Follow
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Savannah.html by B. H. Levy & Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer
Congregation Mickve Israel was founded by 42 Jews who arrived in Savannah, in the new colony of Georgia, on July 11, 1733. Having left London, England, five months earlier, the brave band of mostly Portuguese Jews and two German Jewish families sought freedom and opportunity in the New World.
The first communal act upon landing in Savannah was the initiation of divine services. Worship was facilitated by the fact that more than a "Minyan" (a quorum of 10 men) was immediately available and a Torah Scroll (the first 5 books of the bible) was carried by the settlers to their new home in Georgia.
In 1790 the congregation was granted a Charter from the state of Georgia, confirming the legal status of the third oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Savannah Jews have been prominent in all aspects of the commercial, cultural and political life of the community. Mickve Israel remains today an active spiritual community, affiliated with the Reform movememt in Judaism.
The Torah Scroll brought to Savannah in 1733, and other cherished possessions of the congregation, including letters from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and several other presidents, are on display in Mickve Israel's Archives/Museum. The Gothic synagogue, which stands on Monterey Square, was dedicated in 1878.
The "Hope of Israel"
Congregation Mikve Israel Forty-two brave pioneering Jews, the “largest group of Jews to land in North America in Colonial days” arrived in Savannah on July 11, 1733, just five months after General James Edward Oglethorpe established the colony of Georgia. Although the trip on the William and Sarah was rough, and they ran aground near North Carolina, the new colony continued to provide hope for those “industrious” poor Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews in London who had been living in difficult circumstances.
In 1732 there were 6,000 Jews living in London. The more affluent and established members of that Jewish community, threatened by the poverty of their coreligionists, provided generous financial support by subscribing to Oglethorpe’s new colony of Georgia, in addition to helping their fellow Jews set sail on the second boat for Georgia. Among the Jews who helped subscribe were members of the Spanish and Portuguese Bevis Marks Synagogue, the mother congregation to Mickve Israel in Savannah.
These founders of Mickve Israel brought with them a “Safertoro” [sic] made of deerskin, with two “cloaks,” and a “circumcision box,” which was donated by a London merchant. This Torah is still used on commemorative occasions at Mickve Israel.
All but eight of the original forty-two Jewish colonists were Spanish/Portuguese Jews who had arrived in London ten years earlier, having lived as Crypto-Jews, publicly practicing Roman Catholicism and secretly preserving their Jewish heritage, prior to their departure from Portugal. Among these sephardic Jews was Dr. Samuel Nunes Ribeiro, a physician who had been imprisoned during the Inquisition for his successful efforts to convert New Christians back to the Jewish faith. Of the eight Ashkenazic founders were the families of Abraham Minis and Benjamin Sheftall, whose descendants are benefactors and active participants in the congregation today.
Savannah’s Jewish community followed a sequence different from the two older Jewish communities in New York (1654) and Newport (1695), and markedly different from the newer colonial Jewish settlements in Philadelphia (1739) and Charleston (1749). The primary act of the Savannah settlers was the founding of a congregation, then the establishment of a cemetery, followed by a “mickvah,” or ritual bath (on April 2, 1738). The pattern of the other colonial communities was to first build a cemetery, then a mickvah, and finally to found a congregation.
The Early Savannah Congregation Upon settling in Georgia, the Savannah Jews probably held services in the homes of members. In July 1735 they “met together, and agreed to open a Synagogue…which was done immediately, named K. K. Mickva Israel” (Kahal Kodesh Mickva Israel which is translated as Holy Congregation Hope of Israel). The name “Mickva Israel” is a phrase in the Haftara (Jeremiah 17:13) and also reflected the influence of Mickve Israel, a book of messianic hope written in 1648 by the famous Amsterdam Rabbi Manashe ben Israel. The author dedicated the Latin edition to the English Parliament in an effort to ensure the return of the Jews to England following the Puritan revolution. Other seventeenth- and eighteenth-century new world congregations selected the name “Hope of Israel.”
At an unknown date, a house was rented on Market (now Ellis) Square and was altered for regular congregational services. But the small congregation faced internal problems.
Although the Minis and Sheftall families became identified almost immediately with the Sephardic group, many other Ashkenazic Jews arrived in Savannah, mostly by land, and did not become a part of the Sephardic religious group. A sharp schism developed. The early difficulties encountered in constructing a synagogue building are evident in a letter by the Reverend Bolzius, minister to the Salzburgers, in 1739 to a friend in Germany. He wrote:
Even the Jews, of whom several families are here already, enjoy all privileges the same as other colonists. Some call themselves Spanish and Portuguese, others call themselves German Jews. The latter speak High German and differ from the former in their religious services and to some extent in other matters as well, as the former do not seem to take it so particular in regard to the dietary laws and other Jewish ceremonies. They have no Synagogue, which is their own fault; the one element hindering the other in this regard. The German Jews believe themselves entitled to build a Synagogue and are willing to allow the Spanish Jews to use it with them in common, the latter, however, reject any such arrangement and demand the preference for themselves.
The local laws and regulations forbidding rum and slavery, strictly regulating commerce and trade, and providing that only males could inherit property, all but caused the disintegration of Georgia. Many Gentiles fled the city. Sephardic Jews had a more compelling reason to leave. The European war between Spain and England had reached this continent where it was known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear. On July 5, 1742, some 3,000 Spanish soldiers landed on St. Simons Island with plans to capture Georgia quickly and then move on against the more heavily defended Carolinas. In the eyes of the Spanish Church, the Sephardic Jews were guilty of apostasy, which was punishable by burning at the stake. Only the Minis and Sheftall families remained in Savannah since they, being regarded as of Germanic origin and never having professed Catholocism, could not be accused of apostasy. Thereafter the lease on the Market Squre-rented synagogue was not renewed and what services were held were informally conducted in the home of Benjamin Sheftall.
By 1774 enough Jews had moved back to Savannah that Benjamin Sheftall reported in his diary, “having a sufficient number of Jews here to make a congregation we came to a resolution to meet at the house of Mordecai Sheftall (Benjamin’s son) which was done.” This meeting was held on the eve of Yom Kippur in a room that Mordecai Sheftall had furnished as a chapel. However, unrest was forthcoming since the war with England was imminent.
During the Revolutionary War, Mordecai Sheftall became the highest ranking Jewish officer of the American Revolutionary forces, attaining the rank of Deputy Commissary General to the Continental Troops in South Carolina and Georgia. Along with his son Sheftall, he was captured by British forces and imprisoned in Antigua. Eventually they were traded for two captured British officers.
From the outbreak of hostilities until the Treaty of Paris there was a virtual cessation of all formal organized religious activity in Savannah. It was July 7, 1786, before conditions were sufficiently normal to permit the reorganization of the “K. K. Mickvah [sic] Israel.” Officers were elected, and a house was rented from a Miss Ann Morgan located on Broughton Street Lane between Barnard and Whitaker streets and furnished for use as a synagogue. Services were held regularly, and at one time attendance numbered “seventy-three males and females.”
On November 20, 1790, Governor Edward Telfair granted the congregation a perpetual charter as “a body incorporate by the name and style of the ‘Parnas and Adjuntas of Mickva Israel at Savannah,’” the same charter under which the congregation operates today. (A photocopy of the original charter can be seen in the archival museum of the congregation.)
By 1793 the rent on the Broughton Street Lane building was constantly delinquent, and on at least one occasion Miss Morgan became so upset that Mordecai Sheftall, who then ran a general store, was requested by David Cardozo, treasurer of the congregation, to let her have merchandise for the amount owed and “charge the same to Sedaka [sic] K. K. Mickvah [sic] Israel.” Shortly afterward “the aged, main props of the Synagogue, having closed their earthly careers, …conspired to produce a suspension of public worship, and the building was surrendered to the owner.”
Although the congregation functioned for many years without its own synagogue, the loyal few zealously guarded the corporate identity and existence by having regular meetings and electing officers while conducting services in the homes of various members.
Presidential Letters Upon George Washington’s election as first president of the United States, Levi Sheftall, president of the congregation wrote, on “behalf of the Hebrew Congregation,” a congratulatory letter “on you appointment, by unanimous approbation, to the Presidential dignity of the country.”
President Washington dispatched an immediate answer “To the Hebrew Congregation of the City of Savannah, Georgia”:
May the same wonder-working Diety, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in the promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven, and make the inhabitants of every denomination partake in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people, whose God is Jehova.
The First Synagogue in Georgia By 1818 the growth of the Jewish population of Savannah encouraged the congregation to seek its own synagogue building. Dr. Moses Sheftall and Dr. Jacob De la Motta were the leading spirits in this movement. From a contemporary accound:
When Dr. De la Motta took up his residence at Savannah, he found that, besides the lot given by the city to the Congregation, they had seven or eight small buildings which were rented out, which as such were but of little interest to the Israelites. Upon inquiry, the doctor ascertained from a respectable mechanic that he would build a Synagogue such as was needed, on the lot given by the city, provided a lease of the above small buildings were granted him by the Congregation free of charge for a term of eight years. The doctor thereupon convened the Congregation; a majority of the members agreed with the proposition, and the undertaking was commenced.
This building, the first synagogue to be erected in the State of Georgia, was consecrated by Dr. De la Motta on July 21, 1820. Commemorating the event is a bronze plaque embedded in the sidewalk near the site, on the northeast corner of Liberty and Whitaker streets.
The small wooden structure was destroyed by fire on December 4, 1829, though the Torahs and ark were saved without injury. Efforts to rebuild were begun in 1834, and a new brick building on the same site was consecrated in 1841 by Reverend Isaac Leeser, of Philadelphia. Dr. Moses Sheftall served as chairman of this second building committee. One of the silver pointers now used by the congregation during weekly Torah readings was a gift from Dr. De la Motta to the congregation when he was president.
It was 1853 before the congregation could afford a permanent spiritual leader. Reverend Jacob Rosenfeld served as its spiritual leader until 1862. Except for 1867-1869 when the Reverend R. D. C. Lewin served, services were again read by various members of the congregation until the arrival of Reverend A. Harris in 1873.
The Influence of Reform The Reform movement was well under way in America by the middle of the nineteenth century. But the congregants of Mickve Israel so strongly favored the Portuguese Minhag that it was February 11, 1868, before this congregation took its first hesitant steps toward Reform Judaism by omitting the celebration of the second day of festivals and by introducing a choir with musical accompaniment. The Reverend Isaac P. Mendes, who in 1877 began his twenty-seven years of distinguished service as rabbi, dissuaded against too hasty abandonment of the older form of worship. Not until February 2, 1880, was the use of a canopy in the marriage ceremony made optional, and another fourteen years passed before members were permitted to go hatless during services.
The Portuguese Minhag remained in use, though gradually modified, until 1895, when Mickve Israel printed its own prayer books. In 1902, the Union Prayer Book was adopted, and on January 10, 1904, membership in the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was attained and Mickve Israel’s transition to Reform Judaism was complete. The last vestige of its Spanish-Portuguese heritage is proudly maintained in the Sephardic melody “El Norah Ah Lee Lah” sung by the congregation during the closing hour of each Yom Kippur service.
The Sanctuary Today Savannah participated in the great wave of German-Jewish immigration that began about 1840. By 1874 it became apparent that the small synagogue on Liberty Street and Perry Lane was no longer adequate for the growing congregation. On March 1, 1876, the cornerstone was laid for the present building, and the Monterey Square sanctuary was consecrated on April 11, 1878. This magnificent synagogue, designed by the nationally known New York architect Henry G. Harrison, was built in a pure neo-Gothic syle, which reflects the fashionable architecture of the Victorian era. On the very same square, not more than 60 feet away stood a neo-Gothic Presbyterian church until it was destroyed by fire in 1929.
A portion of the land that was given in perpetual trust by Mordecai Sheftall in 1773 for use as a Jewish cemetery and as a site for a synagogue had, in fact, been used as a cemetery. On December 16, 1893, the Mordecai Sheftall Trustees obtained permission from the Superior Court to sell the unused portion of the tract and to hold the proceeds of the sale for the purposes expressed in the original trust.
The present sanctuary used only the western portion of the block of land owned by the congregation; however, no provisions had been made for a religious school, meeting rooms, or the like. By the turn of the century the need for these additional facilities was keenly felt. Agreement was reached between the congregation and the Sheftall Trustees for the trustees to construct a building to be known as the Mordecai Sheftall Memorial, which was completed and dedicated in 1902. Title of the land and the complete management, supervision, and control of the new building was vested in the congregation, but title to the building itself remained, as it still does, in the hands of the trustees.
By 1954 the needs of the congregation, once again outgrew the Mordecai Sheftall Memorial. The congregation raised the necessary funds, another arrangement was entered into with the trustees, and on January 11, 1957, the new and enlarged Mordecai Sheftall Memorial was dedicated.
Throughout more than two and a half centuries, Mickve Israel’s members have contributed significantly to the larger community. The Honorable Herman Myers was mayor of Savannah from 1895-1897 and 1899-1907. Attorney Dana Braun has served with distinction as alderman on the Savannah City Council since 1991.
In commerce, law, medicine, the military, government, politics, and culture the Jews of Savannah have enriched their community and their nation. Some descendants of Mickve Israel’s colonial settlers include Mordecai Manuel Noah, sheriff of New York, founder of the Tammany hall political machine and early Zionist (in 1825 he sought to establish a Jewish homeland called “Ararat” at Grand Island on the Niagara River) and Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, who rescued Monticello (President Thomas Jefferson’s home) from destruction and was responsible for the abolition of flogging in the U. S. Navy.
While Dr. Samuel Nunes Ribiero, who specialized in infectious diseases, was considered Georgia’s first hero in 1733 (he is credited with ending an epidemic that threatened the young colony), it was his descendant Raphael Moses, who planted peach orchards and developed the technology for shipping fruit to far-off markets and may be the father of the peach industry in the “peach state.”
Today in Mickve Israel’s Archival Museum ten presidential letters are on display, including the Washington letter, and others from Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, as well as the more recent ones from George Bush and Bill Clinton.
Grateful to its founders for having built it well, the officers and members of Congregation Mickve Israel look back upon its rich heritage with pride tempered with humility, asking only that they be permitted to continue to serve equally well “One God and One Humanity.”
http://www.jewish-history.com/occident/volume1/nov1843/savannah2.html
Vol. I, No. 8 Heshvan 5604, November 1843
The Jews in Savannah
by Mordecai Sheftall.
In giving place to the subjoined article of Mr. Sheftall, we cannot avoid saying a few words in relation to the names of the first settlers in Savannah. Our correspondent, in No. 5, had spelled the names differently from what we printed them; as we thought that there was a slight inaccuracy in some of them, such as Nunis, Moranda, from the fact that among the names of Portuguese families with which we are familiar, there are those of Nunes and Miranda only. Since, however, Mr. Sheftall attaches some importance to the accuracy of the spelling of the pioneers of his native place, it affords us pleasure to be able to correct them.
We also think that Mr. Sheftall has omitted to do justice in his history of the Synagogue of Savannah to Dr. Jacob De la Motha, now of Charleston, who was mainly instrumental in erecting the first house of God in that city, and officiated without compensation as Hazan during his residence there. Perhaps it is owing to the fact that the Doctor is yet among the living, that Mr. S. omitted making mention of him; still we deem it a matter of sheer justice not to avoid giving credit where it is deserved, although the subject is a personal friend of ours.
We will cheerfully find room for any future corrections; and hope that the labours of our correspondents in Charleston and Savannah relative to the history of their congregations will soon be imitated by the residents of other cities, as we are very anxious to present a history of all our congregations in America; since so very little is known concerning them in Europe, or even in this country. Shall our wishes be gratified? We trust that our friends will answer in the affirmative, and do whatever is in their power to carry our plan into execution.—Ed. Oc.
Early Settlement of the Israelites in Savannah—Their Religious History—That of their Successors, &c.
Mr. Leeser—The "Occident," a periodical under your editorial auspices, I had the pleasure of reading,—a pleasure sincerely felt, not only from the dignified calmness with which its subject-matter is clothed, but the integrity and fearlessness of detail, in relation to the oppression of the Israelites in some portions of the "Old World." How long the fury of a blind fanaticism will be permitted to prevail, appears to be a problem of difficult solution. The ruling powers are enslaved by their malignant prejudices, which place them in open hostility with the hallowed principles of free toleration. The moral sense of all enlightened nations must turn with feelings of deep disgust from a benighted bigotry, which seeks to fetter the human mind, and bow down man's conscience,—that arbitrarily institutes a system of supervision, in which cruelty and intolerance compose its cardinal points. Can we trust for an amelioration of the condition of the Israelites to the onward march of science? Must we conclude that from "the clouds that lowered on our house," persecution, like some absolute monarch, who dispenses life and death, is still for time to come, to superadd to the great mass of iniquity which so unrelentingly afflicts the humble worshippers of one God? In these United States, as you well know, citizens professing different religions or different religious sects, are constitutionally placed on the same political footing. The federal compact recognises no ecclesiastical establishment, no union of church and state, and "FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE PRESS," are deeply inscribed in capitals on its enduring pillars.
I propose, Mr. Editor, to furnish you for the "Occident," with the names of the Israelite emigrants who embarked at London for Savannah, their arrival and landing, also some portion of the religious history of these early settlers, and of others of like religious faith, who succeeded them. And I am the more induced to do this, from the very "imperfect historical sketch of the Jews, and the Hebrew congregation of this city," furnished by your correspondent over the signature of "A Southern Jew." The author's omissions are so manifest, that one, feeling no ordinary interest in the history of the Israelites of 1733, and the "Hebrew Congregation," is constrained to step forward to supply his omissions, and correct, as early as practicable, his mistakes. I entertain not a vestige of doubt, that they have arisen from the scanty materials the author possessed, and the injudicious haste which signally marks his communication. The highly interesting facts which I am about to narrate, are derived from two authentic sources. First, from the writings of my grandfather, Mr. Benjamin Sheftall, who recorded in the Hebrew language, and translated them into English at the request of his son. Second, from the writings of his son, Levi Sheftall, Esq., who, after his father's decease, recorded every important event connected with the condition of the Israelites; arrivals, departures, marriages, births, deaths, &c., to the first of July in the year 1808. The manuscripts are in my possession and have been since 1809, (the year my father departed this life.) I transcribe verbatim et literatim. You have the facts in the phraseology in which they are stated. On the first page of one of the manuscripts, my father, who was one of the number who arrived at Savannah 11th July, 1733, kept a book, of which this is a copy, of ALL the Jews that came here, were born here, and went away. I was anxious to have it, and my father, translated it into English for me from the Hebrew."
"Levi Sheftall."
Manuscript pages 1 and 2. "The names of the Jews who arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on the 11th day of July, 1733. Doctor Nunis, Mrs. Nunis his mother, Daniel Nunis, Moses Nunis, Sipra Nunis, Shem Noah their servant, Isaac Nunis Henriques, his wife Mrs. Henriques, Shem their son, Raphael Bornal, his wife Mrs. Bornal, David Olivera, Jacob Olivera, his wife Mrs. Olivera, David their son, Isaac their son, Leah Olivera their daughter, Aaron Depivea, Benjamin Gideon, Jacob Costa, David Lopass Depass and his wife, Vene Real, Molena, David Moranda, Jacob Moranda, David Cohen and his wife, Isaac Cohen their son, Abigail their daughter, Hannah their daughter, Grace their daughter, Abraham Minis and his wife, Leah their daughter, Esther their daughter, Simeon Minis, brother to Mr. Minis, Jacob Yowall, Benjamin Sheftall and his wife, Abraham Delyon. Isaac Nunis Henriques had a child who died on board the ship*. These persons were the first of our nation who came to this country. They brought with them a Safer Tora, with two cloaks, and a Circumcision Box, which were given to them by Mr. Lindo, a merchant in London, for the use of the congregation they intended to establish."
- Of the first settlers, I find very few of their deaths recorded, which strongly confirms the information I received and have stated elsewhere, that many of them emigrated to Charleston in 1740 and 1741.
The following are the names of the males who dies in Savannah, viz.:
Abraham Minis died 13th January, 1757, aged 63 years. Benjamin Sheftall died 3rd October, 1767, aged 73 years. Daniel Nunis died 20th September, 1789, aged 85 years. Moses Nunis died 6th September, 1787, aged 82 years.
Descendants.
Philip Minis, son of Abraham Minis, born in the city of Savannah, on the 11th day of July, 1734, died 6th March, 1789, aged 54 years, 7 months, 23 days.
Mordecai Sheftall, son of Benjamin Sheftall, born in the city of Savannah, on the 2nd of December, 1735, died 6th July, 1797, aged 61 years, 6 months, 23 days.
Levi Sheftall, son of Benjamin Sheftall, born in the city of Savannah, on the 12th of December, 1739, died 26th January, 1809, aged 69 years, 1 month, 14 days.
The manuscript being silent as to the Hechal, I applied to my venerable kinsman, Sheftall Sheftall, Esq., anticipating from his advanced age, unblemished integrity, and unworn memory, that he could probably furnish some information as to the time it was received here, and from whence it came. He stated to me, that he was told by his father, the late Mordecai Sheftall, Esq., (eldest son of Benjamin Sheftall,) that the Hechal was brought from London by the Israelites who arrived in Savannah 11th July, 1733. It is the same which is now used in the Synagogue. The manuscript does not contain the name of the ship in which the embarkation of the Israelites took place, nor the day of the month that she left London for her port of destination. The Sheftalls, Mordecai and Levi, had it from their father, Benjamin Sheftall, and which they frequently related with sensations of honest pride, that all the Israelites who came to Savannah paid their passage, laid in all necessary supplies for their intended voyage, and were in nowise dependent on the favour or charity of the British crown for one dollar to facilitate their emigration. The captain of the ship which brought them to Savannah was named Beverly Robinson. It is strange, that neither M'Call, in his History of Georgia, the biographer of General Oglethorpe, nor Doctor Stephens, in his "Historical Notices of Savannah," mentions one word of the early arrival and location of the Israelites here, particularly, as in July 1733, they actually composed ONE-THIRD (rather more) of the population of Savannah. How facts so intimately associated with the settlement of Georgia, should have escaped the scrutiny, vigilance, and acute research of these writers, I cannot reasonably conjecture; but this much I feel no hesitation in asserting, that the arrival and settlement of the Israelites in Savannah on the 11th July, 1733, is part of and inseparably interwoven with, the rise and progress of the then colony of Georgia, and will not be disregarded by any future accurate historian.
The Israelites sailed from London in the second ship which left that port for Savannah. When the ship first started, she sustained some serious injury in the river Thames, and was compelled to land her passengers and undergo repairs. After this was accomplished, a re-embarkation of the passengers took place, and the ship set sail for the "New World." The passage was a disagreeable and boisterous one; gale succeeded gale, and the ship came near being wrecked off the coast of North Carolina, and was forced to seek safety in "New Inlet," where she was necessarily detained for some weeks. She again set sail, and arrived and landed her passengers in Savannah on the 11th day of July, 1733, four days after "the wards and tithings were named," and the assigning of the lots. The first vessel which left England for Savannah was the "Ann, galley, of 200 tons burthen;" she "set sail from Gravesend, 17th November, 1732, with about 130 persons," (116 persons, none of them Israelites.) "All the people arrived in Savannah 1st February, 1733." The next embarkation of colonists, (after the Israelites,) numbering about 220 persons, sailed from England on the 13th October, 1735, more than two years after the arrival of the Israelites in Savannah. Of the first Israelite settlers, there live here the descendants of only three, viz., Sheftalls, Minises, and Delyons.
Now for the religious history, manuscript page 4. "Month of July, 1733. The Jews met, and agreed to open a Synagogue, name K. K. Mickva Israel." A house was rented in Market Square, on a lot now the property of Mr. Aaron Champion, and put in proper order, where divine service was regularly performed for years.—Manuscript page 7. "1737, July 12. Mr. Benjamin Mendez, of London, sent to this congregation a Safer Tora, also a lamp for the Feast of Hannucca, and a quantity of books: they were consigned to the particular care of Mr. Isaac De Cunica, who delivered them." The Safers which we now have are those given by Messrs. Lindo and Mendez, and are the same that were used in the consecration of the present Synagogue. The congregation must have been dissolved by removals in the year 1740 and 1741; as I have been credibly informed that in those years many of the Israelites emigrated to Charleston, in the State of South Carolina.
Manuscript page 14. "1774, September 14. Having a sufficient number of Jews here to make a congregation, we came to a resolution to meet at the house of Mordecai Sheftall." The congregation convened punctually for a length of time at Mr. Sheftall's house. He was a man of exemplary piety, and adhered closely to all the rites and ceremonies of his faith. He had fitted up a room in his house, at his individual cost, for the accommodation of the congregation. Religious affairs progressed harmoniously, the members of the congregation were gradually augmenting, and experienced no interruption, until the commencement of the American successful struggle for liberty cause a temporary dissolution.
Some short time subsequent to the ratification of the definitive treaty between Great Britain and the United States, many Israelites arrived in Savannah, and made it their place of residence.
Manuscript, page 23. "1786, July the 7th, corresponding with the 1st day of Tamuz, 5546. We met, and re-established our congregation of K. K. Mickva Israel. We hired a place for a Snogo [synagogue], and chose the following named persons for the heads of the congregation:
"Philip Minis, Parnass; David N. Cardozo, Gabay; Levi Sheftall, Cushman Polock, Joseph Abrahams, Adjuntas; Emanuel De la Motta Hazan, (this gentleman acts gratis); Levy Abrahams; Secretary."
The house hired for a Snogo was owned by one Miss Morgan, and situated in the rear of St. James Square.
Manuscript, page 25. "1787, July 31, corresponding with the 16th day of Ab. The society called the Mashebet Nafish, laid this day the foundation stones for a wall to be built around the piece of ground given by Mordecai Sheftall for a burial ground. Laying the first stone was given to Mordecai Sheftall, the second stone to Levi Sheftall, the third stone to P. J. Cohen, the fourth stone, to Cushman Polock. The ground given for a cemetery was conveyed by Mordecai Sheftall, Esq., by deed in trust to the following named persons:—Philip Minis and Levi Sheftall, of Savannah; Isaac De Costa and Joshua Hart, of Charleston; Abraham Hart and Joseph Gomports, of London; Sampson Simson and Solomon Simson, of New York, and Isaac Hart and Jacob Rivera, of Newport, Rhode Island." This conveyance was made and executed in the thirteenth year of the reign of George the Third. The Snogo established in 1786 was sustained for many years. Service was performed regularly on the Sabbath and holidays, and on one occasion the assemblage numbered "73 males and females." The aged, the main prop of the Snogo, having closed their earthly career, removals, and the influence of a combination of untoward causes, conspired to produce a suspension of public worship, and the building was surrendered to its owner. On the 30th of November, 1790; "Levi Sheftall, Sheftall Sheftall, Cushman Polock, Joseph Abrahams, Mordecai Sheftall, Abraham Depass, and Emanuel De la Motta, and their successors," were by charter of incorporation declared to be a "Body corporate by the name and style of the Parnass and Adjuntas of Mickva Israel at Savannah." The requisitions of the charter have been obeyed, and the election of officers in no instance omitted on the day it prescribes. For a series of years after the building used as a Snogo was given up, there was no place for public worship: indeed, it was not discoverable that any marked predilection to have one existed. This, however, might be rationally imputed to the paucity of Israelites who inhabited Savannah, and the want of intelligence on doctrinal points of the religion of their ancestors. There were four or five individuals among them, not more advanced in years than biblical learning, who always looked with cherished anticipations to that period, when, through their instrumentality, a temple should be reared in Savannah, dedicated to the hallowed worship of the "God of Israel." Some of them lived to see their fond hopes realized; a Snogo of neat workmanship, through their untiring efforts was erected, and consecrated on the 21st July, 1820, and consumed by fire (accidentally) on the 4th December, 1829. The building committee was Abraham Delyon, David Lyon, Moses Sheftall, and Sheftall Sheftall. The three first named are "humble tenants of the grave," the last survives, far advanced in honourable old age. After this calamitous event, which was deeply regretted by the liberal-minded of all sects, Dr. Moses Sheftall, who was president of the congregation, roused to action all his energies to supply the loss sustained in the destruction of the Snogo. An investigation of the finances of the congregation took place, and it was satisfactorily ascertained that auxiliary aid would become necessary to insure the building of another Snogo. After some time had elapsed, Dr. Sheftall commenced his work. Subscriptions in money were liberally made by the limited number of persons to whom the list was presented, as it was not designed or intended to raise more funds than were absolutely necessary, together with what was in hand, to defray the cost of building a Snogo by contract. Those of different sects who voluntarily aided us in building a house of worship, have entitled themselves to a tribute of our warmest and most grateful thanks, and evinced a readiness to reciprocate favours, the like of which have been extended by some of the Israelites, both male and female, from the creation of the Union Society, to all the present charitable institutions of the city of Savannah. The present Snogo is built of brick, on a lot of ground granted by the corporation of Savannah to the Hebrew congregation, and I had the honour, Mr. Editor, of being present when you imparted to its consecration all the solemnity its great importance legitimately demanded. It is (as I have understood) in serious contemplation at a proper season, to enlist the services of a gentleman of ability to discharge the functions of Hazan. When this "shall come to pass," then the Snogo shall awake from its slumber; and rise from its solitude,—its walls echo the gladsome song of thankfulness, and "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one," shall be heard with the holiest feelings.
I have, Mr. Editor, brought the history of ourselves to a conclusion. It might probably serve to beguile some leisure moments of your distant readers. It will, I am convinced, convey a proud and elevated interest to many of those who reside in the city of Oglethorpe, particularly the descendants of the settlers of 1733, whose adventurous grandsires left their homes for the more perfect enjoyment of religious liberty in the untried clime of the new world, and whose fathers, born upon the genial soil of Savannah, now quietly repose within its bosom.
Mordecai Sheftall, Sen.
Savannah, 24th August, 1843.
SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT.
We were right in our supposition that Mr. Sheftall had omitted doing justice to Dr. De la Motta in passing over with silence his agency in erecting the first Synagogue at Savannah. Upon the principle we started from the commencement of our work, to give every one his just credit, we made some inquiry concerning the matter, and have the most undoubted assurance that the following statement is essentially correct:—When the doctor took up his residence at Savannah, he found that, besides the lot given by the city to the congregation, they had seven or eight small buildings whichwere rented out, which as such were but of little interest to the Israelites. Upon inquiry, the doctor ascertained from a respectable mechanic that he would build a Synagogue such as was needed, on the lot given by the city, provided a lease of the above small buildings were granted him by the congregation free of change for a term of eight years. The doctor thereupon convened the congregation; a majority of the members agreed with the proposition, and the undertaking was commenced under his special care, attention, direction and superintendence, aided by a building committee. When the building was finished, the doctor consecrated it in July 1820, on which occasion he delivered a discourse which was published by request; and subsequently he officiated gratuitously until he left the city in 1823. In relation to the foregoing, we have received from one of our correspondents the annexed remarks, to which we call the attention of our readers, as also to the accompanying letters from the late Presidents Jefferson and Madison, as they evince the gratifying interest which these exalted statesmen and patriots took in matters relating to our people and religion.—We will also merely add that, as far as we can learn, J. De la Motta Jr., Esq., of Savannah, a relation of the doctor, was mainly instrumental in erecting the present Synagogue.—Ed. Oc.
To the Rev. Isaac Leeser.
REV. SIR—A subscriber to your periodical having noticed your remarks on the injustice done to Dr. Jacob De la Motta by your reporter of the Jews of Savannah, requests you will publish in your next number, as somewhat connected with the history of that congregation, the annexed letters from the late ex-presidents of these United States, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to Dr. De la Motta, on the subject of his address, delivered on the occasion of the consecration of the Synagogue in that place in 1820. Their insertion in your journal will satisfy your readers of the omission of your historical reporter.
Monticello, Sept. 1, 1820.
Th. Jefferson returns his thanks to Dr. De la Motta for the eloquent discourse on the consecration of the Synagogue of Savannah which he has been so kind as to send him. It excites in him the gratifying reflection that his own country has been the first to prove to the world two truths, the most salutary to human society, that man can govern himself, and that religious freedom is the most effectual anodyne against religious dissension: the maxim of civil government being reversed in that of religion, where its true form is "divided we stand, united we fall." He is happy in the restoration, of the Jews particularly, to their social rights, and hopes they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of science, as preparatory to their doing the same at the board of government. He salutes Dr. De la Motta with sentiments of great respect.
To Dr. Jacob De la Motta, Savannah, Ga.
Montpellier, August, 1820.
Sir—I have received your letter of the 7th inst., with the discourse delivered at the Consecration of the Hebrew Synagogue at Savannah, for which you will please accept my thanks.
The history of the Jews must for ever be interesting. The modern part of it s at the same time, so little generally known, that every ray of light on the subject has its value.
Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect; and it is particularly pleasing to observe in the good citizenship of such as have been most distrusted and oppressed elsewhere, a happy illustration of the safety and success of this experiment of a just and benignant policy. Equal laws protecting equal rights are found as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country, as well as best calculated to cherish that mutual respect and good-will among citizens of every religious denomination, which are necessary to social harmony, and most favourable to the advancement of truth. The account you give of the Jews of your congregation brings them fully within the scope of these observations. I tender you, sir, my respects and good wishes.
James Madison.
To Dr. Jacob De la Motta, Savannah, Ga.