no less than forty names
appear, several of them doubtless related too many of our old
American families. Among these Esther Pereira Mendes, Leah
Cardoza, Esther Pinto Brandon and similar names. In colonial
society prior to the Revolution, several Jewish women took a
prominent part and not a few were numbered among the belles of
that day.
Among these may be mentioned several ladies of the wealthy and
influential Franks family; Abigail Franks married Andrew
Hamilton, of Philadelphia. Phila Franks, in 1750, married
General De Lancy and their New York home was one of the
pretentious mansions of the day and later became the Fraunces
Tavern and was the very building in which George Washington
delivered his farewell address. A daughter of Joseph Simon, of
Lancaster, married Dr. Nicholas Schuyler, subsequently one of
the surgeons in the Revolutionary War. Sarah Isaacs, the
daughter of a patriot soldier, married outside of her own
religion and her son was John Howard Payne, the noted composer
of "Home, Sweet Home." Among these Rebecca Frank deserves
special mention. She was born of wealthy parents gifted with a
ready wit and rare personal beauty, and had access to the most
exclusive circle of colonial society. Her grandfather was the
sole agent for the British kings for the Northern colonies while
her father was the king's agent for Pennsylvania, which readily
explains why this family, like so many of the colonial
aristocracy, took the king's side in the Revolutionary struggle.
Rebecca Franks is mentioned as one of the queens of beauty at
the Meschianza, a splendid fete given to General Howe before
leaving Philadelphia in 1778. She married Colonel, afterwards
General, Sir Henry Johnson. Many distinguished Americans visited
her in her English home, among these being General Winfield
Scott. Her death occurred in 1823. The great majority, however,
were staunch adherents of the patriot cause and several Jewish
women figure in Revolutionary history. Among the women of the
South are the names of Mrs. Judy Minis and her daughter. The
wife of a Revolutionary soldier, she was heart and soul in the
cause. A strict observer of Jewish ritual, she prepared the
meals for Jewish soldiers taken prisoners by the British, after
the fall of Savannah. Her intense patriotism so disturbed the
British commander, that for a time he ordered each woman to
remain in her house, but finally, owing to their constant
communication and assistance to the patriots, Mrs. Minis and her
daughter were ordered to leave the town; they accordingly went
to Charleston, of which place the husband was one of the patriot
defenders. .
In Westchester County we meet another patriotic Jewess, Esther
Etting Hays, the wife of David Hays, also a Revolutionary
soldier. When Tarleton with a party of British raided the
village of Bedford in 1779, Tory neighbors entered the house
where Mrs. Hays was lying upon a sick bed with a newborn infant.
They demanded information, which she was supposed to possess,
concerning the patriot plans, on her refusal to comply the house
was set afire. The mother and child were saved only by faithful
Negro servants, who conveyed them to a shelter in the wood.
Among the noble examples of Jewish womanhood at this period were
Mrs. Moses Michael Hays, of Boston, and Mrs. Reyna Touro, who,
in a Puritan community, with hardly any Jewish associations,
brought up their children as observant Jews, Judah Touro and his
brother becoming the great communal workers of the next
generation.
The beginning of the nineteenth century finds women taking a
more active part, by their organization of benevolent and
charitable institutions. The most prominent name at this period
is that of the noblest daughter American Judaism has produced,
Rebecca Gratz, who was born in Philadelphia in 1781. Like
Rebecca Franks, she, too, was born to wealth and social
position; she too moved in the most exclusive society and
possessed, like her, beauty, grace and culture. She, too, might,
doubtless, have made a match as brilliant, as distinguished as
her name-sake, but, unlike her, she was a devout Jewess. Writers
have hinted that it was her devotion to her faith that was the
sole cause of her remaining unmarried. Her beauty, refinement
and wealth of noble qualities, made her beloved by all who knew
her, so that we may well look upon her as the ideal American
lady and Jewish woman.
Miss Gratz had been the close friend of Matilda Hoffman,
Washington Irving's first and only love. Her charm and nobility
of character so deeply impressed the great American author, and
so enthusiastically did he describe them to his friend, Sir
Walter Scott, during his European trip, that the latter is said
to have found in her the character he so beautifully depicted as
the Rebecca in "Ivanhoe." Among her intimate friends were some
of the leading statesmen and writers, Henry Clay and Sully, the
artist, among others. This noble woman from the start took a
keen interest in every charitable endeavor. Her name is
inseparably associated with every benevolent move-ment in
Philadelphia during the first half of the nineteenth century.
In 1819 two Jewish women, Mrs. Aaron Levy and Miss Hannah Levy,
happened to witness a case of distress in a Jewish family, and
at once resolved to call upon other ladies for aid. Their appeal
led to the formation of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society of
Philadelphia, in which Miss Gratz at once took a leading part.
In 1838 she organized the first Hebrew Sunday School in America,
and to it devoted her best efforts. She appealed to the ladies
of other cities as well, and thus led to the establishment of
similar institutions in New York and Charleston.
As early as 1850 Rebecca Gratz advocated a society to take care
of Jewish orphans. Her appeal was finally answered in the
organization of the Jewish Foster Home in 1855. She was also
active in the Ladies' Hebrew Sewing Society and the Fuel
Society. Nor were her labors entirely of a sectarian character.
As early as 1801 she was secretary of the Female Association for
the relief of women and children, and in 181 5 one of the
founders of the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum, winning from the
gentile world the highest admiration and sincere regard. Her
death occurred in 1869, memory well deserves to be kept fresh by
the Jewish women of America for all time.
With Rebecca Gratz were associated three other women who deserve
to be mentioned on this occasion. All of them were women of
refinement and social standing, thoroughly American by ancestry
and intensely devoted to their race and faith. As Leroy-Beaulieu
well put it, it is only those Jews who do stand for their race
and faith who gain the respect and friendship of the Christian
world. The ladies to whom I refer were Mrs. Anna Allen, Miss
Louisa B. Hart and Miss Ellen Phillips. They were among the
founders of the Hebrew Sunday School and the Jewish Foster Home,
and, like Miss Gratz, took a warm interest in all charitable
enterprises. Miss Hart was born in 1803 at Easton, Pennsylvania,
and to her belongs the credit of founding the Ladies' Hebrew
Sewing Society. Miss Phillips was the granddaughter of Jonas
Phillips, a Revolutionary soldier, and at her death in 189 1
bequeathed over $100,000 to the charities in which she was
interested. Mention should also be made of Mrs. Matilda Cohen
(1820-88), a member of the Woman's Centennial Commission in
1876, and Mrs. Rebecca C. I. Hart (also of Revolutionary
ancestry) who, for thirty years, was president of the Hebrew
Benevolent Society. Did time permit, extended notice should also
be given to the names of Mrs. Florence, Miss Pesoa, Mrs.
Binswanger, of Philadelphia, of the Moises, and Miss Lopez, of
Charleston, Mrs. Pricilla Joachimsen, of New York, the founder
of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, Mrs. Simon Borg, and
many others.
Within the past thirty years the Jewish women have done
wonderful work in the various fields of charitable endeavor
throughout the Union. The societies organized by them are far
too great in number, even to be enumerated within the scope of
this paper. Much less is it possible to give the names of the
noble women who have labored so diligently in behalf of those
institutions. Many of them are fortunately here to-day, and we
hope will continue to labor in their noble work for many years
to come.
In law and medicine some of the earliest to break down the
prejudice against women in the professions, were Jewish women.
On the stage are the names of Pearl Eytinge and her sister Rose,
who appeared with Booth. In art you can point to Miss Katherine
Cohen, the gifted pupil of St. Gaudens, who has exhibited her
sculptures at the Paris Salon. In the realms of education some
of the best private schools during the first half of the
nineteenth century were conducted by Jewish women, like Miss
Harby and Miss Moise. Since the establishment of the public
school system, hundreds of Jewish women have won the admiration
of the communities throughout the country for their work as
teachers, while in this city the first female assistant
superintendent appointed by the Board of Education is a Jewess
well known to all, not only as an educator, but as a devoted
worker in every department for the betterment of the Jewish
community.
Quite a number of names have appeared in the realm of letters.
Not to mention contemporaries, we may point to Rebekah Hyneman
as a poet of no mean ability, and to Penina Moise, a gifted
writer, both in prose and verse, the author of "Fancy's Sketch
Book*' and a contributor to various magazines. Her hymns have
for many years been chanted throughout the synagogues of the
South. Unfortunately few bright rays came into her life, a life
which had much of misery and sorrow, closing with years of total
blindness. Miss Charlotte Adams has written an appreciative
sketch of her, and I know of no sentiment more pathetic than the
last words of Penina Moise, "Lay no flowers on my grave. They
are for those who live in the sun, and I have always lived in
the shadow."
Jewish
Women's Work for Charity
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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