This is an umbrella project for all projects related to Jews from Pennsylvania.
By 1656 New Amsterdam Jews traded along the Delaware River on Pennsylvania's eastern border, and by 1681 several Jews probably settled in the southeastern area. While most of these Jews were of Spanish-Portuguese origin, during the 18th century many came from Central Europe.
Isaac Miranda' (d. 1732) of Tuscany, a prominent Philadelphia landowner and public official, was the first Jew to settle in Lancaster , where he died a convert to Christianity. His son George traded with the Shawnee Indians along the Allegheny River.
By 1747 – when ten Jewish families lived in Lancaster – a cemetery was purchased by Isaac Nunez Ricus (Henriques) and Joseph Simon, the leading merchant who had a trading outpost at Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh). An early Jewish resident of Lancaster, Isaac Cohen, was Pennsylvania's first physician.
Jews settled at an early date in the port of Philadelphia, where many of them, such as the traders David Franks and Nathan Levy , engaged in shipping by the 1750s.
Michael Gratz arrived in 1759 from London and joined the mercantile enterprises of his brother Barnard.
David Franks, Barnard Gratz, and Aaron Levy were among the purchasers of land from the Illinois Indians in 1773. Levy became a landowner in nearly every county and founded Aaronsburg, which he named for himself, in 1786.
Congregation Rodeph Shalom of Philadelphia, founded in 1795, is the oldest Ashkenazic synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, it was founded informally as a minyan of ten worshipers in 1795 by Orthodox Jews from Germany, Holland, and Poland,
Another early Jewish settlement was at Easton, north of Philadelphia on the Delaware. The merchant Myer Hart de Shira (Texeira) was among its founders.
Rebecca Gratz founded the Hebrew Sunday School Society (1838) and other organizations in Philadelphia.
- 1830's - Jews arrived in Pittsburgh, Reading, Pottsville, and
- 1840's - they arrived in Wilkes-Barre in Harrisburg, Scranton , Erie, and Allentown
- 1849 - in Honesdale
- 1860's - Jew arrived in Hazelton, Altoona, and Uniontown
There were only nine congregations in Pennsylvania in 1856, which grew by 1877 to 26 for approximately 17,000 Jews. Daughters of Israel, the first national Jewish women's organization, was founded in Pittsburgh in 1872.
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- Presidents of Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia
- The Jews of Lancaster by David Brenner.
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Philadelphia - Mikvah Israel Cemetery
Many distinguished Americans are buried in Mikveh Israel Cemetery. They include:
- Nathan Levy (1704–1753) Prominent merchant.
- Haym Solomon] (1740–1785), patriot and financier of the American Revolution, arrived in New York in 1772, joined the Sons of Liberty, one of George Washington's personal friends, captured and sentenced to death by the British in 1776, used his knowledge of German (he spoke eight languages) to convince his Hessian jailer to escape with him to Philadelphia, where he arrived penniless
- Michael Gratz (1740–1811), signed the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, encouraged the opening of the West to settlement
- Jacob Gratz] (1790–1856), son of Michael Gratz, served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate.
- Rebecca Gratz] (1781–1869), daughter of Michael Gratz, noted for her philanthropy, regarded as the model for the character Rebecca in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, and the first Jewish female college student in the United States (at Franklin College, later part of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
- Aaron Levy], founder of Aaronsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania in 1786. Named for him, Aaronsburg is the first town in Pennsylvania (and probably in the entire United States) that was planned by and named after a Jew. A pioneer and fur trader, he was a close friend and financial supporter of Haym Salomon
- Benjamin Nones] (1757–1826), born in France, he served on the staffs of both General Washington and General Lafayette. While still a private under Count Pulaski, he received a letter of commendation in 1779 written by Captain Verdier, a splendid testimonial to his courage. He fought in almost every action in the Carolinas. Nones became a Major of the Hebrew Legion of 400 men attached to DeKalb’s command. Several years after the war, he was appointed an interpreter of Spanish and French for the United States government.
- Phillip Moses Russell], surgeon’s mate to General Washington
- Isaac Djerassi] (1925-2011), member of the first graduating class of the Hebrew University and an Oncologist from the Philadelphia area who advanced cancer therapy.
At least 21 Jewish soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and others from the War of 1812 and the Civil War, are interred in the burial grounds
The cemetery ceased to be a regular place of burial in 1886 except for the interment of Josephine Etting in 1913, Fanny Polano Elmaleh, wife of Reverend Leon H. Elmaleh, in 1966, and Reverend Leon H. Elmaleh in 1972.
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