Jews in the Americas, 1776–1826 ed. by Michael Hoberman, Laura Leibman, and Hilit Surowitz-Israel (review)

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...