The Seixas-Kursheedts and the Rise of Early American Jewry (review)

This rather small volume has an ambitious half title, the promise of which is, unfortunately, largely unfulfilled. Abigail Kursheedt Hoffman credits co-author Kenneth Libo with the writing, while she supplied a group of family papers. And he sketches four biographies in this basically genealogical study, those of Gershom Mendes Seixas, Israel Baer Kursheedt, Gershom Kursheedt, and David Seixas.

The book begins with a summary of the career of Gershom Mendes Seixas (1746-1816), surely the best known of these men. His well recognized accomplishments are once again recounted. Although a hazan (reader) at Shearith Israel and trustee of Columbia College (1784), Seixas, who was born in New York, was not, as Libo writes, a member of the first Board of Regents of the State University of New York (p. 23). A small detail, but it is indicative of a major problem: here reliance on secondary sources often leads to disturbing errors of commission and omission, especially apparent in this first chapter.

For example, Libo states: "New York had been settled by Sephardim," (p. 3); yet Ashkenazim Jacob Barsimon and certainly Assur Levy, originally from Vilna, and Solomon Pieterson were in New Amsterdam prior to the arrival of the fabled twenty-three of "La Nacion." In 1664, Levy was present as the Dutch colony surrendered to the British; where were the other supposed "settlers"? By not using the original letters of Abigail Franks (1696-1756), but relying instead upon a secondary account, Libo misinterprets her relationship with "La Nacion," and he finds that she was "unsuccessful in getting any of her children married off to the sons of the Sephardic merchant Lewis Moses Gomez" (p. 8). Abigail, however, wrote: "david Gomez for this Some Years has had an Inclination to Richa [her daughter] but he is such a Stupid wretch that if his fortune was much more and I a begar noe child of Mine Especialy one of Such a good Understanding as Richa Should Never have my Consent And I am Sure he will never git hers."¹ Abigail was successful in not having her children marry any Gomez.

Furthermore, Libo credits contributions given by Jewish merchants in 1711 to complete the spire on Trinity Church with leading the New York Assembly to pass "a bill naturalizing all resident landowners of foreign birth, regardless of religion" (p. 5). The Act of 1715, in fact, naturalized resident landowners of foreign birth without religious qualifications only under certain very limited conditions, but naturalized "all persons of foreign Birth, being Protestants" (emphasis added).² What evidence is there for saying the Franks children "may very well have studied secular subjects with one of a number of Presbyterian or Episcopalian ministers"; or, "a friendly Protestant minister introduced Gershom [Mendes Seixas] to the Christian doctrine of salvation, regeneration, and grace" (p. 11)?

Israel Baer Kursheedt (1766-1852) and his son Gershom (1817-1863) had careers essentially of religious content. A German born Talmudist, Israel Baer married the daughter of Gershom Mendes Seixas in 1804 and engaged himself in reforming existing institutions at Shearith Israel like Hebra Hased Va-Amet (Kindness and Truth Society). In 1812, he moved to Richmond and from there visited Thomas Jefferson at Monticello (but what was said?). In 1824, he returned to New York and helped establish congregations B'nai Jeshurun and Anshe Chesed, both Ashkenazic synagogues. To what extent did this schism reflect the religious fervor found in the "Second Great Awakening," the reform movement that so affected American society?

Gershom Kursheedt was born in Richmond, and like his father, expressed considerable interest in the plight of Jews living under Turkish control. He moved to New Orleans in 1838 and convinced the philanthropist Judah Touro to aid in reforming various Jewish institutions and also to donate funds to help those living in the "Land of our...