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Vol. 70, No. 1 (Summer 2026) - Celebrating America’s Sestercentennial

Take the Torah and Run Gershom Mendes Seixas, Galut, and Jewish Life in the New American Nation

 

Lance J. Sussman and Lynda Barness

The 250th anniversary of the signing of America’s Declaration of Independence is being widely celebrated in the United States. In the American Jewish community this holds particular significance. As with previous celebrations of the Centenary of the Declaration in 1876, the Tercentenary of the founding of the Jewish community in 1954, and the Bicentennial festivities in 1976, special emphasis has been placed on Jewish “at-homeness” in America.

At this pivotal time in American history, it is important to understand the basis of Jewish “at-homeness” in the United States and why it is emphasized both in Jewish community and in the literature of American Jewish history. It represents the yearning of a tiny ethno-religious group to be accepted as part of the fabric of the larger society in which it lives. Jews have been marginalized by domestic antisemitism in America; newly arrived Jewish immigrants have long experienced deep anxiety about their socio-cultural status in the United States. The goal of the Jewish community was to be “at home in America.”

Jewish “at-homeness” in the United States is also a function of an American aspiration to create and sustain a society comprised of many different racial, immigrant, and religious groups. At different times, different models of American identity have dominated the idea of national conformity to a single region such as New England, to the melting pot idea in which different groups are metamorphosed into a new American identity, to the “salad bowl” concept in which many different groups dwell together while retaining their own distinctiveness. For Jews, the goal in each scenario was to become part of the larger society and at the same time preserve their uniqueness as a community.

In the long history of the Jewish people, the tension between assimilation and acculturation has been a central part of the Diaspora experience. The difference between assimilation and acculturation is critical. Assimilation means loss of identity; acculturation involves selectively appropriating elements of a host society’s culture while preserving elements of one’s previous identity. For the American Jewish community (but not for all Jews), the goal was acculturation, to become American, to become “at home” in America, and in various degrees to remain Jewish.

The first dispersion of Jewish ancestors, the Israelites, already occurred in the eighth century BCE with the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Already at this point, prophets had developed the doctrine of Shivat Tzion, “the return to Zion,” with the hope that the dispersed or “lost tribes of Israel” would be restored to their homeland and not assimilated in the lands of their dispersion. A second dispersion or “Exile” began with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE by the Babylonians. From this point forward, both a permanent Jewish Diaspora and a Jewish community in the land of Israel coexisted. During this period, the prophet Jeremiah is credited with developing an ideological basis for Jews living in diaspora while at the same time anticipating a return to Israel. In Jeremiah 29:7, the prophet exhorts the people to “seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Eternal in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” For Jeremiah and for the rest of Jewish history until the rise of modern Zionism, both exile, Galut, and diaspora, Golah, are divinely ordained.

A third dispersion of the Jews takes place in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, resulting in Jewish statelessness for 1,878 years until the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948. During this period, the rabbis deepened the concept of Galut as divine punishment for the sins of the people of Israel and the belief that God would, in time, restore the Jewish people to its land. Jews would primarily exist as resident aliens in the lands of their dispersion until called home by a Higher Power.

With the establishment of the United States in 1776 and the enfranchisement of Jews as citizens equal to their non-Jewish neighbors, a question arose of whether the United States was a continuation of the Galut or whether Jews were now “at home” outside the land of Israel. For American Jews, their civic status in the United States was unprecedented. At the same time, other modern states, particularly France, began to rethink the status of Jews in their countries. However, America was different, as it had no history of Jews living as a “state within a state” and the question of Jewish political enfranchisement was limited to the holding of public office. In the American environment, other expressions of excluding Jews from civic and economic activity disintegrated despite the persistence of grassroot and institutional antisemitism.

Although the United States is the first country to experiment with the disestablishment of religion, with no national church, it also guarantees the free exercise of religion. In this instance, in the early national period, not only is there a guarantee of free exercise, the government is actually encouraging it under the umbrella of disestablishment: government now invites houses of worship to participate in national prayer efforts. George Washington and other Deists might not have been pietistic themselves, but they clearly felt that religion was crucial to the moral order, and the United States is very different than a place like France or any countries that have an established church, where the government adopts a policy of Laïcité, an aggressive secularism.1

Already in the British colonies many Christians held to various millennial views that America itself was the new Israel and America was a harbinger of the restoration of Jews to their land as part of the ultimate redemption of humanity. American Jews felt comfortable to follow Jeremiah’s admonition to “seek the welfare” of their new place of domicile at the edge of European civilization and to imagine the end of the Galut of the Jewish people because of the new American polity and because of an important sector of its religious culture.

The first American Jew to grapple publicly with these ancient eschatological issues was Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745-1816). Seixas was the first native-born Jew to serve as a leader of the American Jewish community. Largely an autodidact, he served as a functionary of two Jewish synagogue-communities, New York’s Shearith Israel and Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel. In both places, his principal responsibility was to lead the congregation in prayer as its ḥazzan. At the time, there was no precedent for a ḥazzan to preach or give public addresses. But because of his intellectual ability and natural leadership skills, Seixas emerged as the first American Jewish spokesperson. In that capacity, he articulated a traditional view of Galut, took a strong stand as a patriot and supporter of the American Revolution, and maintained that Jews, through their observance of the Commandments, could hasten the ultimate redemption of the Jewish people despite widespread religious laxity in the communities he served. Seixas created an American definition of Galut that foreshadowed the rise of the Zionist movement later in the nineteenth century.

1745-1766: Family and Childhood

It is helpful to examine Seixas’s personal history and to discover how his family life and upbringing brought him to a place of understanding Galut in its many manifestations. His paternal grandfather, Abraham Mendes Seixas, fled the Portuguese Inquisition “from Lisbon to London in the early 1720s, where he gave rise to a ‘numerous’ and influential family with branches spread across Europe, the Caribbean and North America.”2 He and his wife Abigail Mendes Seixas were apparently well accepted in their new community, but there were family financial issues with their son Isaac. Isaac Mendes Seixas, the father of Gershom Mendes Seixas, was born of Sephardic descent in Lisbon, and departed from London to America via Barbados.3

Gershom’s maternal grandfather, Moses Levy, was born in Spain in 1665. He went to London, arrived in New York City in 1705, and gravitated almost immediately to the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel in that city. Levy was serving the synagogue as parnas (president) when he died on June 14, 1728. He brought the legacy of the Inquisition and the conversos, which framed Gershom Seixas’s view of exile when he was a young child: “Exile expresses in Jewish consciousness not only stateless existence, deportation, displacement and banishment, but also a profound sense of estrangement, powerlessness, alienation, fear, and inferiority as well as lack of sovereignty, a threat to continuity, and the abandonment of a communal-religious identity.”4

Rachel, daughter of Moses Levy and Grace Mears Levy, married Isaac Mendes Seixas circa 1740.5 Their son Gershom Mendes Seixas was born on January 14, 1745.6 This was a “mixed marriage:” his father, Isaac, was born in Lisbon and became a merchant in New York and Newport; his mother, Rachel Levy, was of Ashkenazi background.7 Due to family contacts, they joined important social and economic circles in New York and also became an integral part of Congregation Shearith Israel. Their children all became prominent in the New World.

At a very early age, Gershom evinced a disposition to follow the Holy Service of the Synagogue; when he was but five years old, he read a portion of the prayers in the Synagogue of the Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City.8 Gershom Seixas grew up at Shearith Israel. He attended school there, where he learned both religious and secular subjects. “He had obtained his Jewish education and training presumably from the learned Joseph Jessurun Pinto, and probably also from the learned layman, Abraham I. Abrahams.”9 Gershom probably learned how to write and read English, perform mathematical computations, and likely learned Hebrew there. And he probably became a bar mitzvah; it has been suggested that he was apprenticed to learn mechanical trades.10 He basically taught himself to learn Hebrew beyond that of the curriculum and was a voracious reader as well.

The Seixas family was at the edge of the Diaspora, on the frontier of Jewish life. On one side, life is in a developed state; on the other, wilderness. But the family brought Jewish life with them and rooted themselves in Shearith Israel.

1766-1776: The Young Ḥazzan

In the late 1760s,11 in his early twenties, Gershom applied for the position of ḥazzan at congregation Shearith Israel, which included the tasks of cantor and religious officiant. It emerged as a congregation by 1702 and built a small building in 1720. The Jews worked for economic and political franchisement and acceptance in New York. They were involved in a wide range of businesses, but there was no Jewish ghetto and little overt anti-Jewish feeling, with most of the population living below Wall Street. As there were apparently no other applicants, young Gershom was given the job. Gershom Seixas was hardly an ordained rabbi. He had neither the required learning nor the traditional semicha. Yet with him emerged a new kind of religious leadership that answered the needs of sparse settlements in a new world.12 And his jobs at first were minimal and primarily functional—officiating at marriages and funerals and performing prayer services. Typically the ḥazzan of a congregation is a teacher. Seixas often had other jobs, and thus other sources of income, as a shochet (ritual slaughterer) and a mohel (circumciser). It was reported that in 1768 the synagogue paid “his initial compensation of 140 British pounds annually, plus three cords of firewood, and five pounds of Matzo for Passover.13

Seixas had secured employment, and then he wanted to marry. He went to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1774 to court a daughter of well-known Aaron Lopez, but his advances were rejected. On September 6, 1775, he married Elkalah Cohen, whose father was an Ashkenazi immigrant. This union represented another “mixed” marriage—like that of his parents before him—not uncommon at Shearith Israel. Together they had three children.14 At this point, with the Revolution at hand, New York was still largely a Dutch city, a busy, growing, diverse seaport with a frontier mentality that literally presented as an invigorated exile. New York embraced a medley of nationalities and religions. Because of its diversity, there was not tremendous pressure for conformity and it was sufficiently diverse so that a Jew like Seixas could rise to prominence and would be easily accepted. Elsewhere Seixas might have been an outsider and forced to convert; here he could be a Jew. What acculturation would mean in New York was simple: learn English. And Seixas was the first American Jewish religious leader to preach in English.15 New York was a colorful and important city—actually, just a town—on the frontier that reinforced the Sephardic idea of an invigorating diaspora without rejecting Galut. Jews continued to gain rights in New York, as the Jewish population was cosmopolitan and hailed from a variety of places. “In the five colonies containing most of the Jewish population up to the War of Independence, the Jews had already not only acquired complete freedom of worship, but even economic equality, notably the right to own stores and engage in crafts.”16 Seixas was still working at the synagogue in May, 1776, but he was “only a hired hand completely without the right even to address the congregation unless he was specifically authorized by the parnas.”17

1776-1780: Revolution

Ḥazzans were not hired to preach. The sermons during the early national period in America were often “suggested” and encouraged by the civil authorities, Congress, and/or the president. For example, there was “a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer” that was recommended by Congress in 1776 that was requested as a prayer for peace in that pivotal year. Modeled on the sermons of Protestant ministers, Seixas gave A Jewish Prayer for Peace between England and the Colonies on a public day of fasting and prayer, May 17, 1776. In this sermon, which may have been his first, Seixas was not yet calling for war. Six weeks later, war was declared.

As time went on, Seixas assumed more duties, and in August 1776, he gave a sermon in English as the Revolution was in full gear and the British were intent on occupying New York. The British cut the colonies in half, with New York under British control and numerous battles in and around the city. The pro-independence population fled, with the city becoming a haven for Loyalists, including a few wealthier Jews in the city; New York became known as Torytown. Seixas took a strong leadership role at this point, directing his congregation to disband instead of submitting to British subjugation. “…on the fourth of July came the parting of the ways. When it looked as if the city must fall into the hands of the British, Gershom Seixas took the lead in urging that the synagogue be closed and its members find freedom elsewhere. Early in August a final service was held and Hazan Seixas gave a solemn farewell address. Scrolls of the Torah were packed up, and five days before Washington evacuated the city on August 27th after losing the battle of Long Island, Gershom Seixas and his family left New York.”18 Many of the congregants heeded his call; the Patriots left, while the Loyalists tried to continue to attend a synagogue in the Shearith Israel building, with Alexander Zuntz, a Hessian soldier, as its president.19 But Seixas was determined to lead his flock to safety, and he carried the sacred items, including a Torah, out of the building to Stratford, Connecticut, where he and his family stayed with his relatives for the duration of the turmoil.20 Stratford was an active seaport and a Patriot stronghold, and Seixas must have felt a sense of comfort in this exile since he was with his family.

In his Prayer for Peace During the American Revolution,21 Seixas said, “And may a permanent Peace subsist between them, and the Kings & Potentates, in alliance with them, and Establish to them a Covenant of Peace, until time shall be no more, so that Nation shall not lift up their sword against nation, neither shall they combat or make war any more, Amen.” This is derived from Isaiah 2:4, part of a consistent ideology that views history as linear and moving toward a goal; at the end of the day, that goal is peace. Seixas closes with this: “We Beseech thee, O Most gracious and Merciful king, to whom peace Pertaineth, that thou wilt cause us to enjoy a firm Peace & Tranquility, & Spread over us the Tabernacle of peace everlastingly, & speedily permit, that among us may be heard, the Voice of him who bringeth glad tidings, announcing that, ‘The Redeemer Cometh to Zion,’ Amen. So may it be.” This was the first known reference by Seixas to the Restoration of the Jews to their Land.

1780-1784: Philadelphia

Gershom Seixas and his family were in this exile for about four years when he received the call in June 1780 to serve as ḥazzan at congregation Mikveh Israel, in Philadelphia, a major community that was developing rapidly during this time. Seixas’s role grew in Philadelphia, and he became a spokesperson in the larger community.

Seixas, along with a group of laymen, realized that their small rented space would not be adequate going forward, and they planned on the creation of a new synagogue building nearby, on Cherry Street, that seemed to take on the national character of the current synagogue membership. This new structure became a brick building “thirty feet from East to West and Thirty Six feet from South to North,”22 some thirty-five feet from the street, placed in the rear of the lot—leaving space for a future school house, a residence for the ḥazzan, and a mikveh. The consecration of the new building was held on September 13, 1782, with a seating capacity of about two hundred.23 The original prayer Seixas offered on this occasion included asking God’s blessing on the new nation’s leaders and armed services, which tied Judaism and America together in a new and special way.

And Seixas, who must have felt emboldened after almost a decade, found himself involved in “representing the Philadelphia Jewish community officially as the rabbi in a bold, vigorous demand for political equality… to protest the political disabilities under which they labored in the state.”24 A provision of the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution discriminated against the Jews in their voting rights, and a committee of five, including Seixas, fought to change this; the restrictive oath was abolished some seven years later.

But difficulties ensued. Many Jews were drawn to the city during the Revolution, but as the fighting had concluded and the British departed, the Jews who felt they had to leave their homes during the war were able to return, thus decimating the population of the synagogue or at least drawing leadership away. And Ḥazzan Seixas was part of this; while it was not a shock that he would return to New York, it was still a surprise when it happened.25

Despite the disruptions of war, Seixas was eager to return to his childhood synagogue, and he accepted this offer after the British left Manhattan, returning to the city and his beloved congregation on March 23, 1784. New York was multi-ethnic, religiously diverse, and still had a profound Dutch presence. There was some negotiation with New York—Seixas reminding them that he spoke neither Spanish nor Portuguese, he realized that the congregation may not be united, and he demanded a salary commensurate with the one he had in Philadelphia. All of Seixas’s conditions were satisfied.26 The synagogue had continued to function with the Loyalists who remained, so there was a complex job at hand in reuniting the congregation when he returned. There were Loyalists and Patriots, Sephardim and Ashkenazim. Their skilled and sensitive ḥazzan would unite his congregation.

At this point, he was a married man with three children, and he was ready to assume a new kind of leadership in New York. It was coincidental and fortuitous that at this very time the state enhanced the position of the clergy in general: “New York passed acts permitting and encouraging the incorporation of every religious group and accorded a certain official character to the chief religious functionary. Having no choice, the Jewish community denominated its ḥazzan as minister and learned to respect him and give him status if only because Christians respected their spiritual leaders.”27

1784-1800: New York

In 1784 Seixas and his family returned to New York. It was also at this time that Seixas was appointed to be a regent of Columbia College (and later elected a trustee). This honor and recognition enhanced his reputation and standing. It is evident that Gershom Seixas was changing over time, becoming bolder, more vocal about connecting Galut and restoration, and, in a word, maturing. By this time he demonstrated real leadership in the new America. English became a unifying force, and he continued to use a few Hebrew phrases in his preaching, which became a standard. Gershom Mendes Seixas became the outstanding American Jewish preacher of his day:

However, the paucity of preaching in American Judaism at this time meant that the total number of sermons he delivered in his entire life was probably less than an active Christian minister might have delivered in one year…Gershom Seixas helped to lay the groundwork for the development of the American Jewish preaching tradition. He is best remembered not as the most skilled or outstanding practitioner of that tradition, but rather as a pioneer.28

A year after his wife Elkalah’s passing in 1785, Gershom Seixas married Hannah Manuel, age twenty, on November 1, 1786. Together they had eleven children,29 and she survived her husband by some forty years. Seixas now had expanded responsibilities at the synagogue. Although it was not typical for the ḥazzan to give regular discourses, Seixas had truly grown into his role and was now giving sermons as the true spiritual leader of this important synagogue in New York City. By this point Seixas had already emerged as the religious leader of the Jewish community. Although he was paid little and kept the discussion ongoing, over time he developed the confidence and self-training to remain in the spotlight. Synagogue governance was by a junta,30 with no ordained rabbis in the country, and here is where Seixas again asserts himself. His view of Galut, a vibrant diaspora in the context of a religious Galut, is how he matures and internalizes it all. The punishment of Galut is that it is not in the Land of Israel.

In 1789, Gershom Seixas demonstrated in a Thanksgiving sermon31 that Jews were a part of the American landscape, encouraging American Jews to participate in the political life of the new nation. Seixas took this opportunity to pray for the leadership of the country, state, and city. “Coming nine months after the first presidential election, seven months after the creation of the Department of State, and two months after the creation of the Treasury Department and the office of attorney general, the new nation had much for which to be thankful. It had successfully challenged the British Empire and won. It was in the process of successfully creating a new government.”32

Gershom Seixas was particularly poignant as he displayed gratitude in his address, entitled

Thus A Religious Discourse Delivered in the Synagogue in this City, on Thursday the 26th of November, 1789. Agreeable to the Proclamation of the President [Washington] of the United States of America, to be Observed as a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer.

…The wonderful display of his divine providence, ‘in the course and conclusion of the late war;’ the happy consequences derived therefrom, by an establishment of public liberty; the recent mercies conferred on these states, by the general approbation and adoption of the new constitution, are (ALL) blessings that demand our most grateful acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the universe; more especially, as we are made equal partakers of every benefit that results from this good government…33

Seixas returns to what is a familiar refrain:

From the circumstances we are led to believe, that though we, by our sins and transgressions, as well as by the sins of our fathers, are involved in this captivity, yet we may, by an acknowledgment of our evil actions, find grace in the sight of our Creator, and again be restored to our own land…34

Here Seixas makes a connection between the country’s new independence and peace, combining obedience to God and thankfulness. But he continues by connecting this situation with the continuing hope of returning to Zion. In other words, these Jews, scattered in the new America, are fortunate and in a good situation, but ultimately they will depart from this Galut and return “home” to Zion. The concept of Galut becomes more pronounced: “The Jews of America, separated from the Jewish population centres of Europe by vast expanses of ocean, thought of themselves as the captives, ‘the exiled ones of Israel,’ who, according to the predictions of the prophets, would be gathered in from the four corners of the earth.”35

“For Seixas, more than any other American Jewish leader of his day, embodied and gave voice to the Zionist ideal, the belief in Jewish nationhood, the imminence of the Messiah, the ingathering of the exiles… and the rebuilding of Palestine as a Jewish homeland, under a Jewish government. Moreover, Seixas ‘emphasized the idea that equality of civil rights, for all its great importance, did not signify the end of the Exile, or, as he termed it, the Captivity.’”36

Seixas’ role grew, and he continued as a spokesperson in the community. Also, the role of ḥazzan expanded to include pastoral duties, and Seixas embraced this as he led his congregation during times of difficulties. In 1793, Seixas gave a discourse on yellow fever and charity. The epidemic had recently hit Philadelphia, and then later came to New York with less virulence. Seixas had much to say:

Were it for no other reason that we join in celebrating this day with the other inhabitants of this city, it would be of itself sufficient, but as we are particularly situated in our captivity, that I conceive we are more specially called upon to return thanks to benign Goodness in placing us in such a country, where we are free to act, according to the dictates of conscience, and where no exception is taken from following the principles of our religion…37

Most importantly, he then invoked the Bible with this: “…he will gather us again from all corners of the earth, wherein we shall be scattered and reinstate us in our former [cannot read] of religions, in our own land and under our own government, where every man shall sit under his own Vine and under his own fig-tree, and none shall make him afraid.”38

The final part of the sermon magnifies the beliefs of Seixas. He is bold, he is clear, and he is a believer:

…we have no reason to doubt the completion of the prophesies, in respect to our restoration, which God in his own good time will establish, and altho’ we are so happily situated in this country, so much preferable to our brethren, dispersed in other parts of the world, yet we can not perform the rites & ceremonies of our temple service, which was only given to be observed in the holy Land, and until we are again embodied, and settled as a Nation, we can not comply with that part of our holy law and seeing that God hath given us a law to be kept for ever, we may necessarily extract that He will [yet] enable us to return, when we shall be purified from our sins, and the sins of our fathers, by a sincere repentance and amendment. Hasten them to set about whilst yet we have time, that we may not be cut off, from seeing and enjoying this glorious advent, when the Redeemer shall come to Zion, & turn the transgressors of Jacob saith the Lord! Much very much depends on this circumstance, to bring forward the restoration of Israel, and know ye of a truth that without repentance & amendment, we can not expect to reap the promised blessing…39

May 9, 1798, had been named a Day of National Fasting by US President John Adams, and Gershom Seixas delivered a discourse “advocating peace and unity—in contrast with most of the speakers that day, who used their pulpits to agitate for war against France.”40 There was an international incident, called the XYZ Affair, which, in short, had the French attacking American shipping and attempts at bribery. Seixas’s remarks did not directly discuss the incident, and neither did he comment on a naval war or the French.

Yet again, Seixas noted:

It hath pleased God to have established us in this country where we possess every advantage that other citizens of these states enjoy, and which is as much as we could in reason expect in this captivity, for which let us humbly return thanks for his manifold mercies… so as to procure peace and safety to the citizens, both in their persons and their properties: that every man may sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, when ye shall have beaten your swords into plough shares and your spears into pruning hooks.41

Seixas underscores that Jews are in a very privileged position in this country, but he also reminds his congregation that they, as good Americans, can and should still expect to return to Zion. “The two most famous early American Jewish displays of patriotism occurred outside of the synagogue. They were the 1788 celebrations connected with the Grand Federal Procession in honor of the newly ratified Constitution, and the 1790 congregational letters to George Washington. The former, held in Philadelphia, symbolized in remarkable fashion the tension between the Jewish desire to belong and the Jewish need to be separate.”42

1800-1816: A New Century

“In the sermons he preached between 1799 and 1807 his appeal to his fellow-Jews to return to acts of piety was based on the argument that they would thereby fulfill a condition for redemption, the happy omens of which could already be seen in the events of the day.”43 Seixas was becoming even more self-confident and definitive in his sermons, and he was an important figure in Jewish history because he was a leader in a new place and had a vision of an authentic Judaism in a new land.

Seixas’s 1802 sermon was different than the others that have been explored here because it was delivered to the Polonies Talmud Torah, and thus it was internal to the Jewish community and not an order from any civil authority. There are a number of themes in this sermon:

  1. Chosenness. “…were ye to consider how much depends on good-works, joined to faith & hope in God, you have had more reason to reap the promised assurances of Salvation in the future state of retribution, and serve as a means to accomplish the glorious restoration of Israel, as set forth by our faithfull Prophets & which now seems to be nearly approaching, by the many existing commotions throughout the world. Were we seriously to reflect on the series of events, which have attended the House of Israel, from the time we became [cannot read word] as a Nation, peculiarly chosen by God, above all others…”44
  2. Divine promise. The Jews will be returned to their own land. “…the time will come according to the divine promise, that we shall [again] be happily restored to our own land, where “every man shall dwell in safety under his own vine and under his own fig tree & none shall make him afraid. It is on such like assurances that we give our hopes & by a [cannot read word] belief in the God of our Fathers, and depending on His holy word, we should not entertain the least doubt of the accomplishment of His divine will & in its due season we will hasten the redemption of Israel, that he will gather us from the four corners of the earth, whither we shall be scattered, saying to the North ‘Give up and to the South hold not back…’ ”45
  3. Restoration. “Let us now resolve in our minds the benefits of complying with the law of Moses, who, with the Prophets that succeeded him, have uniformly taught us, that obedience to the law, avoiding sinfull actions, turning down from evil-doings, sincere repentance, ardent prayer and bestowing alms, will be the happy means of procuring the redemption of Israel from this long & tedious captivity, and restoring us again to the holy land which was given unto our Fathers…”46
  4. Redemption. “You will likewise have observed the promises given in holy writ for the redemption of the House of Israel from this long captivity & for the restoration to our own territory, to be again embodied as a Nation, to have the Temple rebuilt, the Priests & the Levites reinstated in their respective offices, the sacrifices to be offered, according to order, and the service of divine Majesty to be performed as in the days of old.”47
  5. Teaching Torah. “...promoting the study of our holy Law, with all the consequent blessings…”48 Torah was absolutely central and sacred to Seixas, although he was not a scholar.
  6. Salvation. “It is by practicing such like Virtues, that we may rationally hope, through faith, in the Author of all good, to arrive at that period of redemption … and only place our trust in the fountain of all Perfection, that we may ascribe power & glory to the end of Salvation.”49

In 1804, Gershom Seixas gave another Thanksgiving sermon. It is clearly political. In Jewish theology, restoration means the restoration to the land of Israel. Seixas is a traditional restorationist, and in this sermon he declared that the Lord “will gather us again from all corners of the world wherein we shall be scattered and reinstate us in our former possessions, in our own Land and under our own Government.”50

The following discourse was delivered on Thursday, December 20, 1805, which occurred during Chanukkah. This was to be another day of Thanksgiving and prayer; this discourse reflects on Jews taking control of their land and reestablishing a monarchy, reestablishing themselves in their own land. This is another sermon talking about good deeds as the way to a restored Israel. Deliverance and redemption are the theological debate of the moment. Here is what Seixas said in

A Religious Discourse on Faith and Hope; proceeding from the fear, and love of God which are the leading principles to Benevolence, Charity, and all Good-works…who are this day assembled to offer up with all humiliation, their thanksgivings for the benefits they have received during the course of the last year, that those didst spare us from the ravages of epidemic disease…. Restore us, oh Lord, unto the Land which thou didst swear to give unto our fathers Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, for an inheritance to them and to their posterity… that we may be grateful for thy tender mercies & may the Redeemer come to Zion, according to the sacred prophesy, to whom shall be the gathering of the Nations, in his day Judah shall be delivered, and Israel shall dwell in safety.51

A sermon in 1807 was typical for Gershom Seixas, as it developed one of his favorite themes: charity. He often encouraged his flock to support the charitable organizations that he founded. Seixas founded Kalfe Sedaka Mattan Besether (Fund for Charity and Anonymous Gifts) to help the local poor as well as the needy in Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel). In an appeal in 1807 for the Kalfe Sedaka, he stated, “There is not a prophet from Moses to Malachi…but what takes notice of the remarkable events that have attended us, from the commencement of our general captivity, even unto the present day. Twice have we been redeemed according to the sacred history and we have every reason to expect, the third time is rapidly approaching when we shall be established forever.”52

Gershom Seixas gave another Fast-Day Sermon on February 2, 1814, set by the New York City Common Council. The topic was the War of 1812, but Seixas does not focus on details of the conflict.53 Instead, the unabashed patriotism of Seixas underscores his support for President Madison’s actions: “It is sufficient for us to know that our rulers are chosen to be the judges on all affairs concerning the welfare of their constituents. They (the ruling powers) have declared war, and it is our bounden duty to act as true and faithful citizens to support and preserve the honor, the dignity, and the independence of the United States of America! That they may bear equal rank among the nations of the earth.”54

After this, Seixas became ill. He served his congregation and his community until the end. “At the age of seventy, verging on blindness and suffering life in a tired body racked by sickness and old age, he still fasted and prayed before his congregation on Yom Kippur.”55 It is noted that

In his earlier years… hope for Messianic delivery was strong, but by the last year of his life he was no longer certain of the imminence of the delivery and wrote that he disagreed with those who thought that the world was close to the last days. His loss of faith was not in the precepts of his religion but rather in the virtue of the Jewish community in 1814; for there was a need for “reinstating Jews in the sight of their Creator, to obtain His Divine Grace and following this will come restoration and peace.”56

Gershom Mendes Seixas died on July 2, 1816 and was buried in his congregation’s first cemetery in New York City.

Legacy

Gershom Mendes Seixas has become known as the “Patriot Rabbi.” That seems to be only partly true. First, as we know, he was not officially a rabbi. He did not have formal training past his teen years, and he of course did not graduate from a rabbinic school nor become ordained. But in practice, he absolutely grew into the role.

When he attained the job as ḥazzan, he was a functionary, doing a number of important and necessary tasks. He cared deeply about Judaism and contemplated his faith every day as he expanded his role in the synagogue. He was a believer, and he was the first Jewish leader in America who led a congregation with such thought, knowledge, and absolute devotion.

The growth and development of Gershom Seixas can be seen clearly in the pages here. Perhaps one of the major personal turning points in his life occurred when he made the decision to close Shearith Israel in the face of the British incursion in New York. He was a young man in his mid-twenties, and he stepped up for his congregation and his community. He literally grabbed the Torah, candlesticks, and other religious objects that he could find and led his congregants out of the building and closed the doors. Of course the irony is that some of his congregants stayed, and when he returned from his sojourn to Stratford and Philadelphia, he had to face the task of reuniting the factions. But he was not a stranger to the accommodation of his flock, and he dealt with the Ashkenazi and Sephardi members, and his own converso background, to create a cohesive community within the synagogue and the kehillah, combining both secular and religious aspects of Jewish life and community in New York. His time in Philadelphia cannot be overlooked, as it was a time of further growth and leadership development, always with a view toward future needs. The new building for Mikveh Israel housed the congregation for some forty years, and he was pivotal at its inception.

Seixas was well-regarded in his community and had friendships with non-Jewish clergy. Patriotism and charity were two of his guiding stars, and one or both were mentioned in every sermon or discourse he gave. His belief in God was clearly unshakable, and the themes of exile, redemption, Restoration, the Messiah, and diaspora were never far behind.

Gershom Mendes Seixas was a man who sought a vine and a fig tree. He found it for himself, led others to find theirs, and believed in the Restoration of the Jewish people in their own Land.

Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, PhD, is Senior Rabbi Emeritus, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA, and the former chair of Judaic Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York. Lynda Barness is CEO, LB Literary Projects, with varying roles of author, editor, researcher, and project manager. Sussman and Barness have been writing partners since 2022.

  1. 1 The United States government is encouraging religion, and in our own time it manifests itself in the 501(c)(3), which provides tax-exempt status for religious institutions, among others.

  2. 2 Carla Vieira, “Abraham Before Abraham: Pursuing the Portuguese Roots of the Seixas Family,” in American Jewish History 99, no. 1 (April 2015): 145. Abraham apparently also had a Christian name, Miguel Pacheco de Silva. Also see Laura Arnold Liebman, Messianism, Secrecy, & Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (Valentine Mitchell, 2013).

  3. 3 David de Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone: Early Jewish Settlers 1682-1831, (Columbia, 1953), 346.

  4. 4 Rachel Elior, “Exile and Redemption in Jewish Mystical Thought,” Reprinted from Studies in Spirituality 14 (2004): 11.

  5. 5 The years 1740 and 1741 have been reported.

  6. 6 The year of his birth is debatable, appearing in secondary literature as 1745 and 1746.

  7. 7 Marc Saperstein, Jewish Preaching in Times of War, 1800-2001 (Liverpool University Press, 2008), 109.

  8. 8 N. Taylor Phillips, “Rev. Gershom Mendez Seixas, ‘The Patriot Minister of the American Revolution,’” American Jewish Year Book, Vol. 6 (1904-5), 41.

  9. 9 David and Tamar De Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World: Portrait of Shearith Israel 1654-1954 (Columbia University Press, 1955), 168. Pinto was the religious leader of the congregation during Seixas’s teenage years. Abrahams, a Loyalist during the Revolution, remained as a leader of the congregation after Seixas departed from the temple and the city during the occupation of the British.

  10. 10 Robert V. Friedenberg, “Hear O Israel”: The History of American Jewish Preaching, 1654-1970 (University of Alabama Press, 1989), 8.

  11. 11 Once again, research indicated dates that were close but not identical.

  12. 12 Harry Simonhoff, “1789: Gershom Mendes Seixas,” Jewish Notables In America, 1776-1865: Links of an Endless Chain (Greenberg, 1956), 53, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062329461&seq=71.

  13. 13 “The First American Jew: A Tribute to Gershom Mendes Seixas, ‘Patriot Rabbi of the Revolution,’ ” American Council for Judaism 5, https://acjna/org/articles/the-first-american-jew-a-tribute-to-gershom-mendes-sexias-patriot-rabbi-of-the-revolution.

  14. 14 It has been reported that they had three and also five. Perhaps the tally represented the children who lived past infanthood.

  15. 15 Joseph L. Blau and Salo W. Baron, The Jews of the United States 1790-1840 (Columbia University Press, 1963), 566.

  16. 16 Raphael Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry 1780-1815 (Schocken Books, 1971), 3.

  17. 17 Jacob Rader Marcus, “The Handsome Young Priest in the Black Gown: The Personal World of Gershom Seixas,” Hebrew Union College Annual 40/41 (1969-1970): 421, https://www.jstor.orgstab;235032269.

  18. 18 De Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone, 350-351.

  19. 19 Morris U. Schappes, A Documentary History of the Jews in the United States 1854-1875 3rd ed. (Schocken Books, 1971), 37. Also De Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone, 399.

  20. 20 Myer Myers, a noted silversmith, had moved to Norwalk, which was destroyed in 1779. Then he moved to Stratford, along the shoreline, in his own sort of exile.

  21. 21 Henry Samuel Morais, The Jews of Philadelphia (1894), 126-127.

  22. 22 Edwin Wolf II and Maxwell Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson (Jewish Publication Society, 1956), 118, quoting a Mikveh Israel Minute Book.

  23. 23 Morais, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia, 14. Again, the numbers tend to be reported differently. It was said to be one-story and two-story!

  24. 24 Marcus, “The Handsome Young Priest in the Black Gown,” 418, 422.

  25. 25 Wolf and Whiteman, History of the Jews, 122.

  26. 26 Wolf and Whiteman, History of the Jews, 123.

  27. 27 Marcus, “The Handsome Young Priest in the Black Gown,” 427.

  28. 28 Friedenberg, “Hear O Israel,” 18.

  29. 29 We know that Gershom Seixas had either 14 or 16 children. The youngest and the oldest, according to MikvehIsraelHistory.com, were twenty-nine years apart.

  30. 30 De Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World, 267-8. “After 1784 the junta or governing board made up of the parnas—president, the vice-president, and five assistants, continued to be elected annually to care for the spiritualities of the congregation. But under the act of incorporation of 1784 there were also elected annually six trustees charged with responsibility for the temporalities of the congregation.”

  31. 31 Gershom Mendes Seixas, A Religious Discourse: Thanksgiving Day Sermon, November 26, 1789, edited with an introduction by Isidore S. Meyer (Jewish Historical Society of New York, 1977), https://www.religioninamerica.org/rahp_objects/giving-thanks-for-the-constitution-at-new-yorks-congregation-shearith-israel/.

  32. 32 Friedenberg, “Hear O Israel,” 10.

  33. 33 Seixas, Thanksgiving Day sermon.

  34. 34 Seixas, Thanksgiving Day sermon.

  35. 35 Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry, 12.

  36. 36 Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry, 14.

  37. 37 Sermons, discourses, and epistolary opinions on religious matters by Gershom Seixas, undated, Box: 1, Folder: 61. Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 7, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  38. 38 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, undated, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 7, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  39. 39 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 13-14, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  40. 40 Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry, 6.

  41. 41 Schappes, A Documentary History, 91-92.

  42. 42 Jonathan D. Sarna, “The Impact of the American Revolution on American Jews,” Modern Judaism 1, no. 2 (September 1981):154, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1396058.

  43. 43 Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry, 14.

  44. 44 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 10, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  45. 45 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 18-19, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  46. 46 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 26, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  47. 47 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 31-32, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  48. 48 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 32, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  49. 49 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 38, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325115.

  50. 50 1804 sermon per Mahler, A History of Modern Jewry, 14.

  51. 51 Sermons, etc. by Gershom Seixas, Jacques Judah Lyons papers, P-15. American Jewish Historical Society, 32-24, https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/325340.

  52. 52 Shmuel Singer, “1776: A Homegrown Torah Pioneer, Gershom Mendes Seixas,” The Jewish Observer 12, no. 2 (January 1977):10. https://agudah.org/the-jewish-observer-vol-12-no-2-january-1977shevat-5737.

  53. 53 Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, 116: “Yet this sermon, as the only known extant Jewish preaching text responding to any American war before 1861, delivered before the flagship Jewish congregation of the nation, expressing the ideals of loyal support for the government, despite its failures and empathetic commitment to fellow citizens in their time of need, it is a text of considerable historical significance.”

  54. 54 Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, 117.

  55. 55 Thomas Kessner, “Gershom Mendes Seixas: His Religious ‘Calling,’ Outlook and Competence,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly 58, no. 4 (June 1969): 465. https://www.jstor/org/stable23876025.

  56. 56 Kessner, “GMS: His Religious ‘Calling,’” 247-248, Footnote MS Letter to Sarah Kursheedt, January 23, 1814.