UC-NRLF 
 
 bD 420 
 
Ezra Stiles and the Jews 
 
 J 
 
 SELECTED PASSAGES FROM HIS 
 
 Literary Diary 
 
 CONCERNING JKWS AND JUDAISM 
 
 WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE ALEXANDER KOHUT 
 
 NEW YORK: 1902 
 
 PHILIP COWEN, PUBLISHER 
 
 489 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
[l<eprinted from THE AMERICAN HEBREW, 
 November, 1901, to June, 1902]. 
 
 THE CAMERON PRESS 
 
 653-655 First Ave. 
 New York 
 
So 
 
 Beraman omen, 
 
 tfjeae pages art reorrentlg inscribed 
 
 M153124 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 5-13 
 
 His Semitic Scholarship and his Jewish Friends 14-28 
 
 Jews charged with Toryism 28-37 
 
 Conversions of Jews in New England and elsewhere . . . 37-49 
 His Progress in Semitics and some Notes on the New 
 port Jews 49-64 
 
 A Letter from the Holy Land 64-66 
 
 Two Newport Jews 66-67 
 
 Some Female Hebraists 67-72 
 
 A Word on Jewish Ceremonials and Proselytes 72-77 
 
 Bibliographical 77-78 
 
 The Rabbis whom Dr. Stiles Knew 78-98 
 
 Further Progress in Semitics and the Study of Hebrew 
 
 at Yale 99-107 
 
 Appendix /.Statistical Notes : 
 
 1. The Jews in Newport 
 
 2. Jews in New Haven and elsewhere in Connecticut I -.QQ-.^ 
 
 3. Jews in Philadelphia 
 
 4. Jews in Georgia 
 
 Appendix //.Rabbi Haijm Isaac Carigal and Ezra 
 
 Stiles 114-133 
 
 Appendix ///.Miscellaneous Notes : 
 
 1. Jews in Charleston, S. C. 
 
 2. A Newport Jew, a Portrait, and an Epi- ^ 134.143 
 
 taph 
 
 3. Obituary Notices of the Lopez Family 
 
 Index.... 145-152 
 
 A dditions and Corrections 153-155 
 
 List of Illustrations : 
 
 1. Facsimile of the title-page of a Discourse, 1722. . . 39 
 
 2. Facsimile of the title-page of an Essay, 1722 
 
 3. The Synagogue at Newport 
 
 4. Portrait of Rabbi Haijm Isaac Carigal 90 
 
EZRA STILES AND THE JEWS/ 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The fact that Yale College, which celebrated its 
 bicentennial at New Haven last week (Oct. 1901) 
 with so much eclat, has on its corporate seal, in 
 addition to a Latin inscription, one in Hebrew, is 
 a significant as well as a curious circumstance. It 
 represents an open book, upon which are inscribed 
 the symbolic words, n^ni Dmx (Urim v Tummim), 
 It illustrates the influence of the Od Testa 
 ment upon the thought and policy of New Eng 
 land an influence more paramount in the colony of 
 New Haven than possibly anywhere else, if we may 
 judge from the following passage of an enactment 
 bearing the date 1644, which proclaims that 
 
 " In the beginning of the foundation of this plantation 
 and jurisdiction, upon a free debate with due and serious 
 consideration, it was agreed, concluded and settled as a 
 fundamental law, not to be disputed or questioned here 
 after, that the j udicial laws of God, as they were delivered 
 by Moses and expounded in other parts of Scripture, so far 
 as they are a fence to the moral law, being neithertypical 
 nor ceremonial, nor having a reference to Canaan, shall be 
 accepted as of moral equity, and as God shall help, shall 
 be a constant direction for all proceedings here and a 
 general rule for all courts in this jurisdiction, how to judge 
 between party and party and how to punish offenders, till 
 the same be branched out into particulars hereafter." 
 
 This vigorous avowal of the binding force of Old 
 Testament doctrine had much to do in shaping 
 the destinies of the colony and university. The 
 study of Hebrew was not only encouraged, but, 
 
 * The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles. Edited with notes by 
 F. B. Dexter, three volumes, New York: Charles Scribner s Sons, 
 1901. 
 
under President Stiles incumbency, made compul 
 sory for a time, no doubt the deeper to impress the 
 students with a sense of the importance and sublim 
 ity of Holy Writ, and to induce a profounder view 
 of the spiritual. Dr. Stiles was too sturdy a church 
 man to suffer himself to abate in his zeal, either in 
 biblical study or in the instruction of Hebrew, which 
 he considered a vehicle of salvation, or, as Cotton 
 Mather so eloquently said, "the fiery chariot to 
 carry one heavenwards." From the Literary Diary 
 of Ezra Stiles, just published with valuable notes 
 by Professor F. B. Dexter, of Yale University, we 
 learn that no man s education was considered quite 
 complete without an adequate knowledge of the 
 sacred tongue and, whoever pretended to scholar 
 ship at all, was constrained, whether he willed it or 
 not, to be "a good Hebrician," as Ezra Stiles terms it- 
 He has preserved for us the names of such of his 
 learned contemporaries who have attained pro 
 ficiency in the study of Hebrew, and on one or two 
 epitaphs, probably composed by Dr. Stiles, the 
 necrologic formula of the Old Testament, usually 
 inscribed on Jewish tombs, Zeher Tsaddik Livracha, is 
 added in Hebrew characters. There were even 
 women Hebraists in his day whose accomplishments 
 are commemorated in his Diary. Not only his sons, 
 but his second wife and daughter as well, studied 
 Hebrew. A knowledge of the Bible was the sine 
 qua non of all culture, and we need not be surprised 
 to find his wife attending one of his classes (cf. Vol. 
 III., p. 526). The following entry under date of 
 July 21st, 1793 (cf. Vol. III., p. 499) is significant : 
 
 " My wife died 1775. She read thro the Bible, five 
 times the last four years of her life, once in about 9 or 10 
 months. Kezia [his daughter, born in September, 1760,1 
 died 1785, she read it thro five times the last five years of 
 her life." 
 
" Besides, reads in course privately in rny study, I read 
 thro the Bible in my Famy at family Morning Prayers 
 from 1760 to 1791, eight times, or once in four years. 
 My tarn? have had full opportuny of being acquainted 
 with the sacred Contents of the Bible." 
 
 The graduates of the college received on gradua 
 tion a copy of the Bible, "a small edition in Hebrew 
 and Greek" as Dr. Stiles states in his diary (cf. vol. 
 iii., p. 41). The Bible was a household-book in New 
 England, and its people loved it and read it dili 
 gently. 
 
 ^ Before remarking on Dr. Stiles scholarship in the 
 Semitic languages, it is worth noting that he was a 
 man of wide and varied attainments.* In addition 
 to being versed in the classics, he had a rare fund 
 of "polite learning," and displayed an aptitude for 
 natural and physical science most remarkable. His 
 studies and researches cover quite a long range of 
 subjects: Meteorology, astronomy, physics, silk cul 
 ture, horticulture, political economy, philosophy, 
 ecclesiastical history, race problems (sociology), 
 languages, etc. As an evidence of his force of 
 character and mental capacity be it mentioned that 
 in 1784, at the age of 57 years, he began to study 
 French. Judging from his very exhaustive and ac 
 curate accounts of battles, sieges and engagements 
 during the Revolutionary War, and his numerous 
 charts and diagrams, he appears to have had more 
 
 * For biographical data concerning him, see an interesting 
 article on " Ezra Stiles and the Jews," by Rev. W. Willner (a grad 
 uate of Yale), in the " Publications of the / merican Jewish His 
 torical Society," No. 8 (1900), p. 120; and the " Literary Diary," 
 vol. i., pp. 1-2; ii., pp. 524-5 autobiographical). His son-in-law 
 the Rev. Abiel Holmes, A.M., pastor of the First Church in Caml 
 bridge, published in 1798 " The Life of Ezra Stiles, D.D. , LL. D.," 
 
 Boston: Printed by Thomas & Andrews, May, 1798 
 
 8, 403 pp. [The preface is signed, Cambridge April 5, 1798J. 
 See also J. L. Kingsley, " Life of Ezra Stiles" (Boston, 1855). 
 
than a meagre knowledge of the "art of warfare/" 
 and, from his love of detail and incident, we would 
 judge him to be an admirable war correspondent. 
 
 He was an omnivorous reader, and, perhaps to 
 preserve more carefully what interested him most^ 
 he transcribed hundreds of pages from various books 
 treating of history, travels, ethnology and the like, 
 thereby preserving a number of valuable items 
 which might otherwise have been lost. He was an 
 eager and exact correspondent, wrote fluently in 
 Latin, French and Hebrew, and his epistolary style 
 in English is full of strength and beauty. His lit 
 erary activity was very great, and, though he pub 
 lished little, the enormous mass of unpublished 
 material testifies to his marvelous diligence. Steal 
 ing leisure from his onerous official duties, he has 
 compiled material for a number of works which 
 were destined not to be issued during his lifetime. 
 A few sermons and addresses were printed under 
 his eye (cf. Diary, vol. i. r p. 53; vol. iii., pp. 81, 182 y 
 201, 272-3, 276, 278-80), and his " History of the Three 
 Judges " [of King Charles, who found asylum in 
 Connecticut : Whaley, Goffe and Dixwell (cf. vol. 
 iii., p. 485 and Index, p. 634a)], appeared in 1795. 
 Among his most remarkable efforts may be reckoned 
 Ms impassioned plea in behalf of the negroes, of 
 whose return to Africa, tinder a protectorate, he was 
 a zealous champion. 
 
 An idea of his stupendous industry may be 
 gleaned from the following entry in his Diary, vol. 
 iii., p. 336 (Dec. 16th, 1788): 
 
 " Last week I had brot home from the Book Binders 
 Eight Volumes of Mss. bound, of which one folio & 
 rest Quartos, 3 of which Letters received. I have now 
 thirty four Volumes Mss. bound, 3 of w[hi] c [h] others 
 Letters the rest my own Writing." 
 
 Thirty-one bulky volumes of unpublished material 
 
are indeed a rare testimony of scholarship and a 
 worthy heritage of learning- to the institution over 
 whose fortunes he presided with such tact and dig- 
 nity from November 6th, 1777, until his death Mav 
 12th, 1795. 
 
 Dr. Stiles interest in Old Testament study was 
 manifested early in life. While at college he com- 
 piled a " copious chronological compendium of the 
 Old and New Testaments" (Holmes, Life of Presi 
 dent Stiles, p. 13). In his earlier years he was some- 
 what narrow and intolerant in his theological views 
 and not at all predisposed in favor of the Jews, but 
 he emerged from the waves of skepticism which 
 swept over him, shortly before he reached his ma 
 jority, with not only a larger faith, but a meeker 
 spirit, and, far from regarding the Jews with distrust 
 and bitterness, he began to seek for evidences of 
 their whereabouts in far-away places to test the 
 truth of prophecyand, what seems more remark 
 able in those days of rigid exclusiveness, he 
 delighted to cultivate their friendship. In 1759, 
 then aged 32 years, he began a series of inquiries 
 concerning the fate of the Ten Tribes since their 
 Dispersion, tidings of whom had come to his ears 
 from time to^time, and whose spiritual state gave 
 him no end o f concern. " By a learned Jew from 
 Saphat, in Galilee," writes his son-in-law and 
 biographer, Rev. Abiel Holmes (p. 85 et sq.), -he 
 addressed a letter in Latin, to some Greek priest, 
 or bishop, living in the Holy Land, or in Syria. Its 
 design was to obtain an exact description of the 
 Holy Land and of Syria; a map of the Lake of Gal 
 ilee ; of the lake of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the 
 rise and course of the river Jordan ; information 
 concerning the inhabitants of the various nations on 
 that territory , . . whether any nations practice 
 circumcision, who anciently observed that rite, 
 
10 
 
 without a derivation from Jews or Mahometans, 
 etc. The purpose of this inquiry, says Holmes 
 in a footnote, where a Latin extract from the letter 
 is given (p. 86), was to discover, if possible, the Ten 
 Tribes of Israel, a favorite subject of his researches. 
 We find him taking up the same theme with re 
 newed eagerness, seven years later, in a letter 
 addressed to J. Z. Hoi well, Esq., author of " Histori 
 cal events relative to the Empire of Hindustan * 
 and an old resident in Bengal, to whom he applied 
 for information respecting the Jews of Cochin and 
 Patna and their probable identity with the lost 
 "Ten Tribes" (See Holmes, pp. 112-114, and W. 
 Willner in the Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., 
 No. 8, p. 122). In August, 1772, he continued his 
 investigations and despatched a lengthy letter in 
 Latin to the Rev. Dr. Busch, a Moravian minister 
 in Astracan, near the Caspian Sea, soliciting particu 
 lar information concerning the habits and religious 
 observances of the Tartars, their language, ritual, 
 traditions and other matters pertaining to their 
 rites and usages. A summary of this interesting 
 epistle, which is not mentioned in the Diary, and 
 which covers ten quarto pages, is given by Holmes 
 (cf. pp. 158-161 ; see also Willner, /. c. t pp. 122-123), 
 who, in a note, refers to Henry Vansittart s 
 Secrets of the Afghans, written in Pushtoo, and trans 
 lated into English by Sir William Jones, in 1784, 
 as affording corroborative evidence of Dr. Stiles 
 theory of the Jewish origin of the Afghans. Since 
 his day a number of similar researches have tended 
 to confirm the probability that some of the Asiatic 
 tribes, notably the Falashas of Abyssinia, as proven 
 by Ladd, Halevy and others, may be of Hebraic 
 descent. 
 
 From an entry made in his Diary, July llth, 
 1771 (vol. i. p. 121), we learn that others in America, 
 
II 
 
 besides Dr. Stiles, were interested in the relations 
 of the " Kalmuck Tartars and the Ten Tribes." 
 Four years later, Aug. 23, 1^75 (vol. i. p. 60/), we 
 read this curious item : " Conversing with a learned 
 Jew lately come [to] Town, who says last year there 
 was a report at New York of the discovery of the 
 X Tribes among the Tartars." Seventeen years 
 later, April, 1792, in a letter to the famous traveler, 
 Bruce, whose work he had read with much relish 
 and satisfaction, he returns to the subject again: 
 "Have the Jews of Samen any synagogues or places 
 of worship ? Have they the anniversary feasts, as 
 well as Sabbaths? Have they a liturgy, and 
 priests, and sacrificas? " (Holmes, p. 318 ; Willner, 
 p. 123.) One year before his death he was intent 
 on the same topic of inquiry connected with the 
 Lost Tribes of Israel, a theme which has engaged 
 the attention of many scholars, at various times all 
 over the world. 
 
 He had read in recent histories of Hindustan new 
 accounts of the Jews on the Malabar coast ; he had 
 seen and examined a fac-simile of the famous Indian 
 edict engraved on a copper plate by one of the 
 Malabar princes (see the only correct transcript and 
 rendering of the curious charter of privileges in 
 Dr. Gustav Oppert s article in Semitic Studies in Mem- 
 ory of Alexander Kohut, Berlin, 1897, pp. 396-419 and 
 the bibliographic notes thereto by the present 
 writer, pp. 420-34, 613 ), setting forth the rights 
 granted to the Jews, ca 379 C. E-; and he was so 
 impressed by what he had read that he was eager 
 to learn more details pertaining to their history and 
 chronology. Accordingly he set to work and ad 
 dressed a long literary epistle of more than 70 pages 
 in quarto to Sir William Jones, which was sent to 
 Calcutta soon after it was written, bearing the date 
 of January 18th, 1794, and was destined never to 
 
22 
 
 reach the hands of Sir William Jones, for that emi 
 nent scholar died April 2/th, 1794. 
 
 In his Diary /Jan. 25, 1794: vol. iii., p. 514) he has 
 jotted down the following modest note : "Writing a 
 Letter to Sir Wm. Jones at Calcutta in Bengal, Pres 
 ident of the Society there, request 8 him to pro 
 cure me an Extract of the patriarchal ages from the 
 Heb. Pentateuch with the Jews of the X. Tribes at 
 Cochin on Malabar Coast." This is his way of re 
 ferring to an epistle whose proportions were almost 
 monographic. It is curious to observe how naive 
 and childlike was his faith in the reports and fancies 
 of travellers and adventurers. His veneration for 
 traditional evidence was profound. To substantiate 
 his argument as to the possibility of discovering 
 fragments of Biblical Books in MS among the Jews 
 in Cochin, jhe adds that "St. Thomas found a He 
 brew damsel singing Hebrew Psalms at the court 
 of an Indian prince, at Cranganore, near Cochin/ 
 He desired that a more thorough and effectual 
 search should be made after the lost tribes ; as, 
 from the prophecies which he always had in mind, 
 he had no doubt of their future re- gathering and 
 of the re-establishment of the Twelve Tribes 
 in Palestine* "Every part of the terraqueous globe," 
 says this early American Zionist, " has been so 
 thoroughly travelled and examined, that we know 
 they are not to be found in Europe, Africa, America, 
 nor in any part of Asia unless upon the territory 
 between the Caspian Sea and the empire of China, 
 and north of India and Persia : unless, perhaps, on 
 the extensive territory between Persepolis and the 
 Indus. I have long wished to have this territory, 
 especially from the Caspian eastward and north of 
 India and Tibet, travelled by some persons of He 
 brew literature and of sagacious discernment of 
 national character who may discover such national 
 
* 3 
 
 distinguishing traits, as you Sir [William Jones], 
 have in the Afghans; who, from your account, I 
 doubt not are of Hebrew original, and of the Ten 
 Tribes. . . ." (See the quotations in Holmes, pp. 
 325-338.) 
 
 It is plain from the above extract that Dr. Stiles 
 was no adherent of the theory of the Hebraic origin 
 of the American Indians, as were a number of his 
 contemporaries. Their opinions he has occasionally 
 recorded. Thus, on January 6th, 1770 (vol. i., p. 32., 
 he writes that he has read a letter from the Rev. 
 David Imrie of Anandale in Scoland, dated April 
 25, 1754 and printed in 1755, wherein he supposes 
 that the " Return & Conversion of the Jews, the 
 Destruction of Antichrist, and beginning of Mil 
 lennium, will all be accomplished within fourty 
 years fr. 1754 or by A. D. 1794. ... Mr. Itnrie has 
 written a piece to prove the Indians of America to 
 be the Ten Tribes, & sent it over in MS. to be 
 communicated to the Indian Missionaries, but not 
 to be printed." In another place he refers rather 
 dubiously to an American missionary zealot, who, 
 like John Eliot, the Apostle of the Indians," pro 
 posed to dedicate his life to the dusky aborigines 
 of America, under the delusion that they were 
 remnants of the lost Tribes of Israel. His own 
 theory as to their origin may be learnt from inci 
 dental references (vol. i., pp. 163, 233). "The 
 American Indians," says Dr. Stiles, " 1 suppose 
 sprang from the Canaanites or Phoenicians . . . ." 
 and, in another connection, he writes, of "the prospect 
 of introducing Christianity among the Kalmuks 
 and Tartars in general, from whom. . . I supposed 
 the American Indians sprang." 
 
T4 
 
 His Semitic Scholarship and his Jewish Frtends. 
 
 Dr. Stiles was forty years old when he began to 
 study Hebrew. In May, 1767, he knew but ten let 
 ters of the alphabet; in July, 1778, on the occasion of 
 his inauguration as president of Yale College, he 
 delivered a Hebrew oration. It is interesting to 
 note how he acquired proficiency in the sacred 
 tongue: 
 
 "Though the Hebrew language was taught at 
 Yale College when Dr. Stiles was a student," says 
 his biographer, Rev. Abiel Holmes (p. 128 sqo, 
 "yet, not then expecting to enter the ministry, to 
 which profession only this language was thought 
 to be of ttse, he greatly neglected it. After his set 
 tlement in Newport, when he was curious to inves 
 tigate the sense of some capital Hebrew words, he 
 used to find in Montanus Hebrew Bible, first the 
 Latin word, then the Hebrew over it; then he com 
 pared the same word in different texts, and guessed 
 the sense. This, with the help of Poll Synopsis, gave 
 him what trifling assistance he could obtain from 
 the Hebrew. Some light, indeed, he derived from 
 the Jews at Newport, particularly from their Huz- 
 zans or teachers, by asking them the import of 
 those Hebrew words which stood for particular 
 passages in the Bible. Proceeding in the study of 
 the Scriptures and of divinity, he felt the necessity 
 of the knowledge of the Hebrew. His frequent 
 attendance at the Jews synagogue increased his 
 wish to possess at least as much of it as to see a 
 little into their books and service. On receiving a 
 diploma from Edinburgh [March, 1765], his ambi 
 tion was touched, or rather a sense of shame excited, 
 that a Doctor of Divinity should not understand a 
 language, so important and so easily acquired. 
 But the delight of other studies, and the drudgery 
 of learning a dead language, conspired to the con- 
 
5 
 
 tinuance of his neglect. At length, however, In 
 May, 1767, though advanced into the fortieth year 
 of his age, he concluded to attempt at least to read 
 the language. At this time he knew but ten of the 
 Hebrew letters. Having walked a few times on the 
 parade with the Huzzan, who gave him the true 
 power of the letters and vowels, he began to spell 
 and read the Psalter. In the five first days he read 
 the igth Psalm. Encouraged by his success, he 
 soon found himself able to read about ten pages 
 every morning after breakfast. Not long after 
 the Huzzan {the Rev. Isaac Touro, who arrived 
 about 1758 from Jamaica; cf. Publications of Am. few- 
 Hist, Sec., No. 6, p. 78; No. 8, p. 120; Literary Diary , 
 vol. i., p. 20; ii., [p, 290, Editor s note] wrote for 
 him the alphabet, with the vowels; gave him the 
 sounds, and heard him spell most of the ist Psalm. 
 He also gave him the rabbinical letters. This was 
 his chief assistance. When he had read the Psal 
 ter, he began to translate it into Latin, and finished 
 it in one month. After translating a number of 
 Psalms into English, he began to read and translate 
 Genesis. 
 
 "During this period he examined many passages 
 and critical, important words, by comparing them 
 as used, in different places of scripture, * with great 
 profit and satisfaction/ He also examined other 
 writings in Chaldee and Rabbinical Hebrew, and 
 the Samaritan character, in which the Scripture 
 Hebrew was originally written. . . Having read 
 part of Genesis, all Exodus and the Book of Ezra 
 for the sake of the Chaldee in it, and much of the 
 Chaldee in Daniel; on the last of January, 176*, he 
 began the translation of Genesis, and finished that 
 book and Exodus by the i2th of May. Thus almost 
 entirely unaided, within one year he unexpect 
 edly accomplished the translation of the Psalms, 
 Genesis and Exodus. " 
 
i6 
 
 This year, continues his biographer, he read much 
 Arabic and learned Syriac. "I doubt not," writes 
 Dr. Stiles, "it is easier to acquire all the oriental 
 languages, especially the dialects of the Hebrew, 
 than any one modern European language. I could 
 learn Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian with less 
 pains than the Latin only. . . If we study the 
 Hebrew, only with the view to the Bible, it will 
 repay us. It is a glorious language, and throws 
 more light on the Old Testament than all the 
 commentators." Such a testimony, adds Holmes, 
 from an accomplished classical scholar, united 
 with his example, should encourage the study of 
 the Oriental languages, especially of the Hebrew, a 
 language of singular importance to every theolo 
 gian, but too generally neglected at the present 
 day 
 
 On the first day of January, 1769, he commenced a 
 Literary Diary, which he continued at regular inter 
 vals until a few days before his death, May 6th, 1795. 
 It comprises 15 quarto volumes in MS., each con 
 sisting of above 300 pages. The timely publication 
 of the greater part of this Day-Bpok enables us to 
 catch glimpses of President Stiles as he meditates 
 upon the meanings of diffierent Hebrew texts re 
 ferring to Messianic prophecy; it shows him dip 
 ping into the intricacies of Rashi, whom he, in com 
 mon with others more learned in Rabbinics than 
 he, erroneously calls Jarchi; he even ventures to 
 read Maimonides in the original; to correspond in 
 Hebrew with Jews and Gentiles, notably with his 
 good friend Rabbi Hayyim Isaac Carigal, who ar 
 rived in Newport, direct from Palestine, in March 
 1773; he takes us into the synagogue, whose struc 
 ture and appointments he described minutely in 
 another volume of his numerous MS. records; he 
 discourses eloquently on the Chosen People in the 
 
I? 
 
 presence of a Rabbi in his Church, and afterwards 
 discusses with him and other Newport Jews the 
 Messianic expectations of the Jews. He takes us, 
 through the medium of a volume of published trav 
 els, into the Dutch synagogue in London; intro 
 duces us to some otherwise unknown Jewish apos 
 tates at home and abroad; furnishes valuable 
 statistics on the Jews in Newport, New Haven, 
 Philadelphia and Palestine; quaint items about the 
 habits and observances of his Jewish neighbors, one 
 of whom, Aaron Lopez, his intimate friend, he 
 eulogizes in no uncertain tones on the occasion of 
 his death by drowning; in short, he has preserved 
 for us what is most striking and valuable for a 
 knowledge of the history of his day; he has written 
 a precious phase of Ameiican and, incidentally, 
 of American- Jewish Culturgeschichte. 
 
 To return to his progress in Semitics, it is sig 
 nificant to note that almost the very first item in 
 his Diary records his diligence in the study of He 
 brew. It were useless to gather all the passages in 
 that daily chronicle referring to his close applica 
 tion to the reading of the Bible in the original. He 
 made it an invariable practice in 1769 to read one 
 chapter or more in Hebrew, and a portion of Arabic 
 every morning before breakfast. One of his bio 
 graphers tells us that he read as much as ten pages 
 in his Psalter each day, except, singularly enough 
 
 on the Lord s Day Holmes, p. 133; Willner, p. 
 
 121; Diary, i., 4.). On January 9th, 1769, he in 
 forms us that his elder son, Ezra, then ten years 
 of age [born March u, 1759], began to study He 
 brew. On the loth he commenced the Book of 
 Joshua in Hebrew and read some Arabic; by the 
 3ist of the month he had finished Joshua: on 
 February ist he read the first chapter of Judges 
 and finished the whole by the 27th; on the fol- 
 
lowing- day he continues to read I. Samuel, which 
 he finished by the ist of April. On the 3d we 
 find him taking up the 2d Book. His persever 
 ance and industry were equally amazing. As we 
 proceed to chronicle his doings, according to his 
 Diary, seriatim, we shall have frequent occasion 
 to marvel at his energy and singleness of purpose. 
 On the 1 6th of March, 1769, we have the first allu 
 sion to Jews in Newport, though he refers to them 
 copiously in other places of his voluminous MS. 
 papers. Thus, for example, he gives an exhaustive 
 description of the synagogue in Newport built in 
 1762-3, and situated in the immediate neighborhood 
 of Dr. Stiles residence on the occasion of its dedi 
 cation, Friday, December 2d, 1763 (Diary, vol i , pp. 
 5, note 3; 6.); elsewhere (cf. ibid, p. 11 note 2) he 
 furnishes us valuable statistics on the "Jews in 
 Newport in 1760." The Rev. Wolf Willner, in his 
 interesting paper on " Ezra Stiles and the Jews" 
 (Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, 
 No. 8, 1900, pp. 119-26), has extracted from his un 
 published papers much useful information respect 
 ing the Jews, from 1747-1762. His quotations need 
 not be repeated here. It is noteworthy that in 
 1755 he estimated the number of Jewish residents 
 in Newport to consist of 15 families. "They have 
 no minister," he writes to an English friend. "New 
 York has many Jews who have Alhazan from Am 
 sterdam." His knowledge of Hebrew must have 
 been very scant, for he combines a Hebrew word 
 with the Arabic article Al. The Hazzan mentioned 
 is, no doubt, Isaac Pinto, the translator of the Portu 
 guese Prayerbook into English (see my notes in 
 Publicatims, No. 3, pp. 118-22; cf. also No. 4, pp. 129, 
 227-28), to whom he refers in one or two places in 
 his Diary (cf. vol. i., p. 386; iii., 392). 
 
 On March i6th, 1769 (vol. i., p. 5), he writes: 
 
9 
 
 "Examined with the Jew priest Jacob s prophecy of 
 the scepter departg. from Judah, . . Most of this 
 day with the Jews." The allusion is very likely to 
 the Rev. Isaac Touro, one of his intimate friends, 
 who came to Newport about 1758 from the West 
 Indies. Under the same date, Dr. Stiles says that 
 he is reading Cotton Mather s Magnalia, written in 
 the last decade of the 1 7th century, where Newport 
 is designated as "the common receptacle of the 
 convicts of Jerusalem and the outcasts of the land" 
 (Book 8, p. 20, Publications, No. 6, 1897, p. 65-66). 
 Such intolerant and bigoted views do not seem to 
 have influenced Dr. Stiles in the least in his atti 
 tude toward the elect harbingers of God." On 
 the 1 8th he states that he visited the synagogue in 
 company with a Mr. Austin. The Christian resi 
 dents of Newport were evidently no strangers at 
 Jewish services. Four years later, on May 28th, 
 1773, not only Dr. Stiles attended divine worship, in 
 celebration of the Shabuoth festival, but a number of 
 state dignitaries as well. The synagogue was decor 
 ated with Flowers,etc.," writes he (vol. I, p. 377; see 
 infra, the chapter on " Rabbi Hayyitn Isaac Carigal 
 and Ezra Stiles"); "About the time the Rabbi began 
 Sermon which was a few minutes before X h three 
 of the Commissioners came in, viz., Gov. Wanton & 
 Judge Oliver and afterwards Judge Auchmuty and 
 were seated in the Seat of the Parnass or President 
 of the Synagogue." The Parnass was Aaron Lopez, 
 Merchant in that city, and universally beloved for 
 his benevolence. This is a striking instance of the 
 cordial relations existing between Jews and non- 
 Jews in New England. Such intimacies are only 
 recorded in the chronicles of the Jews of Surinam 
 in the XVIIIth century. We have preserved, to this 
 day, a number of published and unpublished poems, 
 by Jews, in Hebrew and Hollandish, in praise of 
 
20 
 
 their governors and other high officials, whose 
 almost uniform kindness towards the Jews is a 
 matter of history. (See my notes in Publications, No. 
 3, 1895, pp. 127-31; in the Revue des Etudes Juives, 
 vol. xxxi, pp. 293-7; and in Simon Wolf s American 
 Jew as Patriot Soldier and Citizen, Philadelphia, 1895, 
 pp. 471-2). Samuel Nassy, called the "Citizens 
 Captain," was candidate for the governorship of the 
 colony of Surinam in the last half of the XVIIth 
 century; a number of others held important com 
 missions in the army; and so catholic was the 
 intercourse between Jew and Gentile, that two 
 Christian friends of the Jews wrote eulogistic verses 
 in honor of the centenary of their synagogue in 
 1785. These Dutch poems were reprinted by the 
 present writer in the Menorah, Sept. 1895, vol. xix, 
 pp. 149-52. As a further instance of good will 
 toward the Jews on the part of the Hollandish 
 Government, it is significant that in July, 1835, 
 Prince William Frederick Henry had put the first 
 stroke to the new synagogue in Paramaribo, con 
 secrated in 1836. (cf. Publications, No. 4, 1896, p. 7.) 
 Such amenities are, unfortunately, all too rare in 
 the tragic history of the Jews, and it is well to 
 record them when we can. 
 
 But let us return to the Diary: 
 
 On the 22d of March he writes: " In Even 8 heard 
 book of Esther read out in synagogue; then, the 
 followingday: "ReadMagnalia. Purim today." This 
 sounds almost grim, though the mention of Cotton 
 Mather s book in connection with the Jewish Festi 
 val is purely accidental. On the 28th, he addressed 
 a communication to Rev. Mr. Whittelsey, "on the 
 Import of nw and the Trinity of the Zohar." April 
 ist finds him conversing with a " Romish priest," 
 and writing a letter to Dr. Francis Alison, D.D., of 
 Philadelphia, "upon the plurality of Elohim in 
 
21 
 
 Jehovah, and the rabbinical Trinity in the Zohar." 
 Professor Dexter (vol. I, p. 7) points out that Dr. 
 Stiles believed the Zohar to have been composed in 
 the 2d century. An item on the same subject, 
 jotted down three years later, Oct. 29, 1772 (vol. I, 
 p. 298), is worth quoting 1 : "This day I received 
 from London the Zohar, a Hebrew Folio Volume of 
 800 or 770 pages, Sultzbac Edit. 1684, and published 
 at Nuremberg. It is a mystic or cabbalistic Com 
 mentary upon the Pcntctcuch [sic !] by Rabbi Simeon 
 Ben Jochai . . . ." Altogether he was deeply inter 
 ested in " transcendental lore, " chiefly because of 
 his speculations upon the coming of the Messiah 
 a subject which he loved to discuss at great length 
 with the Rabbis whom he knew in later years. His 
 computations on the prophecies of aniel concern 
 ing the Millenium are given at length by Holmes 
 (pp. 137-39) an d a number of passages in the Diary 
 would seem to indicate that these vague prophetic 
 forecasts and mathematical puzzles in the Bible 
 gave him no little concern. 
 
 He continued his daily readings in the Hebrew 
 Bible and devoted considerable time to Arabic. 
 He already copied, writes Holmes (p. 133), "Eutychii 
 Origines Ecclesiae Alexandrinae," in the Arabic 
 letter, and translated it from the original (cf. 
 Diary, vol. I, p. 21.) This copy, in Arabic, beauti 
 fully written, and the translation as well, are pre 
 served in a manuscript volume, devoted to Hebrew 
 and Arabic, still extant in the University Library. 
 He now "learned somewhat of tL<5 Syriac, and dipt 
 into Persic, Coptic, and the other oriental lan 
 guages." On the nth of April he copied and trans 
 lated the thirteen Articles of the Jewish Creed 
 (Diary, p. 8); by the 2Qth he had finished the second 
 Book of Samuel in Hebrew; and on the 3oth he has 
 the following entry : 
 
22 
 
 "Read Instit. of Sanhedrim in Ainsworth on 
 Pentateuch ; and Rabbi Judah Monis s Discourses 
 at his Baptism in 1722" (p. 10). Concerning the 
 latter he gives us this information, in a note penned 
 four years later Dec. 2d, 1773 (vol. I, p. 423; cf. also 
 p. 620, Oct. 3, 1775): "Mr. Levi, the Xtian Jew aet. 
 60 circa, told me he went to School when a Boy to 
 Rabbi Judah Monis who 1722 renounced Judaism 
 became a Christian, and was made Hebrew Profes 
 sor at Harvard College Cambridge. Mr. Levi says 
 Mr. Monis was an Italian, he thinks a Venetian Jew 
 was truly a Rabbi and a learned Man." 
 
 Of Levi, or as he is elsewhere called, Levy (Nov. 
 30, 1773; /. <0> nothing is known beyond the mere 
 fact that he was " a London Jew Convert to Xtian- 
 ity." Judah Monis, M.A., (1683-1764) was the first 
 instructor in Hebrew at Harvard University, who 
 was baptized at Cambridge, Mass., March 27, 1772, 
 preparatory to his call to office. On that occasion, 
 a Discourse was delivered in the College Hall, by 
 the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, which was pub 
 lished in a volume with three Discourses by Monis 
 himself, entitled respectively : The Truth, the Whole 
 Truth, and Nothing but the Truth, I2mo, Brston, 1722. 
 Copies of this rare tract are still extant; one is in 
 the collection of the American Jewish Historical 
 Society. For fuller particulars concerning this 
 early American convert and Hebraist, author of the 
 first American Hebrew Grammar (Boston, 1735), I 
 may be permitted to refer to my articles in Publica 
 tions , No. 3, pp. 112-14; i n The American Journal of 
 Semitic Languages and Literatures, Chicago, July, 1898, 
 vol. xtv, pp. 217-26; vol. xv, Oct. 1898, pp. 56 et seq., 
 where accurate titles and copious extracts and re 
 ferences are given. Fac-similes of the Discourse (two) 
 are to be found in an article by the Rev. Louis 
 Meyer, himstlf a Jewish Christian, entitled "The 
 
23 
 
 First Jewish Christian in North America Judah 
 Monis," reprinted from the missionary quarterly, 
 The Jewish Era (Chicago, 1900), p. 5. There are a 
 number of other references to Jewish converts in 
 the Diary which we shall mention in the sequel. 
 On the ist of May, Dr. Stiles began the first Book 
 of Kings in Hebrew. On the iQth he makes the fol 
 lowing interesting statement : "This Evening went 
 to the Synagogue and saw two Copies of the Law 
 deposited there. One a new Vellum Roll given by 
 Mr. Lopez 40 ster. The other a present from the 
 Portuguese Synagogue in London. Both with Silver 
 Tops and bells washed with Gold. They have now 
 Six Vellum Rolls of the Law. There are now in 
 Town about Twenty-five Families of Jews" [vol. I, 
 p. II; see also further below the chapter on "Statist 
 ical Notes," where the subject is more exhaustively 
 treated.] Under date of July 26th, we read this 
 curious item: "Mr. Treat [Rev. Joseph Treat of 
 New York; see Diary, vol. I, p. 14, note 2] tells me 
 that the Jews in New York expected the Messiah 
 1768, and are greatly disappointed. That this ex 
 pect" 1 was excited by some comput* on the prophetic 
 numbers by the Rabbins of the present day; that 
 two Jews from Constaninople visited New York 
 last year" [p. 17]. To this absorbing theme of 
 Messianic expectations he returns again and again 
 ia his learned discussions with Rabbis and laymen. 
 The very next quotable entry is on this topic, and it 
 is curious to note the allusion to the customs and 
 usages of the Newport Jews in support of their 
 belief in the advent of the Messiah: 
 
 "This day" [August 10, p. 19], says he, "one of 
 the Jews shewed me a computation of one of the 
 present Rabbins of Germany: wherein lie makes 
 Time, Times, and half to denote the space from the 
 last Destruct n of the Temple to its Restor a and 
 
Return of xii Tribes. Time he calls Seventy 
 Semitots , or 490 years, Times 980, half 245, total 
 1715 years, ending, he says, A. D. 1783, when the 
 Messias is expected. N.B. The Jews are wont in 
 Thunder Storms to set open all their Doors and 
 Windows for the coming of Messias. Last Hail 
 Storm, 31 July, when Thunder, Rain and Hail were 
 amazingly violent, the Jews in Newport threw 
 open Doors, Windows, and employed themselves in 
 Singing and repeating Prayers, etc., for meeting 
 Messias." 
 
 On the I3th of the month he remembers the 
 Anniversary of Destruction of second Temple cele 
 brated at the Synagogue"; on the 2ist he "Exam 
 ined with Mr. [Isaac] Touro an hebrew Commentary 
 on the scepter shall not depart from Judah, etc. 
 but," he adds, "without Satisfaction . . . ." This is 
 the first nominal mention of the Rev. Isaac Touro 
 "the priest of the Newport Hebrews," as Professor 
 Dexter, following the diarist, calls him. From 
 1758 until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War 
 he was Hazzan of the Portuguese Synagogue, and 
 died in Jamaica, in December, 1782. See Mason s 
 Reminiscences of Newport, pp. 61-64; Rhode Island His 
 torical Magazine, vol. VI, p. loo; Kohler s ed. of 
 Daly s Scttl. of the Jews in N. America, N. Y., 1893, 
 p. 85; Publications of the Am. Jtw. Hist. Soc., no. 6, 
 1897, pp. 78, 139; Frankel s Monatsschrift, vol. IV, 
 1855, where the first copy of his epitaph is given. 
 
 His Hebrew studies continued at regular intervals. 
 By the I9th of September, 1769, he had finished 
 translating the Book of Isaiah, and states in his 
 Diary: " I have read the Hebrew Bible thus far in 
 course (p. 24)." On the 22od of November he had 
 finished Jeremiah and the following day was deep 
 in Ezekiel. On December roth he has this touching 
 entry in his Day- Book: "Read three chapters in 
 
Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible this day, which is my 
 Birth day, being now by the patience of a merciful 
 G d .fourty-two years old " (see Prof. Dexter s note 
 on p. 29). It retrains to be recorded for that year 
 that Dr. Stiles had visited the Synagogue on New 
 Year s Day, which occurred on October 2nd (cf. 
 p. 25). 
 
 On January I2th, 1770, he writes: "Went to the 
 Synagogue this Evening and heard a Son of 
 M r Moses Lopez deceased,* JEt. 13, read the Evening 
 Service, M r Tauro the Chuzan present. It is the 
 Custom in the foreign Synagogues to initiate Boys 
 ^Et. 13, thus to read publicly. This is the first 
 Instance in the Synagogue at Newport." 
 
 We may rely upon the accuracy of this interest 
 ing statement, as Dr. Stiles was too keen an observer 
 and too careful a chronicler to err in the most trivial 
 matter. The custom of a Bar-Mitzvah celebrant 
 chanting the weekly portion is characterized as 
 foreign, and the diarist adds that this was the first 
 public reading of the Law by one who had attained 
 his religious majority, in Newport. It is a surpris 
 ing fact in view of the otherwise strict traditionalism 
 of the early Portuguese Jewish settlers. Moses 
 Lopez, a nephew of Aaron, was naturalized either 
 in 1740 or 1741, in New York, together with a num 
 ber of others, some of whom afterwards drifted to 
 New England (cf. Publications, No. 5, p. 116). He 
 appears to have been the first of the Lopez family 
 to reach Newport, and was exempted in 1750 by 
 special Act of the Assembly from personal tax in 
 recognition of his past and prospective services in 
 translating letters and papers from Spanish into 
 
 *Cf. Daly, ed. Kohler pp 80- 1 ; 89; Publications of the 
 American Jewish Historical Society, No. i, o. 124; No 2 pp. 
 102, 105; No. 3, p. 132; No, 5, p 116; No. 6 pp. 70, 72, 74, 102, 
 138; No. 8, p 123. He is not identical with the Moses Lopez 
 who, in 1806, edited the first American Jewish Calendar. 
 
36 
 
 English for the use of the Government (see Bartlett s 
 Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, vol. v., pp. 307-8; 
 Kohler in Publications, No. 6, 1897, p. 72). Among 
 the " Names of Redwood Library Comp a ," incor 
 porated in Newport, August 29, 1747, we find 
 recorded, in Dr. Stiles notes, those of " Ab m Hart 
 and Moses Lopez " (cf. Willner, in Publications, No. 
 8, p. 123). Jacob R. Rivera, frequently mentioned 
 in the Diary, was one of the stockholders of the 
 Library in 1758 (see Kohler, I.e., p. 74-5). On the 
 13th of the month he again visited the Synagogue 
 (Diary, p. 32). On FebruarySth we read this curious 
 statement : " At the Synagogue, where upon asking 
 a little Jew Boy the use of the strings at the Corner 
 of the White Surplice worn by all Jews in their 
 Worship : he said, they kissed the strings three 
 times at the Repetition of the great np [sic] or 
 Hear o Israel the L d our God is one Lord. Quere. 
 Did this originally denote acknowleg* of Trinity in 
 Unity?" 
 
 In common with other churchmen and theologians, 
 Dr. Stiles was fond of reading Christological mean 
 ings into the Hebrew Bible and of interpreting 
 Jewish customs and traditions according to the 
 tenets of his faith. The threefold mention of the 
 name of God in the Jewish confession of faith, called 
 the Sh ma, has given rise to the belief that the author 
 of that prayer was a trinitarian. This view has been 
 accepted by Schudt, Eisenmenger, Wagenseil and 
 other anti-Jewish writers and by not a few rene 
 gades, whose chief stock in trade was to discredit 
 their former co-religionists. In view of Dr. Stiles 
 proficiency in Semitics, the incorrect spelling of the 
 Hebrew word, given above, must be held to be a 
 lapsus calami, if, indeed, it is not a typographical 
 error. 
 
 On March 1st he writes (pp. 39-40): "Last Even- 
 
27 
 
 ing I spent in Company with Mr. Tauro the Jew 
 priest or Chuzzan here. We discoursed on sundry 
 things on the 70 Weeks of Daniel. He said that 
 this had puzzled all the Rabbins, nor did any under 
 stand it that it was agreed by all that Daniel s 
 whole Book was to continue sealed & unintelligible 
 till the Time of the End. That however they gave 
 forth conjectural tho unsatisfactory Interpretations; 
 as particuly of this prophecy that the Messiah or 
 anointed prince here was the Prince of the Armies 
 of Gog and Magog, who should be cut off. I asked him 
 where he found a Text that favoured the Jewish 
 Purgatory? he replied there was none in the sacred 
 Books that was decisive, but that it was a Doctrine 
 immemorially held and believed among them." . . . 
 On the 10th, it being Purim, he again visited the 
 synagogue to hear the reading of the Book of 
 Esther. There is no doubt that his frequent attend 
 ance there was not so much an evidence of friendly 
 interest in the Jews as a proof of his zeal to famil 
 iarize himself with the correct pronunciation of 
 Hebrew and to acquire an accurate knowledge of 
 the Jewish ritual, of which, some time later, he 
 made a special study. On the 15th and 16th he 
 records the visit of a Polish Jew from Lissa, with 
 whom he conversed freely upon his favorite topic, 
 the Advent of the Messiah : " The Jew visited me 
 again to-day. His name is Abraham Levi, at. 44. ... 
 [Here, unfortunately, the editor has abridged what 
 seems to be a description of the visitor s personality] 
 I shewed him the Comput a made by a german 
 Rabbi placing the Appear* of the Messiah 1783. He 
 smiled, & said they looked for him every day I 
 accidentally sneezed, & he prayed instantly. At sun 
 set he excused himself & rose up & went to my East 
 Study Window & prayed by himself: & then 
 returned & sat down again to Discourse. He seems 
 
to be a man of Sobriety, spake of the Deity with 
 uplifted hands & Eyes & with the most profound 
 Reverence" (p. 42). 
 
 On the 14th of April he records that he has 
 resumed his "dayly reading a chapter in the Hebrew 
 Bible and a portion of Arabic," which practice had 
 been intermitted for nine days, according to a mar 
 ginal note in the Diary. On the 19th of May he 
 finished reading the Book of Job in Hebrew p. (52). 
 
 JEWS CHARGED WITH TORYISM. 
 
 On May 31st we read : "Yesterday the Merch te in 
 this T met at the Courthouse & agreed to store 
 their goods lately imported to remove the late 
 Resolutions of Boston to Phila da to break off all 
 commerce with us, & to engage the other Colonies 
 to desist Trad y with us : because we had violated 
 the salutary Non-Import 11 Agreemt. An Instance, 
 that five or six Jews & three or 4 Tories may draw 
 down Vengeance upon a Country" (p. 54). 
 
 Professor Dexter explains, in a note, that New 
 port traders had agreed, in concert with other 
 American merchants, to refrain from importing 
 British goods at this time; consequently, when vio 
 lations of this agreement were reported, public 
 meetings were held in Boston (May 18) and in Phila 
 delphia (May 23rd), at which it was resolved to break 
 off all dealings with Newport until its inhabitants, 
 who had not expressed their resentment at this 
 duplicity, should have given full satisfaction. How 
 far Jews were implicated in this breach of faith we 
 are not in a position to judge. That some of them 
 were involved is evident from Dr. Stiles indignant 
 reference. Aaron Lopez, Newport s foremost mer 
 chant, whom Dr. Stiles eulogizes so warmly, was a 
 notorious Whig, and the majority of his co-religion 
 ists were bold champions of the American cause. 
 
2 9 
 
 It does not seem plausible, in view of the fact that 
 on the approach of the British, at the outbreak of 
 the Revolutionary War, most of the Jews, being in 
 hearty sympathy with the colonies, were compelled 
 to flee on the eve of the occupation of Newport by 
 the enemy that any of them could have been 
 guilty of disloyal acts even prior to the commence 
 ment of hostilities. The feeling against the mother- 
 country ran high long before the actual rupture 
 took place, and Jews were among the most pro 
 nounced opponents of her policy. If Aaron Lopez s 
 espousal of the American cause almost wholly 
 wrecked his business, nearly all of his vessels hav 
 ing been lost, it is altogether unlikely that he or his 
 associates would have favored any policy whereby 
 commercial profit could accrue to England, either 
 directly or indirectly. (See on the loyalty and patri 
 otism of the Jews in Newport, the references in 
 Kohler s article, Publications of the American Jewish 
 Historical Society, No. 6, 1897, pp. 73-74.) 
 
 In a petition presented on behalf of Aaron Lopez 
 to Congress in April, 1780. it is pointed out that "the 
 character of Mr. Lopez as a friend to the liberties 
 and independence of the United States is clear and 
 unim peached, as will be testified by some Honor-, 
 able Members of this House " (See Publications, No. 
 2, pp. 126-7 ; No. 3, p. 74.). Singularly enough, how 
 ever, just he is specially mentioned, in a subsequent 
 portion of the Diary (August 25, 1772 : vol. i., p. 270), 
 as one of the merchants of Newport who did not 
 join the boycott against England, thereby arousing 
 the ire of other cities of New England. " In the 
 late Combinations of the American merchants 
 against Importations &c. and against the exorbitant 
 Fees of the Customhouses some Merchants kept 
 themselves from the Combinations. Mr. Aaron 
 Lopez a Jew Merchant in this Town is one. For 
 
3 
 
 this the Collector &c. shew him all Lenity and 
 favor. He has above twenty Sail of Vessels [Daly, 
 p. 78, mentions 30 , and his Captains are all exempted 
 from Swearing at the Customhouse, and make their 
 entries &c. without Oath. But the Oath is strictly 
 exacted of all who were concerned in the Non- 
 Importation Agreement. This I was told yesterday 
 by one of Mr. Lopez s Captains long in his Employ. 
 The Man o War yesterday seized his Vessel and 
 Wines by Accident and Folly of the people who in 
 5 row Boats were endeavoring the night before to 
 run 41 Quarter Casks of Wine. The Vessel and 
 Wines will be condemned but it is said they will 
 be set up at a Trifle and Lopez will bid them off at 
 far less than Duties : so that he shall make his Voy 
 age good. Favor and Partiality ! And yet these 
 Customhouse Men are perpetually clamoring on 
 
 cheating the King of his Revenue "As Dr. 
 
 Stiles was an intimate friend of Aaron Lopez, refer 
 ring to him in his graceful obituary notice (June 
 8th, 1782; vol. iii., pp. 24-25; see infra, the chapter 
 on Miscellaneous Notes, where the full quotation is 
 given), as " a Merchant of the first Eminence ; for 
 Honor & Extent of Commerce probably surpassed 
 by no Merch 1 in America "; who did business " with 
 the greatest Ease & Clearness "; who was " without 
 a single Enemy & the most universally beloved 
 .... of any man " he ever knew, it is difficult to 
 understand that he could have been engaged in any 
 enterprise not thoroughly honest, particularly as the 
 integrity of his fellow-citizens was at stake in the 
 principle involved. That he should have connived 
 to enrich himself at the cost of his honor was some 
 thing so utterly unworthy of the character of the 
 man that we refuse to entertain it for a moment. 
 Judge Daly (Settlement of the Jews in North America, 
 ed. Kohler, pp 79-80) attributes the success of New- 
 
port to the remarkable capacity and industry of the 
 Jews, and, more particularly, to the confidence 
 inspired by their scrupulous integrity and delicate 
 sense of mercantile honor, a touching incident of 
 which he cites in speaking of Jacob Rodrigues 
 Rivera. 
 
 What Dr. Stiles reports a few pages later, in his 
 Diary, under date of August 23rd, is none the less 
 puzzling, and it seems almost incredible that a 
 man, who was in all things so explicit and accurate 
 as Dr. Stiles, should have chronicled a piece of 
 idle rumor without the desire to investigate its 
 origin. This curious bit of information reads as 
 follows (p. 65) : " Capt. W m Augustus Peck [of Lon 
 don] .... tells me there is a secret Intelligence 
 office in London in street where the Jews live. It 
 has subsisted about four years & has thirty clerks : 
 it is supported by the Ministry: and has settled a 
 correspondence in all parts of America has four 
 Correspond 15 in Boston, & two in Newport, one of 
 which is Mr. Geo. Rome [an agent of British credit 
 ors of Newport houses, who fled from the colony 
 late in 1774, being a violent Tory ; see Prof. Dexter s 
 note, Diary, p. 65] Mercht. to each of whom the 
 Ministry exhibits Stipends. As it appears in London, 
 it is entirely a Jew affair a Jew Compting House, & is 
 unknown in London, Capt. Peck sailed to London 
 in a Vessel of the Jews & by this fell into the hands 
 of the Jews there, dined with sundry, and not being 
 strong for American rights, they used to open before 
 him ; in comp a he heard one Mr Clark I think speak 
 of their secret Intelligence office & upon Peck s 
 questioning, &c. he colored up and diverted the Dis 
 course. Capt. Peck says, that this office boasted of 
 having Intelligence of every Occurrence of any 
 consequence in America. ..." This item, if true, 
 is worthy of more than a passing notice. It is sig- 
 
3* 
 
 nificant of the attitude of British Jews towards the 
 struggle for freedom in the American colonies. 
 That there was a tacit understanding between the 
 Jews of New England and those of the mother- 
 country may be possible, but not very probable in 
 view of the silence of history on the subject. That 
 British Jews should have been zealous Tories is not 
 at all extraordinary; it would be remarkable, indeed, 
 had they been otherwise inclined; but that their 
 coreligionists in the New World should have been 
 purveyors of secret information favorable to the 
 British cause is hardly credible, if we consider the 
 sacrifices many of them have made in behalf of the 
 land of their adoption. The existence cf a Secret 
 Intelligence Bureau in the Jewish Quarter of Lon 
 don, directed by Jews, and supported by the moral 
 and material sympathy of the Jews in America, is 
 further discredited by a letter, addressed to Dr. 
 Stiles, February 26-27th, 1772, from London, by 
 Henry Marchant, in whose Travels Jews figure very 
 prominently. A disclaimer coming from such a 
 distinguished source is not to be despised : He was 
 a member of the Continental Congress, an eminent 
 lawyer of Newport, born in 1741, and died in 1796. 
 In or about 1771 he was appointed Attorney-General 
 of the Colony and also served in the capacity of 
 Agent at the Court of Great Britain (cf. Prof. Dex 
 ter s note in vol. i., p. 117, of the Diary]. He had the 
 entire confidence of Dr. Stiles, whose diligent cor 
 respondent he appears to have been, and it is evi 
 dent, seeing that the subject is not referred to again 
 in the Day-Book, that Dr. Stiles deemed his testi 
 mony, concerning the Secret Intelligence Bureau in 
 London, quite conclusive. " I think you must be 
 mistaken," writes Mr. Marchant (Diary, p. 224, note), 
 " about the ministerial Jew-store, 30 Clerks em 
 ployed, &c., if you meant literally so. They have 
 
33 
 
 intelligences fiom secret Quarters undoubtedly, but 
 with such a Staff of Officers, Dependants, and growl 
 ing Expectants, there can be no great Occasion of a 
 particular Set of Men for that Purpose. . . ." Dr. 
 Stiles had, presumably, written to Mr. Marchant, to 
 inquire more closely into the matter, and while the 
 reply does not entirely disprove the existence of such 
 an alliance, it offers no corroborative evidence either, 
 On the other hand, it does seem as if the Jews of 
 Newport had sympathized with the enemy to some 
 extent from one isolated statement in the Diary 
 which has very nearly escaped my attention. On 
 March 2oth, 1777 (vol. ii ., p. 151) we read the follow 
 ing important entry : " It is very Sickly both in the 
 Army & among the Inhab. of Newport. Lordsdy 
 [Lord s Day ?] before last five of the Inhab. were 
 buried. The Jews are very officious as Informing 
 against the Inhabitants who are one & another 
 frequently taken up & put in Goal .... So that the 
 Inhab. are cautious & fearful of one another. . . ." 
 Then Dr. Stiles goes on to describe the rigorous 
 treatment of several American sympathizers by the 
 Tories in town : A laboring man, who refused to 
 turn out on an alarm " was ordered 1000 Lashes 
 received 200 and was remanded to Goal. Every 
 psuasive has been used to get him to enlist, to avoid 
 the Cruelty of the remain g 800 stripes but he reso 
 lutely refuses every offer, & says he will lie and die 
 there before he will joyn them. . . ." It must have 
 required no small amount of courage, in the face of 
 such penalties, to be loyal to the American cause. 
 That Jews there were, who remained Tories in the 
 great and unequal struggle, is not a whit surprising. 
 The colonists were never unanimous in their polit 
 ical creed, and, surely, what was the privilege of 
 the native American was likewise the unquestioned 
 privilege of the alien Jew, once he has become a 
 
34 
 
 citizen of the commonwealth. But that some among 
 them should have lacked the courage of their con 
 victions and, in espousing the Tory cause should 
 have turned informers, as Dr. Stiles strongly insin 
 uates, is hard to believe ; nay, it is absolutely false. 
 The patriotism and spirit of self sacrifice which the 
 Jews have shown in the Revolutionary War are 
 beyond suspicion. The Sheftalls, Salvadors and 
 Haym Solomons will, in time, become illustrious in 
 American history, as they are recorded for righteous 
 ness in Jewish annals; and Newport, too, has fur 
 nished her quota of martyrs and heroes, professing 
 the faith of Israel, who have championed the rights 
 of the colonists with fiery word and gleaming sword. 
 Aaron Lopez, owner of thirty vessels engaged in 
 European and West India trade and the whale fish 
 eries (cf. Daly, p. 78; Kohler in Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. 
 Soc., No. 6, p. 73) whose enterprise extended to the 
 shores of the Falkland Islands, and whose extensive 
 interests in Newport were jeopardized by his attach 
 ment to the American cause, did not turn Tory 
 when misfortune threatened to overwhelm him. 
 He paid the penalty of losing nearly all he had for 
 his fealty to the colonies (cf. Arnold, History of 
 Rhode Island, vol. ii., p. 447 ; Publications, op. cit. p. 
 74.) The names of two Newport Jews at least have 
 been preserved as serving in the Army of the Revo 
 lution : Aaron Isaacs and Salomon Rophe. There 
 must have been a number of others enlisted to fight 
 for their country, but, unfortunately, no record of 
 them is extant, as all the official registers of New 
 port were destroyed on the approach of the British, 
 " and the long occupation of Newport made Ameri 
 can service impracticable." The Rev. Frederick 
 Dennison, in an address on the Jews of Newport 
 (op. cit., p. 73-4), admits that the Jews were liberal 
 supporters of the patriot cause, and adds that " in 
 
35 
 
 some cases they served in the Continental armies. 
 Dr. Stiles has preserved the name of one of these 
 Jewish patriots, Sol Pinto, of New Haven, who was 
 among those captured by the British in that city 
 July 5th and 6th, 1779 ( cf - Diary, vol. ii. p. 365). He 
 was one of two brothers, the other being Jacob 
 Pinto, of whom Dr. Stiles speaks as having "re 
 nounced Judaism & all Religion " (MS. Itinerary, 
 September I3th, 1772 ; Diary, vol. i., p. 283 ; vol. iii., 
 pp. 107, 109; see also, below, the chapter on Statis 
 tical Notes], A bad Jew but a good patriot ! As to 
 the Tories, who were no less patriotic than the 
 American loyalists, the tragic end of Isaac Hart, a 
 Jewish Tory, in Newport, is an evidence of their 
 devotion to the King s cause. The following account 
 of his death is taken from Rivingtons Gazette, Decem 
 ber 2nd, 1780 (cf. Publications, No. 4, 1896, p. 89): 
 "Mr. Isaac Hart, of Newport, R. I., formerly an 
 eminent merchant and ever a loyal subject, was 
 inhumanly fired upon and bayoneted, wounded in 
 fifteen parts of his body, and beat with their muskets 
 in the most shocking manner in the very act of 
 imploring quarter, and died of his wounds a few 
 hours after, universally regretted by every true 
 lover of his King and country " (Publications, No. 6, 
 p. 76). He is mentioned by Dr. Stiles (Diary, March 
 ist, 1777; vol. ii., pp. 131, 132, 133) in the "List of 
 Names of some of the Inhabitants left in the Town 
 of Newport when it was taken 8 Dec. 1776," together 
 with a number of other coreligionists, who may 
 have had Tory sympathies, else they would, most 
 probably, have -fled on the approach of the enemy 
 along with the rest. Those who remained at New 
 port were : Nathan Hart, Isaac Elizur, Isaac Hart, 
 Moses Satias (Seixas), Hyam Levi, Moses Levy and 
 Rev. Mr. J. Tauro (sic). Whether the Mr. Jacobs 
 cited in the same list was a Jew we have no means 
 
of ascertaining. A Joseph Jacobs is mentioned in 
 another list from the seventeenth century, and a 
 namesake of his figures as a member of the Redwood 
 Library Company in 1747 (cf. Publications, No. 6, p. 
 67; No. 8, p, 123). The others quoted are likewise 
 referred to in some of Dr. Stiles unpublished papers. 
 See Willner in Publications, No. 8, p. 124; Diary, vol. 
 i., p. ii, and the chapter on Statistical Notes, sub 
 joined to this paper. The diarist adds the names of 
 the " Principal & Active Tories " in a separate list, 
 but no mention is made there of Jews. He himself 
 was an uncompromising "Son of Liberty." if we 
 may judge from his eloquent and inspired utter 
 ances, in a letter addressed to the Rev. Jn Rodgers 
 in New York, dated August 14, 1776, which is full 
 of fervid enthusiasm for the American cause. It is 
 a noble literary effort, if nothing else, and I regret 
 that I cannot quote it in full : 
 
 " How beautiful were the Hosts of Israel in the 
 view of Balaam ? and before that how animating to 
 behold their Hosts in Actual Exertion and Conflict 
 with Amalek, especially while Moses s hand was 
 held up? Let our Hosts go forth in the name of 
 the Lord, in our unquestionably righteous Cause : 
 and at the same time let all the Moses[es], Joshuas, 
 Aarons, & all the People keep the hand of Prayer 
 lift up to God, till our Enemies shall be discomfited, 
 and our Country and the Chh of God, gloriously 
 delivered. And then let him have all the glory. . . ." 
 
 The Moseses, Joshuas and Aarons did more than 
 pray ; they fought for the land of their adoption 
 with the sword as well as the spirit, and History 
 has writ their names in gold. 
 
 On the i6th of July, 1770, we find him delivering 
 "a Short Speech in Chaldee " at the end of a " Dia 
 logue in Chaldee held between three Bachelors- 
 taken out of Daniel," which seems to have been a 
 
37 
 
 regular feature at the Commencement exercises of 
 Harvard College (vol. i, p. 59). On the 3d of August 
 he records that he " received a Letter written entirely 
 in Hebrew, from William Olive, aet 60. now living 
 in S Kingston, Narragansett." We are told that 
 this Hebraist was born in London, educated at 
 Halle, in Germany, "in Hebrew, but no other of the 
 learned Languages." As to the contents of this 
 rather unusual correspondence, Dr. Stiles confesses 
 that " some of it was English Words only in Hebrew 
 Letters." From this fact the diarist judges him to 
 have been of "Jewish Extract " (ibid., pp. 60-6 1). Of 
 other Semitic scholars, whose names and doings are 
 chronicled in these pages, more will be said later on. 
 
 CONVERSIONS OF JEWS IN NEW ENGLAND AND 
 ELSEWHERE. 
 
 Concerning Jewish apostates in colonial times we 
 have but scant information. From occasional refer 
 ences to be found in the intimate correspondence 
 of early writers, it would seem as if apostasy were 
 not so uncommon among our brethren in England 
 and America as we might be led to suppose. Indeed, 
 from the few notices scattered throughout the 
 Diary, we may conclude that the conversion of a 
 Jew to Christianity was not such a singular event 
 as to call for special comment. To a man of Dr. 
 Stiles religious temperament, however, the fact 
 denoted something more than a passing event ; it 
 was, to him, significant of the triumph of the truths 
 of Christianity. Yet, his remarks on such occasions 
 were, invariably, dignified, and even indifferent. 
 He strove to ascertain, in each instance, particulars 
 as to the convert s origin and personality, and, 
 where materials were at hand, to furnish biograph 
 ical data. Here and there, owing, no doubt, to 
 exigencies of space, the editor of the Literary Diary 
 
ventures to abbreviate the account of some incident 
 which could give us a clew to the identity of the 
 person of whom it treats. Sometimes (as in vol. i. r 
 pp. 42 ; 354; 422, etc., etc.) the narrative breaks off 
 in the midst of an interesting description of the 
 man s personality, dress, habits, etc., which, judg 
 ing from the single instance in the case of his 
 friend, Rabbi Carigal, must have been exhaustive 
 and accurate. Be this as it may, we are grateful to 
 Prof. Dexter for even these fleeting glimpses into 
 the lives of our coreligionists in New England, since 
 they serve to verify and illustrate not a few obscure 
 phases of American Jewish history. One of these 
 is the progress of missionary labors among the 
 Jews. A perusal of the herewith subjoined items 
 touching a few of our brethren, "gone wrong," will 
 convince the student that the proposed " Catalogue 
 of Jewish Christians in America" is not only not 
 quixotic, but has become a desideratum. The Rev. 
 Louis Meyer, a neophyte in the Christian Church, 
 now a Presbyterian minister at Hopkinton, Iowa, 
 has taken upon himself the onerous task of prepar 
 ing such an Index, which will be incorporated in the 
 present writer s Bibliotheca Americana Judaica. As a 
 meagre contribution toward a historical sketch of 
 Jewish conversions in America, we beg to offer the 
 following data: 
 
 INCREASE MATHER : The Mystery of Israel s Salva 
 tion explained and apply ed ; or a Discourse concerning the 
 general conversion of the Israelitish Nation . . . Being 
 the substance of several Sermons preached by Increase 
 Mather {with recommendatory epistles by J. Davenporte, 
 W. G., and W. H.\ London: J. Allen, 1669 24 pag. 
 1.; 181 pp. 5 1.; 8 (See Catalogue of the British 
 Museum s Printed Books, s. v. "Mather, Increase.") 
 A copy of this rare tract, on which a separate 
 article could well be written, is to be found in the 
 New York Public Library. 
 
39 
 
 In this connection it is curious to note what the 
 Rev. Increase Mather has to say on the subject of 
 the conversion of Judah Monis, Professor of Hebrew 
 at Harvard College for many decades, concerning 
 whom we have already spoken at length (see above 
 pp. 22, 23). We are glad to be able to reproduce 
 his words, together with two interesting facsimiles 
 of tracts pertaining to Monis, for which I am in 
 debted to the courtesy of Rev. Louis Meyer. 
 
 Difcourfe 
 
 Had in the 
 
 College-Hal/ 
 
 At Cambridge, March 27. I jz z, 
 
 Before the Baptifm of 
 
 R. Judah Monis. 
 By Benj.Cofaan,V.DM- 
 
 To which are added 
 
 Three DISCOURSES 
 
 Written by Mr. Monis hlmfelfj 
 
 The Truth, The whole Truth, and. 
 
 Nothing but the Truth. 
 
 One of which was deliver d by him 
 ar his BAPTISM. 
 
 * and 
 
 ioid at fa Stop ov<aag;uu$hcold Brick 
 Uwsch m CornhiU. i 7 & z. 
 
 The title of one of these discourses, delivered by 
 Monis at his baptism, reads as follows : 
 
 "The Truth, being a Discourse which the Author 
 delivered at his Baptism, containing nine principal 
 Arguments the modern Jewish Rabbins do make to 
 
40 
 
 prove, the Messiah is yet to come: with. the Answers 
 to each, not only according 1 to the orthodox opinion, 
 but even with the authority of their own authentic 
 Rabbins of old. And likewise, with the confession 
 of his Faith, at the latter end. Dedicated to the 
 Jewish Nation, and Prefaced by the REV. INCREASE 
 MATHER, D.D. By Rabbi Judah Monis. Boston, 
 1722." [Size 6% inches by 4 and containing 36 pp.] 
 
 The Preface, signed Boston, May 1st, 1722, reads 
 as follows: 
 
 " The conversion of Mr. Monis to Christianity, is 
 an effect of divine grace. The truth and reality of 
 his conversion appears in what is here exhibited, 
 in that he has notably confuted the Jews, from the 
 Scriptures in the Old Testament, which they pre 
 tend to believe. Here is also asserted and proved, 
 the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that 
 although he is a man, yet more than a man. And 
 here also is asserted and proved, the glorious mys 
 tery of the Trinity, that that God whose name is 
 Jehovah, is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These 
 are the main principles whereby Christianity is dis 
 tinguished from Judaism and other false religions. 
 There will a time come when there shall be a 
 general conversion of the Jewish nation. There 
 have been some of that nation brought home to 
 Christ, who have proved blessings to the world. In 
 special, Emanuel Tremellius was such an one,. whose 
 dying words were, Vi vat Christus et pereat Barabas; 
 Let Christ live, and let Barabbas die. There were 
 two Jews, viz. : John Alexander, and Theodore John, 
 who joined themselves to the German Lutheran 
 congregation in the city of London. A learned man, 
 viz. Dr. Kidder, gives an account of two hundred 
 Jews lately converted in the city of Frankford. The 
 blessed day is coming, when all Israel shall be 
 saved, as I have evinced in a Discourse on that sub- 
 
ject, written in the year 1667, and also in my answer 
 to the Rev. Mr. Baxter and Dr. Lightfoot, printed 
 Anno 1695. And the providence of God seems to 
 intimate this: The miraculous manner of God s 
 preserving the Jewish nation is an invincible proof 
 hereof; for it is an unprecedented and incompre 
 hensible thing, that God should for two thousand 
 years preserve this people, dispersed among other 
 nations, without being confounded with them in 
 their religions and customs, as is usual among all 
 dispersed people; this clearly demonstrates that 
 God has preserved them for some great design, 
 which can it be but their conversion ? 
 
 " God grant that he (who is the first Jew that 
 ever I knew converted in New England) may prove 
 a blessing unto many, and especially to some of his 
 own nation, which is the prayer and hearty desire of, 
 
 INCREASE MATHER." 
 
 NOTHING BUT 
 
 The Truth: 
 
 BE IN .Ci 
 
 A Short ESSAY, 
 
 W H LI E I 3* 
 
 - rbc Dcchine 
 
 T R I N I T Y, 
 
 Bvih oar eif t<he 
 
 0/</ Tcllamcnt, 
 
 ABC! with the Anthorttv of the 
 
 : :: f:u D ccnne is not 
 N V E L T r, . as ills Country- 
 Men do think, but as ancient a 
 the BIBLE itfel 
 
 By R/JLD 
 
 H 
 
4* 
 
 The wholesale conversions, said to have taken 
 place at Frankfurt, must, of course, be taken with a 
 goodly grain of salt. No such record-breaking event 
 has, to my knowledge, ever taken place. Kidder 
 was bishop of Bath and Wells, very much interested 
 in the evangelization of the Jews, and the author of 
 a defence of the Christian religion against the Jews 
 (London 1684-1700). Close upon Mr. Mather s pref 
 ace follows a " Dedication to my Brethren according 
 to the flesh," written by the neophyte, Judah Monis, 
 M.A., and signed by him, Cambridge, May ist, 1722. 
 This introductory epistle is much too long to be 
 reproduced, even in part. It has been reprinted in 
 full together with the preliminary discourse 
 preached on the occasion of his baptism by Rev. 
 Benjamin Colman, and the text of the three Dis 
 courses (each with a separate title) in The Jewish 
 Expositor and Friend of Israel, etc., vol. vi., London, 
 1821, pp. 41-56; 79-96; 125-34; 165-74; 245-57; 285-91; 
 325-32. 
 
 Cotton Mather, too, if we may accept the testimony 
 of Samuel Sewall, was zealous to convert the Jews 
 to his faith. I have before me a facsimile repro 
 duction of a pamphlet said to have been written by 
 the latter, reprinted in the " Collections of the Mas 
 sachusetts Historical Society," vol. vi., fifth series, 
 Boston, 1879, entitled: "A Modest Enquiry into 
 the \ Groimds and Occasions of a Late \ Pamphlet, inti 
 tuled, a | Memorial \ of the \ Ptesent Deplorable State of 
 New England. By a Disinterested Hand. \ London \ 
 Printed in the Year, 1707." On p. 80 we read the fol 
 lowing curious item: I find him [Cotton Mather] 
 in Spirituals as failable as in Politicks, or he would 
 not have attempted a Pretended Vision, to have con 
 verted Mr. Frasier a Jew, who had before conceiv d 
 some good Notions of Christianity : The Conse 
 quence was, that the Forgery was so plainly detected 
 
43 
 
 that Mr. C. M. [Cotton Mather] confest it; after 
 which Mr. Frasier would never be perswaded to 
 hear any more of Christianity." If this charge 
 against the Reverend Cotton Mather be true, it 
 speaks ill of his integrity. 
 
 Who Mr. Frasier, the Jew, could have been we 
 have no means of ascertaining. Perhaps he is iden 
 tical with "Joseph Frazon the Jew," of whom we 
 read, in the Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1624-1729 (Mass. 
 Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. vi., 5th ser., Boston, 1879), vol. 
 ii., p. 95 ad annum 1703-1704, that he " dyes at Mr. 
 Major s, Mr. Joyliff s old house; Feb. 5 th Satterday, 
 is carried in Simson s coach to Bristow (Mass.?); 
 from thence by Water to Newport, where there is a 
 Jews-burying place " (see the editor s note thereto 
 I.e.). 
 
 Judge Sewall quotes (ibid., p. 13) an "Account of 
 a Jew lately converted and baptis d at the Meeting 
 near Ave-Mary Lane [England?]," and, in another 
 place (ibid., p. 65) of his Diary, has the following 
 entry: " 7 r [= September] 13. 1702. Lords-Day, Mr. 
 Bradstreet baptiseth Simon, the Jew, at Charles- 
 town [S. C. ?], a young man whom he was Instru 
 mental to convert." 
 
 Judge Sewall himself appears to have cast covet 
 ous eyes upon Jewish souls, if the following stanza, 
 written at the end of a small tract, entitled Proposals 
 touching the accomplishment of Prophecies humbly offered 
 
 by S. S., M.A Boston, 1713, were meant in all 
 
 sincerity : 
 
 " From hard ned Jews the Vail remove; 
 Let them their Martyi d Jesus love; 
 And Homage unto Him afford, 
 Because He is their Rightfull Lord. 
 
 (See his Diary, vol. ii., p. 393.) We remark, in pass 
 ing, that the Judge was interested in the whereabouts 
 of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel ; in the resettle- 
 
44 
 
 ment of the Jews in the Holy Land and in other 
 matters pertaining to the Jews (see the Letter-Book 
 of Samuel Sewall, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. i., sixth 
 series, Boston, 1887, PP* 22 ~3 ; T 7 6 , J 77; 197-8 ; 268- 
 293, 294, 300, 302 seq. ; see also his Diary, vol. ii., p. 
 141, note). Among his books was a copy of Bux- 
 torf s Hebrew Lexicon, which he loaned to his cousin 
 in New York, who inquired concerning a Hebrew 
 word (Diary, I.e., p. 52; Jan. 30, 1701-2). 
 
 Our next point of information on this head is to 
 be found in Dr. Stiles Diary (vol. i., p. 61 ; August 
 4th, 1770). It concerns a fair coreligionist in New 
 port: " There is a young Jewess in Town," says he, 
 "born here, one Miss Pollock, set. phaps 15, that 
 with other young Misses attended a Writing School 
 for two years past where the Master often gave 
 religious advice and exhort 3 to the children; by 
 which she became so affected that she often said she 
 wished she & and her Family were Christians. This 
 at length alarmed her Friends & they kept her at 
 home. She heard Mr. Whitefield [Rev. George W, 
 of New York] to day, and greatly admired his 
 preaching the Gospel of Christ." Several months 
 afterwards we hear of her again, together with an 
 other coreligionist, who appears to have been inter 
 ested in kindred subjects, and who desired nothing 
 better in life than to court Miss Pollock and to accept 
 Christ. " Mr. [blank] a Jew came to my Study this 
 Even 8 to converse on the New Testam 1 .... After 
 he was gone I was told, that he is courting Miss 
 Pollock a young Jewess much inclined to Xtianity, 
 & who has expressed her Wishes that her Mother & 
 family would become Christian. That they had 
 both got an English New Testament & read it pri 
 vately together; & were surprized in the Fact by 
 her Friends, who were highly displeased." 
 
 The young lady here referred to was, most likely, 
 
45 
 
 the daughter of Issachar Polloc, or of " Police, 
 junior," mentioned in a list of Jews in Newport in 
 1760, still extant among Dr. Stiles papers (see 
 Diary, vol. i., p. 11, note 2; and the Appendix sub 
 joined to this paper, containing " Statistical Notes "). 
 Whether " Polloc Junior " was identical with Myer 
 Pollack, who is described as heavily interested in 
 the West India trade in molasses, and as the owner 
 of a number of vessels plying between Hispaniola, 
 and Newport, about that time, we cannot determine 
 (see Publications of Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 6, pp. 
 ^9> 73). It does not follow, from Dr. Stiles silence 
 on the subject, that Miss Pollock embraced the Chris 
 tian religion. It is almost safe to conclude that, had 
 she done so, we would have heard further particulars 
 of her apostasy in the diarist s pages. 
 
 On November iSth, 1770, he mentions (p. 77) 
 "a Pamphlet on the Conversion of Rabbi Jachiel 
 Hirshel," sent to him by the Rev. Mr. Zubly of 
 Savannah, Georgia (cf. also p. 236), a wealthy 
 preacher, who was born in Switzerland. The publi 
 cation gives an account of the baptism of the Rabbi 
 at Zurich. According to Dr. Stiles, " R. Jehiel was 
 born . . in Swabia A.D. 1706, fell under con 
 victions 1743: was converted, and made profession 
 Monday May 23, 1 746, & Thursday after was baptized 
 by the protestant Minister, Mr. Werdmiller, at Zurich 
 in Switzerland." Of this Rabbi and his alleged con 
 version I can find no record anywhere. 
 
 The next quotable entry pertaining to the subject 
 is to be found under date of September 5 th 1771 (p. 
 151). " I was told last week," writes he, " that Mr. 
 Hayes, a Jew of Philad a < was lately converted to 
 Christianity, was baptized by Rev. Morgan Edwards 
 & become a member of the Baptist Chh at Philadel 
 phia. Mr. Hays Brother lives here in Newport. 
 Two days ago I asked him about it. He said he 
 
46 
 
 knew nothing of it, & did not believe it : and added, 
 if his B r had become a Xtian it was only to answer 
 his Ends, he was not sincere, for he never knew one 
 sincere in changing his Religion and becoming 
 Christian & added there were many covert Xtian 
 Jews in Spain and Portugal & that the Jew was 
 spread among them all & that it could be proved 
 that the King of Spain or Portugal was of Jew Ex 
 tract. But I suppose the Thing is true; for Mr. 
 Edwards is now here at Comtnencm 1 at Providence, 
 and told this story in Town last Week. It is said 
 that the other of M r Hays (the Family lived in 
 N. York) once became a Xtian but afterwards re 
 nounced Xtianity for Judaism." 
 
 Miss Reyna Hays (Diary, vol. iii., Index, p. 600; cf. 
 vol, i., p. 393), who married Kazan Touro, of New, 
 port, in 1773 belonged to the same family. She was 
 a sister of Moses Michael Hays, an eminent mer 
 chant of Newport and Boston (See Daly s Settlement 
 of the Jews in North America, 26. ed., p. 81, n. 87; 90; 
 Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 6, pp. 76, 
 102), who was not only a man of great wealth and 
 business acumen, but of the broadest philanthropy, 
 says a recent writer. Moses M. Hays was the uncle 
 of Judah Touro. For other members of this family 
 and for references to contemporaries, who bore this 
 name, see Daly, /. c., p. 164, and the Indices to all 
 the nine volumes of the Publ. of the Am. Jew. Hist. 
 Soc., especially No. 2, pp. 63-72. A Draft of Ex 
 change, signed by Hays & Polack, and dated New 
 port, Aug. 18, 1770, is printed in No. 2, p. 55. They 
 are the very two, of whom mention has been made 
 above. Intermarriage with Christians about this 
 time was not uncommon in New York and prose 
 lytes were made in goodly numbers. " At that 
 time," says Mr. N. Taylor Phillips (Publications, 
 No. 4, p. 198), "among the Jewish community in 
 
47 
 
 New York, though a man were even to publicly re 
 nounce Judaism, nevertheless he could not become 
 a Christian in the full sense . . . for he was, not 
 withstanding, always regarded as a Jew . . . some 
 thing in the nature of a dead- wall between church 
 and synagogue, or like the blank leaves between 
 the Old and the New Testament, being to the Jews 
 always a Christian, and to the Christians always a 
 Jew." On July 25, 1772 (vol. I, p. 255), Dr. Stiles 
 reports, through the medium of a Jew, who had 
 spent the afternoon with him, and who gave him 
 a somewhat curious digest of Jewish ceremonial 
 life (pp. 254-256), the wholesale conversion of a 
 Christian family in England to Judaism. (See 
 Appendix to this paper, the chapter on "Miscellan 
 eous Notes " for further particulars of these pros 
 elytes.) 
 
 Of " Mr. Levi, the Xtian Jew" from London, and 
 Judah Monis, M.A., first Hebrew Instructor at Har 
 vard College, we have spoken in the first part of this 
 paper. 
 
 On March 2d, 1787 (vol. iii , p. 256), Dr. Stiles 
 records that he wrote a letter "to Rev. Mr. Hideck 
 at Chariest S Cai lately converted from Judaism 
 from Europe." A few pages later (May 4th, 1787; 
 p. 262) we are told that " the Rev. Heidek (sic), a 
 lately converted Jew Rabbi, is gone from Charles^ 
 t S Car to convert the Cberokees to Christianity - 
 hav g a Belief that the Amer. Indians are the Ten 
 Tribes of the Hebrews." This zealous Jewish Chris 
 tian missionary may possibly have been a descend 
 ant of Juan Joseph Heydeck, who, according to 
 Hannah Adams (History of the Jews, London, 1818, 
 p. 531), was "a learned Jewish convert in Spain," 
 and published, in 1797, a work entitled, A defense of 
 the Christian Religion, in four quarto volumes. The 
 Abbe Gregoire states, in his Histoire des Sectes 
 
48 
 
 gieuses, that he was professor of oriental languages 
 in Spain. A Juan Jose Heydek published in Mad 
 rid, 1815, an account of the Napoleonic Sanhedrin 
 in Paris, entitled Faith Triumphant (see Kayserling s 
 Bibl. Espan.-Portug.-Judaica, Strassburg, 1890, p. 53.) 
 But, according to the last named historian, he was a 
 Christian. 
 
 The last item concerning Jewish Christians in the 
 Diary is to be found under date of March ist, 1795 
 (vol. iii , p. 556): "Reads Levy s address to the Jews 
 1788 an octavo Vol. in English, but I think written 
 by a Jew converted to X*y, & a roman Catholic. It 
 is a confused & indigested Composition, in ungram- 
 matical English, but seems to be written by an hon 
 est & sincere & zealous Man with much Transl a of 
 Scripture, & in some passages espy of the O. T. with 
 Critical Lights & Illusti a of the Hebrew Prophecies 
 as applied to J. Christ." 
 
 I can find no reference to this Address in any of 
 the bibliographical material at my disposal. He is 
 not to be confounded with David Levi, the prolific 
 controversial writer, who was a contemporary of 
 this author. 
 
 It is very likely that the work referred to is Levi s 
 Discourses to the Nation of the Jews. Flexneg, 8vo, 
 1790, mentioned in Jacobs- Wolf, Bibliotheca Anglo- 
 Judaica, London, 1888, p. 202, No. 1889. A few 
 pages before (p. 547), he records that on the I7th, 
 i8th, and I9th of November, 1794, he was "reading 
 David Levj s acc of the Rites & Ceremonies of the 
 Jews written & pub. in England about AD 1780 .... 
 [editor s abridgment]. The book alluded to is A 
 Succint Account of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, 
 etc., etc., London, 1782, written in answer to Dr. 
 Prideaux (for fuller title see Bibl. Anglo-Jud. y p. 201. 
 No. 1886 ; cf. also my notes on him in Publications of 
 the American Jewish Hist. Soc. No. 3, p. 132). This 
 
49 
 
 author s incisive Defense of the Old Testament, in a 
 Series of Letters to Thomas Paine, first issued in Lon 
 don, 1797, was reprinted in 1798 at Philadelphia. 
 
 His PROGRESS IN SEMITICS AND SOME NOTES ON 
 THE NEWPORT JEWS. 
 
 On the 22d of October, 1770, Dr. Stiles finished 
 reading the Old Testament in the Original Hebrew, 
 which he began to read in course nearly three years 
 before, or January 30, 1768. After comparing the 
 Hebrew with the English translation then in use, he 
 comes to the conclusion that it is very excellent and 
 very just, "and was it again to be translated," he could 
 not " expect it would be better done." He prefers 
 the King James to all other versions, concerning 
 which he offers some critical comments (vol. i. p. 
 73). On November ist he began to read the Psalter 
 (in Hebrew) with a keener eye, considering its 
 author as "conversant in sublime & unerring Illu 
 ming not only as some of the prophets were, .... 
 but as one exalted into high real Commun. with the 
 fountain of Light . . . ." He adds, by way of giv 
 ing point to this view of sublime illumination, that 
 " all the Rabbins ascribe the second Psalm to the 
 Messiah" a statement hard to substantiate (* &#., pp. 
 74-75). On the loth of November we find him busy 
 " reading the Lives of Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, 
 R. Solomon Jarchi, R. Aben Ezrae, & R. David 
 Kimchi," and two days later, that of " R. Abarbinel" 
 (pp. 76-77). On January ist of the following year 
 he begins a new line of study, "the Examination 
 of the Rabbinical Commentators, particularly at 
 present of Rabbi David Kimchi" (p. 82). He deems 
 " the Hebrew of Moses & Isaiah purer than of Jarchi 
 or Maimonides, tho these last are excellent " (p. 
 99). On March 7th he compares the famous Mes 
 sianic chapters of Isaiah in Hebrew and English 
 
5 
 
 (ibid.)\ on the nth he reads Basnage s History of the 
 Jews and writes " a Latin Letter to a Moravian Min 
 ister at Astracan on the R. Volga, to inquire after 
 the Ten Tribes among the Kalmucs & Usbeck Tartars 
 about the Caspian sea" (p. loo). This epistle is not 
 mentioned in our previous notes on the subject of 
 Dr. Stiles correspondence concerning the where 
 abouts of the " dispersed of Israel " (see this essay, 
 PP- 9-I3)- On the iQth of April he translates an 
 appeal for financial aid sent to one of his Jewish 
 friends from Palestine, from Hebrew into English 
 (p. 102). The original of this letter is copied by the 
 diarist under date of March 26th, and, a few pages 
 later, he jots down his version (see note 2 on p. 97). 
 May i4th, he reports with evident pride and relish 
 that his son Ezra, then twelve years of age, * having 
 spelt & read to the 52 d Psalm in the Hebrew Psalter, 
 this day began to translate the first Psalm. I pur 
 pose," adds he, with unconscious humor, "he shall 
 translate only a verse or two a day before Break 
 fast " (p. 105). The Kalmuck Tartars and the Ten 
 Tribes are again the subject of an enquiry this 
 time he is led to speak of his pet theme through the 
 interest in it of a Moravian minister in New York, 
 who desires him to send a Letter of Interroga 
 tories" concerning them, that he may "forward it 
 and procure an Answer" (July nth; p. 121; see 
 above, p. 10). August 1st is a gala day: His portrait, 
 painted by Samuel King, begun in 1770, was finished. 
 It is the same of which the frontispiece to vol. i. of 
 the Diary is a reproduction. He seems to be inor 
 dinately vain of this likeness and describes it with 
 much circumstantial pedantry. He is proud of the 
 bookshelves displayed on his left, on one of which, 
 containing folio volumes only, the Babylonian Tal 
 mud, " Aben Ezra, Rabbi Selomoh Jarchi" and " R. 
 Moses Ben Maimon Moreh Nevochim " keep friendly 
 
5 1 
 
 company with Livy and Eusebius. The Hebrew 
 collection is to him symbolical of the " Rabbin. 
 Learns part y in the two most eminent Periods of it ; 
 the first before & at the Time of Christ contain^ the 
 Decisions of the house of R. Eleazar at Babylon, and 
 those of the Houses Hillel & Shammai at Jerusalem ; 
 the second period was at the Revival of the Hebrew 
 Learning in the XI th & Twelfth Centuries, when 
 arose those Lights of the Captivity, Jarchi, Mai- 
 monides &c. I prize this Learn g only for the scat 
 tered Remains of the antient Doctrine of the Trinity, 
 & a suffering Messiah, preserved in the Opinions of 
 some of the Rabbins before Christ the very Labors 
 of the modern Rabbins to obviate or interpret them 
 into another sense & Application evincing their 
 Genuineness & Reality. The Moreh Nevochim 
 which was originally written in Arabic, is curious 
 for many Reasons ; it was a capital Work, & became 
 an Occasion of the greatest literary Dispute among 
 the Jews since the days of Hillel it contains great 
 Concessions, which have recommended it to Xtian 
 Divines" (p. 131). 
 
 What these great concessions may be it is dif 
 ficult to conjecture, unless Dr. Stiles read his own 
 Christological views into Maimonides. If he did, it 
 is not surprising that he should have prized his 
 Hebraica so dearly, for he solaced himself with the 
 idea that they contained fragments of the doctrine 
 of the Trinity. 
 
 Hereupon follows a somewhat vague symbolical 
 description of the various objects to be seen on the 
 portrait, all emblematic of some high and celestial 
 thing. " In a central Glory is the name rnrr," says 
 he, and, true to his bent, he brings it in connection 
 with the Trinity before the paragraph ends (p. 132). 
 
 On the 26th of October he begins to read "the 
 Jews Heb. Prayer-Book," (p. 179) from which, on 
 
5 
 
 November 4th, he read 20 pages (p. 182). On Janu 
 ary ist, 1772, he has the following entry : " Continue 
 reading dayly a portion of Hebrew, both in the 
 Chaldaic & Rabbinical Letters; sometimes the Bible, 
 sometimes the Jews prayer book ; sometimes Ex 
 amining passages in the Targums, or the Exposition 
 of R. David Kimchi. I have nearly finished the 
 Hebrew Liturgy in Course. This abounds with 
 Repetitions, as our Savior speaks" (p. 195). He 
 finished reading "the Jewish Liturgy in Hebrew, 
 above 300 pages," February 7th of the same year 
 (p. 208), but begins another volume on March 2d 
 it being "a Collection of Jewish Prayers and Ser 
 vice for the Beginning of the Year, and the great Fast 
 or Day of Atonement in a thick octavo .... [editor s 
 abridgment]. Among other Things this Book con 
 tains descriptions of the Worship of the Angelic 
 Hierarchies, i. e. the grand Divisions under which 
 they worship God. Also the Keter Malkut" (pp. 
 214-15). A Hebrew prayer-book of the Sephardic 
 rite, printed by Athias, and bearing on p. 325, after 
 the Psalm for Pentecost, the note " Legi July 28, 
 1782, Ezra Stiles," was presented to Yale College 
 Library by W. Davenport (no doubt a kinsman of 
 those bearing that name enumerated in the Diary, 
 Index, vol. iii., p. 587), in 1792, and is still there. 
 Rev. Wolf Willner has reproduced some of the mar 
 ginal notes of the diarist, which, if they do not attest 
 his scholarship, show, nevertheless, an easy famil 
 iarity with Hebrew (Publications of the Am. Jew. 
 Hist. Soc. y No. 8, 1900, pp. 121-22). That was the 
 identical book used by him in his readings. May 
 i8th, 1772, finds him examining " R. David Kimchi 
 on 2 d Psalm" (p. 236) ; June i4th, in a learned dis 
 cussion on Philo and the relations between Platon- 
 ism and Judaism (p. 243) ; November 25th, studying 
 the Zohar all day (p. 303), which ha had received 
 
SJ 
 
 from London on October 2gth (see this essay, p. 21), 
 and showed with much satisfaction to a Polish 
 Rabbi, who visited Newport in 1772 (p. 299), and 
 with whom he had many a chat about his favorite 
 themes before his departure for the West Indies 
 (p. 322). It is interesting to note that this edition 
 of the Zohar (Zulzbach, 1684) cost Dr. Stiles " 22/6 
 sterling" (p. 302). It continued to form a part of 
 his studies for some time (see pp. 325, 329), until the 
 arrival of his friend, Rabbi Carigal when, together 
 with him, he pursued nobler investigations. 
 
 Dr. Stiles friendly interest in the Jews of Newport 
 increased year by year ; his visits to the Synagogue 
 became more frequent and his reports concerning 
 its inmates more and more interesting. Thus, on 
 August 27th, 1770, he writes: "This Even* I went 
 to the Synagogue, & heard Mr. Satius [phonetic 
 spelling of Seixas\ perform prayers. He is a young 
 man of about 22 aet. & a Chusan of the Synagogue 
 at N. York " (p. 66). A few days later (September 
 ist; p. 68) he tells us of another visit to the Syna 
 gogue, where he " heard Mr. Satius read the Law & 
 Service. How melancholy to behold," adds the 
 pious diarist with a sad shake of his head, "an As 
 sembly of Worshippers of Jehovah, Open & professed 
 Enemies to a crucified Jesus .... [editor s abridg 
 ment]." 
 
 The Reader, here alluded to, was the Rev.Gershom 
 Mendes Seixas, who for fifty years officiated as 
 Hazan of Congregation Shearith Israel in New 
 York. He was born January i4th, 1745; installed 
 in office on the ist of Tamuz, 5528 (1768), and died 
 July 2d, 1816, in the 71st year of his age. He was a 
 learned man, an ardent patriot and an important 
 educational factor in the city, where he dwelt for so 
 many decades. It is said that he was so vehement 
 in the espousal of the colonist cause that, rather than 
 
54 
 
 permit the Synagogue to be recognized as a Tory 
 organization, he caused its doors to be closed dur 
 ing the great struggle for liberty. He left New 
 York, in August, 1776, after delivering himself of a 
 passionate appeal from the pulpit, wherein he attested 
 his unswerving fealty to America, removing to 
 Stratford, Conn., where he lived in retirement until 
 1780. Then he went to Philadelphia to officiate 
 there as Kazan of the congregation Mickv6 Israel. 
 On March 23, 1784, he returned to New York, having 
 visited that city on two occasions, in the interim, 
 when he was called to solemnize the marriage of 
 two of his former flock. From 1787 to 1815 he served 
 as a trustee of Columbia College, being the first 
 Israelite to occupy such a post of duty and trust in 
 Ameriga. He stood well with his colleagues of 
 other denominations, in whose pulpits he was a 
 frequent and an honored guest. With thirteen other 
 clergymen, he participated in the inaugural cere 
 monies of Washington as the first President of the 
 United States, held at New York, in 1789. Pane 
 gyrics were delivered at his obsequies by a num 
 ber of noted men, among them by Dr. Jacob De La 
 Motta, M.D., of Savannah, Ga. (cf. my notes in 
 Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 3, pp. 
 133-34), by the Rev. Emanuel N. Carvalho (A Sermon 
 on the death of Rev. Mr. Gershom Mendes Seixas, Philad. , 
 1816, 8vo), and by Mr. Naphtali Phillips, then presi 
 dent of the congregation (New York, 1816, 8vo), 
 delivered at the request of the board of trustees. 
 Interesting biographical and genealogical data con 
 cerning this excellent preacher and Son of Liberty 
 may be found in the Publications, above quoted, No. 
 4, pp. 204-13 ; No. 6, pp. 129-133, by Mr. N. Taylor 
 Phillips, who also gives a facsimile likeness of the 
 Hazan, from an old medallion and in the Jewish 
 Comment, January 10th, 1902, by Mr. Leon Huehner, 
 
55 
 
 who gives detailed information pertaining to this 
 " Patriot Jewish Minister of the American Revolu 
 tion." 
 
 On the 29th of September, " this being the great 
 Day of Atonement" (p. 70) ; on the 25th of October 
 (p. 74), 1770; February 2d ; March 29th and 30th, 
 1771, "it being the Evens o f the Passover," he vis 
 ited the Synagogue (pp. 86, 97-8). The last refer 
 ence in the Diary reads as follows : " Went to the 
 Synagogue, it being PASSOVER. They read from 
 two Vellum Copies or Rolls of the Law in the Fore 
 noon. In the Afternoon they began by reading a 
 Portion out of Solomons Song. This was new to me. 
 I knew not before that the Canticles were ever pub- 
 lickly read in the Synagogue & least of all that it 
 was a usage at the Passover. They showed me a 
 Copy of the Canticles with a Spanish Translation : 
 & also subjoyned was a Spanish Translation of the 
 Chaldee Targum on the Canticles." His next visits 
 are recorded on May 25th, September 9th (New 
 Year s Eve) and 30th, 1771 " being the last day of 
 the Feast nDDn jn [sic] "February 29th, April 18th 
 u it being HDD nit? Sabbath of the Passover" May 
 30th and June 6th, 1772. On the last two occasions 
 (pp. 239, 242), a Mr. Turner and a Mr. Colton and 
 his wife accompanied him, it being the Feast of 
 Weeks. " Fasciculi of various Flowers were fas 
 tened about the Candles and on different Parts of 
 the Synagogue, tomorrow Evening being Pente 
 cost." As we have seen above (p. 19), distinguished 
 visitors at the Synagogue in Newport were cordially 
 received and assigned seats of honor during divine 
 services. 
 
 Dr. Stiles was fond of attending worship on spe 
 cial occasions, and the descriptions he gives of these 
 ceremonies are very interesting indeed. Thus, we 
 are told by Rev. Abiel Holmes, his biographer (p. 
 
56 
 
 173), that he was present on the anniversary of the 
 destruction of the Temple July 29th, 1773. His 
 comments on that service are all the more important 
 because they are given only in brief by the editor 
 of the Literary Diary (cf. Holmes, p. 171, note), in 
 vol. i., p. 403. " Went to the Synagogue, it being 
 the Anniversary Fast for the Destruction of the 
 Temple both by Nebuchadnezzar and Titus. They 
 began at VII and held till noon. The place of the 
 ark was covered with a black curtain, and the lamp 
 was put out. A table, covered with black, stood 
 before the Tabauh : and on a low bench sat the Par- 
 nass and Huzzan. The prayers were exceedingly 
 melancholy, particularly when the Huzzan rose up, 
 and went to the place of the holy of holies, or the 
 ark and mercy-seat ; where he wrapped himself up 
 in the black curtain, and slowly mourned out a most 
 solemn weeping, and doleful lamentation, for the 
 absence of the Debir and Shechinah, for the cessation 
 of the oracle, and for the destruction of the holy of 
 holies. The roll of the law was brought out, with 
 out any ceremony, covered in black, and read at the 
 foot of the Tabauh; the portion was from Deuter 
 onomy. Then the fourth chapter of Jeremiah was 
 read, and three or four other chapters ; then the 
 book of Lamentations ; then the beginning and end 
 of Job." (See also Willner, Publications of the Amer. 
 Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 8, p. 125. For other accounts of 
 services in the Synagogue written by the diarist, 
 see the Appendix, chapter on " Rabbi Hayyim Isaac 
 Carigal and Ezra Stiles.") 
 
 Just ten years before, in another volume of pa 
 pers, still unpublished, Dr. Stiles gave a graphic 
 description of the Synagogue itself, which we sub 
 join herewith. Since his day others have written 
 about the imposing colonial edifice, but none so 
 exhaustively as he, Mr. A. W. Brunner, in his in- 
 
57 
 
 structive article on " Jewish Architecture," in The 
 Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i., New York, 1901, pp. 
 506-7, has this to say : 
 
 The building, which is an excellent example of 
 the colonial style of the period, is constructed of 
 brick, and has a carved-stone cornice and porch. 
 The plan is rectangular, with windows on all four 
 sides and a projecting north wing, containing a ves 
 tibule and the only entrance to the women s gallery. 
 The porch is on the west side and the Ark on the 
 eastern wall. The latter is neatly paneled, and its 
 cornice is surmounted by the two tables of the Law. 
 It is raised above the main floor ; it has high rail 
 ings all along it, with a space at the left for the 
 pulpit. The reading-desk is in the centre of the 
 building ; and there are no stationary seats. Twelve 
 Ionic columns support the gallery, which extends 
 on three sides of the building and is faced by a bal 
 ustrade high enough to shield the occupants from 
 view. The ceiling is flat, with a deep cove above a 
 modillion cornice. This little building was designed 
 by Peter Harrison, an architect whose work in Bos 
 ton and Newport is well known : it is treated in his 
 customary style, and is a typical American syna 
 gogue of the earlier times. The columns, cornices, 
 pilasters, balustrades, all of which are painted white, 
 with some of the carving sparingly gilded, are good 
 examples of the best work of the day; while the 
 plan of the interior is exactly adapted to the require 
 ments of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. 
 
 This edifice is still intact ; and no alterations have 
 been made except for the introduction of gas light 
 ing. At the side of it is a two-story building, in 
 which are rooms for a sexton, for meetings, or for 
 the purposes of a school. In the lower room are to 
 be seen, at this day, the slab and roller for making 
 unleavened bread for Passover and various articles 
 
used in preparing the dead for burial. (For other 
 data and illustrations relating to this synagogue, see 
 the special number of THE AMERICAN HEBREW issued 
 May 2ist, 1897, where, among other interesting 
 details, extracts from the Literary Diary are given ; 
 the bibliography in Publications of the American Jew. 
 Hist. Soc., No. 6, p. 78, note; an article by Rev. Dr. 
 H. P. Mendes in Helpful Thoughts, vol. ii., No. 10; 
 New York, February, 1898, p. 136; the Jewish Ency 
 clopedia, vol. i., 1901, pp. 496-7; 506-7; a sketch by 
 Eugene Schreier, Esq., of Newport, in a pamphlet, 
 entitled " Convention of Jewish Societies for Pro 
 moting Physical Culture among the Jewish masses 
 .... called by the Touro Cadets .... July 28, 
 1901," Newport, 1901, pp. 6-7.) 
 Dr. Stiles account reads as follows : 
 
 The Synagogue at Newport. 
 
 "Dec. 2, 1763, Friday. In the Afternoon was 
 the dedication of the new Synagogue in this Town. 
 It began by a handsome procession in which were 
 carried the Books of the Law, to be deposited in the 
 Ark. Several Portions of Scripture, & of their 
 Service with a Prayer for the Royal Family, were 
 read and finely sung by the priest & People. There 
 were present many Gentlemen & Ladies. The 
 Order and Decorum, the Harmony & Solemnity of 
 the Musick, together with a handsome Assembly of 
 People, in a Edifice the most perfect of the Temple 
 kind perhaps in America, & splendidly illuminated, 
 could not but raise in the Mind a faint Idea of the 
 Majesty & Grandeur of the Ancient Jewish Wor 
 ship mentioned in Scripture. 
 
 " Dr. Isaac de Abraham Touro performed the 
 Service." The Synagogue is about perhaps fourty 
 foot long & 30 wide, of Brick on a Foundation of 
 free Stone ; it was begun about two years ago, & is 
 
How finished except the Porch & the Capitals of the 
 Pillars. The Front representation of the holy of 
 holies, or its Partition Veil, consists only of wain- 
 scotted Breast Work on the East End, in the lower 
 part of which four long Doors cover an upright 
 Square Closet the depth of which is about a foot or 
 the thickness of the Wall, & in this Apartment (vul 
 garly called the Ark) were deposited three Copies & 
 Rolls of the Pentateuch, written on Vellum or rather 
 tanned Calf Skin : one of these Rolls I was told by 
 Dr. Touro was presented from Amsterdam & is Two 
 Hundred years old ; the Letters have the Rabbinical 
 Flourishes. 
 
 " A Gallery for the Women runs round the whole 
 Inside, except the East End, supported by Columns 
 of Ionic order, over which are placed correspondent 
 Columns of the Corinthian order supporting the 
 Cieling of the Roof. The Depth of the Corinthian 
 Pedestal is the height of the Balustrade which runs 
 round the Gallery. The Pulpit for Reading the 
 Law, is a raised Pew with an extended front table ; 
 this placed about the center of the Synagogue or 
 nearer the West End, being a Square embalustraded 
 Comporting with the Length of the indented Chan 
 cel before & at the Foot of the Ark. 
 
 " On the middle of the North Side & Affixed to 
 the Wall is a raised Seat for the Parnas or Ruler, & 
 for the Elders ; the Breast and Back interlaid with 
 Chinese Mosaic Work. A Wainscotted Seat runs 
 round Side of the Synagogue below, & another in 
 the Gallery. There are no other Seats or pews. 
 There may be Eighty Souls of Jews or 15 families 
 now in Town. The Synagogue has already cost 
 Fifteen Hundred Pounds Sterling. There are to be 
 five Lamps pendant from a lofty Ceiling " (See 
 Literary Diary, vol. i., p. 6, note ; p. 62, note 2, where 
 Dr. Stiles gives the measurements of the Synagogue 
 as "40x39^."). 
 
There is an excellent diagram of the Town of 
 Newport in the Diary under date of October 3d, 1775, 
 drawn by Dr. Stiles (p. 622 of vol. i.), which gives 
 the site of the Synagogue and the location of Touro 
 Street very distinctly. 
 
 The foundation of the structure was laid on the 
 first of August, 1759; it was dedicated December 
 2d, 1763. Rev. Isaac Touro was the first officiating 
 minister, and he remained in office until 1775, when 
 he sailed for Jamaica. For a period of 108 years 
 (1775-1883) there was no Rabbi appointed in Touro s 
 place. From the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
 War until the early decades of the last century the 
 Synagogue and cemetery were practically neglected. 
 In 1820, Abraham Touro, son of the Rev. Isaac 
 Touro, had a wall built around the ancient burial 
 ground, which his brother Judah, the noted philan 
 thropist, whose benefactions to the city and country 
 were numerous, afterward replaced with the beau 
 tiful iron railing and handsome gates, now so much 
 admired. 
 
 THE NEWPORT SYNAGOGUE 
 
6i 
 
 The Scrolls of the Law, often referred to in the 
 Diary as of very ancient date, have a history. One 
 is said to have been brought from Spain during the 
 Inquisition (see Schreier, I.e., p. 7) by the first Jew 
 ish settlers, who arrived in Newport in 1658. An 
 other, according to Dr. Stiles (see above, p. 23), was 
 a gift from the Portuguese synagogue in London; 
 the third of these Rolls, we are told, was presented 
 from Amsterdam and is 200 years old, the first of 
 these being even older by circa 150 years. A fourth 
 is mentioned in vol. i., p. 1 1 (see above, p. 23; as the 
 donation of Mr. Lopez, and valued at ^40 sterling. 
 These rolls had silver tops and bells washed with 
 gold. In 1763 the congregation owned but three 
 Scrolls of the Law; in 1769 there were six copies 
 deposited in the Ark. In the early part of the last 
 century the Newport Jews entrusted these sacred 
 relics to the custody of the Spanish and Portuguese 
 Congregation of New York, " whose members be 
 came guardians and proprietors of the Newport 
 Synagogue, as the members of the latter became 
 merged with their own" (cf. Mendes, I.e., p, 136), 
 It remains to be said, in connection with the interior 
 equipments of the edifice, that in the centre are five 
 massive bronze candelabra, two of which are the 
 gift of Jacob . Rodriguez Rivera and his son Abra 
 ham, and are dated 1765; one by Isaac Pollock, 
 dated 1760; one by Naphtali Hart Myers, dated 
 1760; and one by Aaron Lopez, dated 1770 (see 
 Schreier s sketch, I.e., p. 7). 
 
 The British evacuated Newport, October 27, 1779. 
 The General Assembly met for the first time after 
 the evacuation in the ancient Newport Synagogue, 
 in September, 1780. The Supreme Court of Rhode 
 Island also convened in that sacred place after the 
 departure of the King s troops, the State House not 
 being habitable (cf. Schreier, I.e., p. 9). 
 
6* 
 
 By far the most distinguished visitor to the Syna 
 gogue was President Washington, in 1790. On that 
 occasion he was the recipient of an address pre 
 sented on behalf of the Hebrew Congregation by 
 Moses Seixas, Warden of the Synagogue. As the 
 letter bears the date of August 17th, it would seem 
 plausible that the noted visitor was welcomed either 
 on that or the following day. Washington s Reply 
 to this well-worded document was equally dignified 
 and carried with it all the grace of majesty as he 
 accentuated the blessings of civil and religious lib 
 erty, which the Government of the United States 
 holds out to all alike. It contained the guarantee 
 that this liberal policy shall remain unchanged and 
 unassailable. The Reply first appeared in the New 
 port Herald, Sept. 9, 1790, published by Peter Edes 
 (see Schreier, /.c., p. 11), and reprinted frequently 
 elsewhere. Mr. Lewis Abraham, in his article on 
 the "Correspondence between Washington and Jew 
 ish Citizens" (PubL of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. y No. 3, 
 pp. 87-96), copies the President s address from the 
 United States Gazette, of 1790, and remarks that " it 
 is strange that the letters are not all to be found in 
 books in which the Washington correspondence is 
 compiled." In this he is mistaken, for they are all 
 contained in the following volume : * A Collection 
 of the Speeches of the President of the United 
 States to both Houses of Congress at the Opening 
 of every Session with their Answers also the Ad 
 dresses to the President with his answers, from the 
 time of his Election, with an Appendix containing 
 the circular letter of Gen. Washington to the Gov 
 ernors of the Several States, and his farewell orders 
 [address?] to the Armies of America, and the An 
 swer. Dedicated to the Citizens of the United 
 
 States of America Printed at Boston 
 
 July, 1796," pp. 227-30; 231-233. (To the biblic- 
 
graphy may be added The Israelite [now American 
 Israelite}, Cincinnati, 1856 ; German translation in 
 Frankl s Monatsschrift fuer die Geschichte und Wissen- 
 schaft des Judenthums, vol. vi., pp. 359-64 ; THE 
 AMERICAN HEBREW, Jan. 13, 1893, p. 357 seq.\ Ameri 
 can Jews Annual for 1894 ; my article in the Menorah 
 Monthly, vol. xviii., No. 4, &c., &c.). Dr. Stiles too, 
 in his Literary Diary, June 22, 1790 (vol. iii., p. 397), 
 quotes from one of these letters. His entry there 
 is significant because of his interpretation of the 
 President s views : "An Address was lately pre 
 sented to G. Washs by the Synagogue or Heb. 
 Cong* at Savanna in Georgia ; to which the Presid 1 
 in his answer says, 
 
 May the same wonderworks Deity, who long since delivering 
 the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressions planted them in 
 the Promised Land whose providential Agency has lately been 
 conspicuous in establishing these United States as an Independ* 
 Nation still continue to water them with the Dews of Heaven 
 & to make y e Inhabitants of every Denomin* , participate in the 
 tempo & Spiritual Blessgs of that people whose G<* is Jehovah. 
 
 G. WASHINGTON 
 
 (Hence Wash, a Revelationist.}" 
 
 (For some minor variations in the text of this 
 Reply, see Abrahams, I.e., pp. 89-90.) 
 
 Moses Seixas, the warden, who signed the New 
 port address of Welcome to Washington, was Grand 
 Master of the Masonic Fraternity of Rhode Island, 
 and cashier of the Bank of Rhode Island from its 
 commencement until his death, He was prominently 
 identified with all that tended to advance the inter 
 est of the town of Newport. He died on Nov. 2Qth, 
 1809 (cf. Schreier, I.e., p. 10). Mr. N. Taylor Phil 
 lips, who possesses some relics of the Seixas family, 
 gives some interesting details of his family and 
 genealogy in PubL Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 4, pp. 
 203-24. His kinsman, Benjamin Seixas, a promi 
 nent Hebrew citizen, was clerk of the Newport 
 
Volunteers in 1811. We record in this connection, 
 the name of Mordecai Myers, of Newport, who held 
 the rank of captain during the second war with Eng 
 land (1812-14), and was wounded at the battle of 
 Chrysler s Field (cf . Outlines of Jewish History, by 
 Lady Magnus, Philadelphia, 1890, p. 351 ; he is 
 missing in Hon. Simon Wolf s book). 
 
 Dr. Stiles did not confine his visits to the Syna 
 gogue alone. He was on intimate social footing 
 with the members of the Jewish fraternity, especi 
 ally with Aaron Lopez, whom he characterizes as 
 " the most universally beloved ... of any man I 
 ever knew," Then we learn from the Diary (pp. 
 74, 260) that on the 25th of October, i 77o, and on 
 Aug. i2th, 1772, he visited u Mr. Tauro [elsewhere 
 called Touro] the Jew Priest or Reader, and dis 
 cussed with him on sundry Texts in Hebrew." It 
 will be remembered that it was Touro who taught 
 him the first rudiments of the sacred tongue (see 
 supra, p. 15) in 176?, when he was forty years of age. 
 On June 23d, 1773, he visited Rabbi Carigal in com 
 pany with Mr. Delisle, conversing with him from 3 
 o clock to sunset (vol. i., p. 388). On one occasion 
 he sent his son to wait upon the Rabbi and to escort 
 him to a religious Meeting. The Rabbi came with 
 two other Jews and Dr. Stiles had them put into his 
 pew. He visited him again on July 5th of the same 
 year and spent many pleasant hours with him often 
 afterwards, as we shall see later. His relations to 
 wards other Jews, though not so cordial, were uni 
 formly friendly. 
 
 A LETTER FROM THE HOLY LAND. 
 
 On March 26th, 1771 (vol. i., p. 97) he writes: 
 " Last evening M r Isaac Hart, a Jew of this Town, 
 sent me, to read, a Letter in Hebrew he lately re 
 ceived from Macpelah in the Holy Land. . . . [Edi- 
 
65 
 
 tor s abridgment.]" Four days later he says: "The 
 preceding letter contains a Represent 51 of the Jews 
 suffering in the holy Land, It is dated from He- 
 born\\\ the year of the Creation 5523 corresponding 
 with A.D. 1763, Signed Aaron Aliphander, Hijam 
 [Hayyim?] Jeudah alias Gomez Peto, Isaac 
 Hajja [Hiyya?] Zabi the priest, Elias San of 
 Archa, Phinehas Mordecai Bag Ive [?] Abraham Ge- 
 delia the younger. They represent that they aie 
 taxed or amerced 25,000 Pieces of Eight & send forth 
 two Brethren to collect it by contribution. This 
 letter was sent to Mr. Isaac Hart of Rhode Island 
 
 " Here again the account breaks off 
 
 abruptly and it is to be regretted that the editor of 
 the Diary omitted both the Hebrew of this letter as 
 copied by Dr. Stiles, under the first date above 
 given, and the English translation he made under 
 the date of April 26th (cf. vol. i, pp. 97 note 2 ; 98, 
 102). The Isaac Hart, here mentioned, is the same 
 Tory patriot whose tragic death in 1780, has been 
 already described (see above, p. 35). 
 
 It is somewhat difficult to identify all the names 
 signed to the petition from Jerusalem. The first on 
 the list is Aaron Aliphander. This I amend into 
 Aaron ben Moses Alfandari. He was a Talmudical 
 author who emigrated to Palestine in his old age ; 
 born in Smyrna, ca. 1700, and died in Hebron, in 
 1774. The bibliographer, Hayyim Joseph David 
 Azulai knew him personally, enumerates his works, 
 and recounts his antecedents, according to Alfanda- 
 ri s own testimony, in his Shem ha-Gedolim (ed. Ben 
 Jacob, Wilna 1852, vol. i., p. 16, No. 119. For other 
 data relating to Alfandari, see H. J. Michael s Or ha- 
 Hayyim, Frankfurt a. M., 1891, p. 144, No. 302; and 
 the Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i., N. Y. 1901, p. 373* ). 
 The second name signed to the petition may either 
 be the Hayyim Yehudah mentioned by Azulai (I.e., i., 
 
66 
 
 p. 58, No. 28), ora kinsman of Samson Gomez Patto, one 
 of the Rabbis of Jerusalem, whose approbation to 
 Hiskiyahde Silva s Peri Hodesh m 1705 is cited by 
 Kayserling(S^^tfn#;/z, Leipzig, 1 859, p. 260, note). Dr. 
 Stiles, in his accurate Memoir of R. Isaac Karigal, men 
 tions among his teachers the name of R. Haijm Jehu- 
 dak Gomez Pato, who is, unquestionably, the same per 
 son quoted in the letter (see Diary, vol. i., p. 395 and 
 Appendix II.). The third I cannot identify at all. 
 Elias son of Arc ha is, without doubt, Elieser ben 
 Ytzhak ben Arha, one of the Rabbis of Hebron, who 
 died and was buried in that city, in the same tomb 
 with Abraham Azulai, author of Hesed le-Abraham. 
 He i-s the author of several works, for the most part 
 unpublished, all of which are enumerated by the 
 bibliographers Azulai and H. J. Michael (cf. Shem 
 ha-Gedolim, i., p. 23, No. 186; Or ha-Hayyim, Frank 
 furt a. M., 1891, p. 205, No. 432). He is not to be 
 confounded with the Elieser b. Archa mentioned in 
 Fuerst s Bibliotheca Judaica, i., 232, who lived in the 
 preceding century. Who the others are, I am at a 
 loss to conjecture. By consulting the Hebrew orig 
 inal of the letter preserved in the Diary in Ms., we 
 might be enabled to trace the identity of the Rabbis 
 with more certainty. 
 
 Two NEWPORT JEWS. 
 
 Under date of July i8th, 1771, we find in the 
 Diary, (p. i24) some statistical data concerning the 
 Jews of Philadelphia which, together with other 
 items, are relegated to Appendix I. of this paper. 
 
 The next entry gives us a new name: " In the 
 Forenoon I went to the Synagogue," writes he (Feb. 
 29th, 1772; p. 214). " In the Evening, though Sat 
 urday Evening which I keep as holy Time, Mr. 
 Enoc Lyon a Jew came to visit me desiring some re 
 ligious Conversation. He spent four hours with me 
 
6 7 
 
 conversing upon the Things of God. We freely 
 conversed on Things respecting Judaism and Chris 
 tianity. I shewed him from the Rabbins, that by 
 Quotations from the Talmud, some of them allowed 
 the first appearance of Messiah was to be in Humil 
 iation and particularly that they applied 53 d Chapter 
 of Isaiah to Messiah, Also that by the Jewish Writ 
 ings the Messiah was Jehovah ; As he allowed orig 
 inal sin and the infinite Evil of sin, I labored to 
 shew the necessity of punishment in the persons of 
 the sinner, or of him that should bare the Iniquities 
 &c. He allowed Jesus to be a holy and good Man 
 giving a holy Law. But did not see the necessity 
 of Satisfaction or a Messiah s Atonement, God be 
 ing infinitely merciful." 
 
 About a year afterwards (Feb. 22d, 1773; p. 352) 
 he had a similar conference with another Israelite, 
 whose name is not given : " This Evening a Meet 
 ing of Young Men at my House where I discoursed 
 to them on Eccles. xi, 9. A Jew was present having 
 asked Leave ; he tarried with me and we discoursed 
 an hour afterwards concerning a suffering Messiah 
 . . . . (editor s abridgment)." 
 
 SOME FEMALE HEBRAISTS. 
 
 Dr. Stiles was so profoundly interested in Hebrew 
 and Rabbinic literature, that he instinctively looked 
 for such knowledge in others. In speaking of the 
 accomplishments of the different scholars he met, 
 he would unconsciously gauge the value of their 
 learning by their proficiency in Semitics. To this 
 curious predisposition we are indebted for the pre 
 servation of a number of items which would other 
 wise have remained unmentioned. The moment he 
 found some one well versed in Hebrew, he paid 
 his respects to him in his Diary. Sometimes, as in 
 the case of William Olive, who, in 1770, sent him a 
 
68 
 
 letter half in Hebrew (see above, p. 37), he suspects 
 in these Hebraists Jewish descent. There were 
 " Hebricians," as he quaintly calls them, in his own 
 family. His wife and children all took upon them 
 selves the yoke of the Torah, philologically speak 
 ing. " This day," writes he, on April 22, 1788 (vol. 
 iii.,.p. 315), " my Wife finished Read 8 translating & 
 parsing the first Psalm in Hebrew. It is about 3 
 Weeks since she first took the Hebrew Alphabet & 
 Grammar in hand. And she has accurately parsed 
 & resolved every word, looking out each Radix & 
 declining it." We hear of her, later on, as attending 
 one of his recitations in Hebrew (vol. iii., p. 526; 
 June 25, 1794; see supra, p. 6). His son Ezra, too, 
 seems to have made some headway, if we are to 
 credit the diarist s pardonable boast (March n, 1773; 
 vol. i., p. 355): " This day my son Ezra is fourteen 
 years old : he has read out Virgil, Tally s Select 
 Orations, &c. in Latin and in Greek the four Evan 
 gelists & Acts in Hebrew 48 Psalms" (see also 
 supra, p. 50). About the study of Hebrew at Yale 
 College we shall speak later. It is not necessary, in 
 this place, to refer more fully to all the " Hebri 
 cians" and Orientalists whose names are honorably 
 mentioned in the diarist s pages. We shall content 
 ourselves with quoting the passages, which chronicle 
 the accomplishments of women in this field of in 
 quiry. 
 
 On the 7th of April, 1772, he speaks of a He 
 brew and Greek Bible having been presented to 
 the Rev. Mr. Russmeyer, also a Hebraist, "by a 
 German Countess who understood Hebrew," in 1727, 
 when he was a boy (vol. i., p. 220). 
 
 It may not be out of place to refer, in this connec 
 tion, to other noted women, members of royalty 
 among them, who were said to have been excellent 
 Hebraists. Steinschneider, in his list of " Hebra- 
 
6 9 
 
 istinnen" (Hebraeische Bibliographic, vol. xx., 1880, 
 pp. 65-69), mentions over forty and gives brief bio 
 graphical details. To the literature on the subject 
 may be added the data in Johann Jacob Schudt s 
 Juedische Merkwuerdigkeiten, Supplement to vol. iv., 
 Frankfurt-a.-M., 1717, p. 27. Perhaps the most 
 celebrated of them all were Anna Maria de Schur- 
 man (ob. 1675), the accomplished linguist, and An- 
 tonia, Princess of Wuertemberg, who died in 1699, 
 The latter was the daughter of Duke Eberhard III. 
 of Wuertemberg (1629-1674). Besides knowing He 
 brew, she was well versed in rabbinic and cabalistic 
 lore. Her praise has been sung by many a Christian 
 Hebraist, and there is extant among the papers of 
 John Euxtorf, who presented her with a copy of 
 each of his books, a poem of 24 stanzas with her 
 acrostic. She is said to have composed a series of 
 cabalistic diagrams in Hebrew and German, still in 
 manuscript (see Kayserling in Jewish Quarterly 
 Review, vol. ix., 1897, pp. 509 et seq.; Jewish Encyclo 
 pedia, vol. i., 1901, p. 656 ). Anna Maria von Schur- 
 man, the world-renowned scholar, was an eccentric 
 character. She was born November 5, 1607, and, at 
 a very tender age, had tried her skill in al] manner 
 of things. She composed poetry and music, painted, 
 engraved on copper ; spoke Latin at the age of seven, 
 translated in her tenth year Seneca s writings into 
 Flemish and French, took up, in addition, the Greek, 
 Spanish, Italian and Hebrew languages. She even 
 tried her hand at Hebrew poetry. Several of her 
 Hebrew letters are contained in the Hebrew peri 
 odical, Bikkure ha-Ittim, 1825, p. 31 et seq. She cor 
 responded with Manasseh ben Israel, John Buxtorf, 
 and other scholars of the period. Elisabeth, daughter 
 of Frederick V. (died 1680), who is called " a miracle 
 of learned women," and understood Hebrew well, 
 was one of her friends. In a copy of David Kimhi s 
 
70 
 
 Hebrew Grammar (ed. 1651), formerly belonging to 
 her, the name of Manasseh ben Israel (died 1657) is 
 inscribed (see Steinschneider, Cat. Cod. Hebr. Bibl. 
 Acad. Ludg. Batav., Leyden, 1858, p. x, note i). She 
 remained unmarried, and died on the 5th of May, 
 1675, in Vinwarden, West-Friesland (see concerning 
 her Steinschneider s article in Hermann Gersons 
 Mode-Zeitung, Berlin, 1857, vol. *i- No. n, pp. 175- 
 176; Hebr. Bibl., xx., 67; Kayserling s Life and Labours 
 of Manasseh ben Israel, translated into English by 
 Rev. Dr. F. de Sola Mendes, in Miscellany of Hebrew 
 Literature, vol. ii., second series, London, 1877, pp. 
 1 8, 78-9, notes 82 a -83 ; Steinschneider says that she 
 died at Altona in 1678, aged 71 years). Anna de 
 Rohan, daughter of Prince Renari de Rohan of Paris, 
 who died September 20, 1646, at the age of 62, is 
 spoken of as proficient in Hebrew, and a zealous 
 student of the Bible (Schudt, I.e.). 
 
 Lack of space prevents a more complete catalogue 
 of noted female Hebraists. The list prepared by 
 Steinschneider, above quoted, is still the only avail 
 able one on record, and we beg to refer to it for 
 particulars concerning the two score others there 
 mentioned. 
 
 In the Diary, under date of April 3. 1772 (vol. i., 
 p. 220), Dr. Stiles reports the following : 
 
 "There was one Woman in New England who 
 was an Hebrician, perfectly understanding the He 
 brew Bible, which she used to carry with her to 
 Meeting; and also would frequently have Recourse 
 to it in Conversation with Ministers. She was taken 
 off a wreckt Vessel, as I understand near Plymouth 
 in New England. After this she returned to Eng 
 land while a Girl, and there lived in a Jew Family and 
 was taught Hebrew. After this she returned to New 
 England and settled and died here. She married 
 Mr. Parker, by whom she had a Daughter Paltah 
 
Parker, whom she named Paltah or the Deliverance 
 of God in memory of her being saved from the 
 Wreck. . . . She died about 1722. ... I suspect there 
 is some defect in the story but I conclude so much 
 is true, that she had an Ancestor brought tip in a 
 Jew Family and able to read the Hebrew Bible." 
 
 Maria Antonio de Verona, an English Hebraist, 
 concerning whom information may be obtained 
 from the Calendar of State Papers (Domestic series 
 of the reign of Charles I., ed. by J. Bruce and 
 W. D. Hamilton, vol. iii., (1628-1629), p. 26; see 
 also J. E. Thorold Rogers and Lucien Wolf, 
 "Antonio de Verona," in The Athenaeum, Lon 
 don, Sept. 3, & 10, 1887 ; apud Jacobs-Wolf, Biblio- 
 theca Anglo- Judaica, London, 1888, pp. 38, 45, No. 
 234a), has written a Hebrew eulogy of Charles 
 Chauncy, President of Harvard College, whom Dr. 
 Stiles conceived to be "the most truly and exten 
 sively learned of all the N. England Fathers, espe 
 cially in the Sciences, the learned Lan 
 guages, particularly Greek & besides Hebrew, its 
 several Dialects as Syriac, Arabic, Samaritan. . . ." 
 (Diary, vol. i., p. 133; see also the references to him 
 in Index, vol. iii., p. 582 * ). 
 
 Unfortunately, the original Hebrew of Maria An 
 tonio de Verona s panegyric, composed in 1626, has 
 not been preserved by Dr. Stiles. The English 
 translation, written nearly a century later, is copied 
 by the diarist under date of Dec. 31st, 1779 (vol. ii., 
 pp. 399-400) and reads as follows : 
 
 CHARLES CHAUNCY 
 
 ANAGRAM 
 His Shadow is Without Deceit 
 
 Arise and look into the Book this learned author has written, 
 the pains he has taken in it deserves a great Reward: Or, his 
 Work therein is its own Reward. 
 
 He is a powerful preacher, knowledge proceeds out of his 
 
73 
 
 month, he abounds in reproof proper to bring all men to a sense 
 of their Sins. 
 
 He delights in (the) fear (of God ) he excels in humility, it is his 
 delight to speak the Words of Wisdom 
 
 His name is famous & renowned among the wise and pru 
 dent; he excels amongst the upright; & is great and illustrious 
 among the Doctors of Divines. 
 
 Blessed is the man who hearkens to the Instructions of his 
 s peech : for he teacheth sound Doctrine, & all this is the desire of 
 his soul. 
 
 He hath planted his Vine among the learned, good works are 
 his secrets, he is a man mighty in the Knowledge of divine things; 
 none is equal to him in Scholastic disputations. 
 
 He is just & righteous in his Actions, & speaks Truth from his 
 heart. 
 
 She was happy who brought him forth, a person so good & 
 wise as he is. 
 
 May his days be prolonged, & those of his Relations: may he 
 live to raise the honour of his house; and may they (or the world) 
 bless him in the Name of the Lord. 
 
 In the honour of Charles Chauncy, Written by Maria Antonio 
 de Verona. An. 1626. 
 
 Translated by T. Russel, An. 1712." 
 
 To this the diarist adds the information that Pres. 
 Chauncy died at Cambridge, Feb. 19, 167^ JE. 82. 
 And so he was JEt 36 when this Encomium was writ 
 ten. He came from England to New England after 
 
 i635 The translator might have been one 
 
 of his pupils. We have not been able to discover a 
 copy of the original Hebrew of the above. The 
 authoress deserves a place in Steinschneider s cata- 
 of learned " Hebricians. " 
 
 A WORD ON JEWISH CEREMONIALS AND PROSELYTES. 
 
 April 1 8th, 1772 (vol. v., pp. 225-6) : 
 
 A.M. I went to the Synagogue, it being HDD ms?, 
 Sabbath of the Passover. They read in the Law the 
 passages which give an Account of the Exodus and 
 Institution of the passover ; and also a passage about 
 V th of Joshua concerning Circumcision and rolling 
 away the Reproach of Egypt. Several mentioned 
 
73 
 
 over the Names of their dead friends, for whom 
 Prayers were immediately made. Large offerings or 
 Alms were made to probably fourty dollars as one 
 of the Jews estimated, and I believe true ; for sundry 
 offered Chai Livre i.e. \6 or two Dollars and I 
 judge Mr. Aaron Lopez offered ten or a dozen of 
 these Chai. I asked one when they should have 
 Killed the Pascal Lambs if they had been at Jerusa 
 lem ; he replied, too day [sic]. But I doubt it; he 
 was ignorant." 
 
 Aaron Lopez, being the wealthiest member of the 
 Jewish community, no doubt excelled all the others 
 in his benefactions (see supra, p. 28 et seq.). 
 
 On July 25th he writes that a Jew spent the 
 afternoon with him. Name and particulars are 
 not mentioned, or else the editor of the Diary has 
 omitted them. From this Jew, it is evident, Dr. 
 Stiles derived his minute, though not quite accurate 
 information concerning certain observances among 
 the Jews, notably the Abrahamitic rite. We are told 
 that his visitor was a Mokelby profession, who "in 
 America got a Living by it ; but not so in Europe 
 where he had no Fees, but accounted it an honor " 
 to serve, inasmuch as "it was highly rewarded in 
 heaven " (pp. 254-256). Then follows an account of 
 Jewish proselytes in England, to whose admission 
 into the fold his informant was an eye-witness, In 
 stead of relegating the brief extract to the Appendix 
 (as promised above, on p. 47), we will quote it here 
 in full : 
 
 "He said he knew one Family in Engl d (I think 
 Coventry) not of Jew Blood, but English & a Xtian, 
 viz., a Man, his Wife & two Daughters they came 
 to London & he saw them renounce Xtianity & pro 
 fess Judaism, & that they became more strict in 
 daily Synagogue Prayers &c. than the other Jews. 
 He gave me an Account &c. The Man was first cir- 
 
74 
 
 cumcised, afterwds. baptized in a Bagnio [bath] in 
 which there are Stairs to the Bottom where one 
 stands to his Neck in Water. The Women were 
 baptized in the same Manner. I asked if this was 
 performed in the sight of the Congreg. a He said no ; 
 but some Jewesses took the Women aside by them 
 selves ; & so as to the Man. He added, that the more 
 strict Jews, baptize religiously by trine Immersion 
 three Times a year, at Passover, & I think Pentecost, 
 & Day of Atonement: that is, it is a religious Purifi 
 cation with them. But such a Strictness is not 
 exacted." 
 
 I have not been able to find any record of this 
 event. Conversions to Judaism in England and 
 elsewhere were not infrequent. Altogether, the sub 
 ject deserves fuller treatment at the hands of some 
 competent historian. Materials thereto are not 
 wanting in the invaluable reference works of Wolf 
 and Schudt. The most celebrated instance of such 
 a proselyte in England is that of the unfortunate 
 nobleman and zealot, L,ord George Gordon, the 
 leader of the " No Popery Riots/ now universally 
 known through Charles Dickens thrilling romance, 
 Barnaby Rudge. James Picciotto, in his excellent 
 Sketches of Anglo-Jewish history (London, 1875, pp. 
 183-189; ch. xxiii.), does him full justice. We are 
 told that he rigorously underwent all the rites im 
 posed upon proselytes before he was admitted within 
 the pale of Judaism. He acquired some knowledge 
 of the Hebrew language and of Jewish ceremonies ; 
 attended divine service, where, upon being honored 
 with a benediction at the reading of the Law, he 
 offered 100 as a gift to the Hambro Synagogue in 
 London. He lived as a Jew until December, 1787, 
 when he was apprehended at the house of an Israel 
 ite in Birmingham on the charge of "promoting 
 mutiny and sedition and of undermining the laws 
 
75 
 
 of his country." He was condemned to two years 
 imprisonment and a fine of 500 for libelling the 
 Queen of France, and to an additional term of three 
 years for another political offence, besides being 
 compelled to furnish bond for 10,000 to keep the 
 peace. His religious zeal suffered no abatement, for 
 he issued political pamphlets, interspersed with 
 Scriptural texts, levelled at the King and the State, 
 while he was confined in prison. Nor was he lax in 
 the observances imposed by his new faith. He 
 prayed every morning with the phylacteries on his 
 arm and head, and with a quorum of ten Polish 
 Jews, two of whom had agreed to bail him out on 
 another occasion (though, ludicrously enough, they 
 were penniless), he held Sabbath services in his cell. 
 Inscribed on its walls weie the Ten Commandments, 
 along with the Talith and Tefillin as adornments. 
 His diet was strictly rite, and when, on the 18th of 
 January, 1793, he appeared in court to give satisfac 
 tory guarantees for his future good behavior, he 
 wore a huge patriarchal beard, and though enjoined 
 to remove his large slouched hat, he refused to un 
 cover, as being contrary to his religious scruples. 
 The hat being forcibly removed, he deliberately 
 donned a white cap which he had in reserve. His 
 two Hebrew friends failing to redeem their pledge 
 and not having the amount necessary to safeguard 
 his liberty, he was again committed to prison, where 
 he died, some say of a fever, others, of a broken 
 heart, in November of the same year, aged forty- 
 three years. This is the romantic story in a nutshell, 
 some details of which are still further embellished 
 by England s greatest novelist, who introduces a 
 Jewish heroine into the drama. The chief elements 
 in the above narrative are true, and are vouched for 
 by Picciotto and other trustworthy historians. Rob 
 ert Watson wrote a readable biography of this 
 
7 6 
 
 Quixotic character two years after his decease, in 
 1795 (see Wolf- Jacobs, Bibliotheca Anglo -Judaica, p. 
 1 32, No. 999). 
 
 We hear of another candidate seeking admission 
 into the Jewish fold in London at about the same 
 time : A certain L,ouis da Costa, a native of Portu 
 gal, appeared in 1789 before the Wardens of the 
 Bevis Marks Synagogue, stating that he was desir 
 ous of being admitted to the Covenant of Abraham; 
 that he had sailed in a ship from Bordeaux to Am 
 sterdam for that purpose ; that the vessel had been 
 wrecked off Dover, and he begged to be dispatched 
 to Amsterdam to fulfil the longings of his heart. 
 The petition was refused (see Picciotto, op. cit., p. 
 188). 
 
 There seem to be no evidences of such conversions 
 in America. The one curious exception is that of 
 Warder Cresson of Philadelphia, who was a fervent 
 nationalist, and who became zealous in the advocacy 
 of Jewish colonization in Palestine. His agricultural 
 projects (as part of his Zionist propaganda) are set 
 forth by Mr. Max J. Kohler in the Publications of the 
 American Jewish Historical Society, No. 8, pp. 81-83 
 (to the authorities there cited add the communica 
 tion from Philadelphia published in the Israelite, 
 Cincinnati, 1863, vol. x., No. 12, pp. 92-93, and a bio 
 graphical sketch by Herbert Friedenwald in the 
 Jewish Comment, Baltimore, 1901). After his conver 
 sion he called himself Michael Boaz Israel. He was 
 a prolific writer on his favorite theme of Jewish 
 Restoration to Palestine, and, in 1851, he published 
 his reasons for becoming a Jew. He had been 
 United States Consul at Jerusalem prior to his change 
 of faith, and familiarity with Eastern conditions, no 
 doubt, convinced him of the efficacy of the work 
 which he afterwards undertook. His earnest and 
 unselfish labors on behalf of his new spiritual kin- 
 
77 
 
 dred should merit more recognition than has been, 
 hitherto, accorded him. 
 
 To return to the Diary: On July 27th, 1772 (p. 256), 
 Dr. Stiles writes : " It is customary with the Jews 
 for Parents to lay their hands on the Heads of their 
 Children and give them their Blessing. If it be a 
 son, the father laying his hand upon him says .... 
 * The Lord make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh. 
 Gen xlviii, 20. If a Daughter The Lord make thee 
 as Sarah, Rachel and Leah/ This is frequently done 
 at Meals and Friday Evening after Supper, when 
 the Children come to the parent for the Blessing. I 
 have seen old Mr. Moses Lopez do it to his Boys in 
 the Synagogue, after Service." 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 Among a packet of pamphlets, sent to the diarist 
 (July 21st, 1772; vol. i. p. 252) by a friend, is men 
 tioned " A Tract of Abram Jagel the Son of Hananiah 
 Entituled, Good Doctrine, lately translated by a 
 Jew in New York." 
 
 The author s full name is Abraham Yaghel ben 
 Hananyah De Galicchi (or Gallichi), of Monselico, 
 Italy, who flourished in the last decades of the XVIth 
 century. He has often been confounded with Camillo 
 Yaghel, the apostate who, as early as 1611, was offi 
 cial Censor of Hebrew books. There are numerous 
 editions of his famous Hebrew Catechism, Lekah 
 Tob y some undated ones appearing as early as 1587 
 and 1595 (see the bibliographic data in Steinschnei- 
 der s Cat. Bod I., col. 694 ; his Jewish Literature, Lon 
 don, 1857, p. 224; J. Fuerst, Bibliotheca Judaica, vol. 
 ii., Leipzig, 1851, pp. 10-11; D. Oppenheimer, in 
 Hebraeische Bibliographic, vii., 1864, pp. 19-20; and 
 especially vols. xix., 1879, p. 56, note; xxi., 1881, pp. 
 76-79. Dr. S. Maybaum has written a separate 
 monograph on Yaghel s Catechism, in German, a 
 
78 
 
 few years ago. See also the interesting remarks of 
 Mortara, in his Indice Alfabetico dei Rabbini e Scrittori 
 israeliti . ... in Italia, Padova, 1886, pp. 25-26, note^). 
 Several German and Judseo-German versions are 
 mentioned by bibliographers, and it is interesting 
 to note that the first L,atin translation was printed 
 in London in 1679, octavo. The translator was L. 
 Compeigne de Veil, M.A. Jacobs-Wolf in their 
 Bibliotheca Anglo- Judaica, p. 116, No. 788, have the 
 following entry : 
 
 Catechismus Judaeorum in disputatione et Dialogo Ma- 
 gister ac discipuli scriptus a Rabbi A brahmo Jagel. 1 2mo, 
 58pp. Hebrew and English. 1679. Neither title nor 
 format corresponds to the one described by Fuerst 
 (I.e.). Are they identical? The English version, 
 published (anonymously?) in London 1721, is prac 
 tically unknown to bibliographers. According to 
 S. van Straalen (Catalogue of Hebrew Books in the 
 British Museum acquired during the years 1868- 
 1892, London, 1894, p. 7 2 ) the title is: 
 
 The Jews Catechism, containing the thirteen articles of 
 the Jewish religion ; formerly translated out of Hebrew 
 (into Latin by L. Compeigne de Veil, and thence into the 
 English), xx, 168 pages octavo (see also BibL Anglo- 
 Judaica, p. 223, No. 2076*). 
 
 This translation was made from the Latin, not the 
 Hebrew, and it would be important to ascertain 
 whether the American edition, alleged to have been 
 prepared by a Jew in New York, is merely a reprint 
 of it or is an original work. In any case, it is an 
 important item in American Jewish bibliography. 
 
 THE RABBIS WHOM DR. STILES KNEW. 
 
 Being a zealous Hebraist and ever eager to seek 
 for fresh corroborative proof of New Testament 
 truths from "the Rabbins," it is but natural that he 
 sought out an occasional learned visitor to Newport, 
 
79 
 
 whose superior knowledge of Jewish tradition would 
 inevitably be enlisted in aid of his untiring quest for 
 the Messianic interpretation of Prophecy. A Jew 
 come to town was a great event for Dr. Stiles, especis 
 ally if the Jew happened to be a rabbi, "a truly pious 
 man." Upon hearing of the new arrival, he, impa 
 tient of a formal introduction, would sometimes 
 honor him with a visit, as we shall see later on, and 
 an exchange of amenities would follow which is 
 quite refreshing to note in a man otherwise so ortho 
 dox in his views. It forms a new chapter in the his 
 tory of Literary Friendships between Jews and Gen 
 tiles, instances of which are pointed out by Schudt, 
 in several places in his learned compendium, Jue- 
 dische Merkwuerdigkeiten, and later writers (see for 
 bibliography on the subject, Steinschneider in He- 
 braeische Bibliographic, vol. xi., 1871, pp. 52-54; xxi.> 
 1881-82, pp. 6 1 et seq.\ 80-1 ; 94; Berliner s mono 
 graph Persoenliche Beziehungen zwischen Christen und 
 Juden im Mittelalter, Halberstadt, 1881, 29 pp. octavo ; 
 Guedemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der 
 Cultur in Italien waehrend des Mittelalters, Vienna, 1 884, 
 pp. 23-26; 104-106; 137-140; 150-54; 155; 156; I59> note > 
 161 ; 168; 226-29; 238; 275; 276. I. Abrahams, 
 Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 1896, ch. xxiv, pp. 
 419-23; Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i., New York, 1901, 
 pp. 53, 75, 99; 120, 122, 412, 562-4; see also my arti 
 cle " An Unpublished Chapter on Books," in the 
 AMERICAN HEBREW, Dec. 6, 1901, p. 72). The history 
 of such friendships is yet to be written and Ezra 
 Stiles will be awarded an honored place in its pages* 
 " Upon Recollection," says the diarist (vol. iii., p. 
 77; July 5, 1783), "I find I have been acquainted 
 with six Rabbis 
 
 R. Moses Malki in 1759. 
 
 R. Moses Bar David [Ashkenazi], aet 52, i772, 
 Nov. 
 
8o 
 
 R. Haijm I. Karigal, set 40, 1773, June. 
 
 R. Tobiah Ben Jehudah, set. 48, 1773, Nov. 
 
 R. Bosquila 1773 or 1774 [set. 61, June 15, 1774]. 
 
 R. Samuel Cohen [set. 34, June 29, 1775, first 
 
 mentioned in Diary, vol., i., p. 578]." 
 The first one on the list, according to information 
 given in a note by Prof. Dexter, w^ in New 
 port in December, 1759. He was born a :.i educated 
 at Saphet (Saphed) in the Holy Land and there are 
 preserved among Dr. Stiles papers some data sup 
 plied by his Jewish friend. A search thiough the 
 unpublished correspondence of the diarist may re 
 veal something more of this Rabbi s identity. The 
 name Malki is quite uncommon in Jewish litera 
 ture. That of Ezra ben Raphael Malki ( ata), broth 
 er-in-law of Hiskiyah deSilva (cf. supra, p. 66), is the 
 only one mentioned by bibliographers. He is the 
 author of a number of works, and Azulai says (Shem 
 ha-Gedolim, part ii., No. 133) that the last years of 
 his life he spent as rabbi of the congregation in 
 Rhodes (see also Steinschneider, Catalogus, p. 973 ; 
 Zedner s Catal. of the Hebrew Books in the .... Brit 
 ish Museum, London, 1857, p. 508 ; he spells the name 
 Malc i; Fuerst, Bibliotheca Judaic a, vol. ii., p. 320). 
 
 Of R. Moses bar David, we have more particulars. 
 The first entry concerning him in the Diary is on 
 Nov. 9th, 1772 (vol. i., p. 299) : 
 
 " This Forenoon I visited a learned Jew in Town 
 and on his Travels. He is really a Rabbi. His title 
 is .... [editor s abridgment] The Doctor our 
 Doctor the great Rabbi, Moses the Son of David an 
 Ashcanazin of little Poland, of the holy Synagogue 
 at Apta. He is now ALt. 52 born at Apta in Poland 
 ..." Here the editor of the Diary again omits 
 what would seem to be a personal account of the 
 rabbi. It is interesting to note that Dr. Stiles vis 
 ited R. Moses first. Nor was his Jewish friend 
 
wanting in courtesy for he returned the call the 
 same day : 
 
 "In the Afternoon Rabbi Moses came to my house 
 in Company with Huzan Touro of this Town. We 
 had much Conversation both of his Travels and on 
 the Talmud and Rabbinical Literature. I shewed 
 him the Zohar, with which he was delighted, speak 
 ing with raptures of the Sublimity and Mysteries of 
 its Contents ; he told me if I could comprehend that 
 Book I should be a Master of the Jewish Learning 
 & of the greatest philosophy in the World. .... . 
 [editor s abridgment]." 
 
 Three days afterwards this disciple of the Kabalah 
 spent the afternoon with him (ibid., p. 300) and on 
 the 23d and 30th of the same month and on Dec. /th, 
 the visit was repeated (cf. Lc., pp. 303, 322). On Nov. 
 23d we read : 
 
 " This afternoon visited by Rabbi Moses and Mr. 
 Tauro [sic\. The Whimsical Visionary though I 
 hope honest Mr. Pipels being present, I told Rabbi 
 Moses that this Man had seen Visions of Angels. 
 . . . . R. Moses smiled and Mr. Pipels began to relate 
 his Bxtraordinaries with Warmth. R. Moses asked 
 him the Color of the Angel, said he was mistaken 
 as to his vision, for that he was the Angel that ap 
 peared to him, but was sure he told him no such 
 Thing. This humor & sarcasm toutched and a little 
 confounded Mr. Pipels who after some Talk took 
 L,eave and departed to cross the ferries and return 
 to Pennsylvania. R. Moses spent the rest of the 
 Afternoon in my study, explaining the Zohar to me 
 . . . . This day I paid for my Zohar 22/6 sterling" 
 [see supra, p. 53]. This account is abridged by the 
 editor in two places ; no doubt the subject of their 
 discussions was described at length in the original 
 manuscript. The object of the rabbi s satire was 
 Mr. Jacob Pipels, an old man, aged 73 years, who 
 
82 
 
 hailed from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, an Irish 
 man, who came to America in 1736 and seems to have 
 been a spiritualist. His fancies and hallucinations 
 are reported in detail in the Diary (I.e. pp. 300-302). 
 He expected to attain the age of 218 years and to 
 witness "some great purposes, particularly . . . the 
 return of the Jews, the Fulness of the Gentiles and 
 Downfall of Anti-Christ." Such mystics were at 
 large in different parts of New England, and some 
 curious examples of their conceits and vagaries are 
 preserved in this contemporaneous chronicle. The 
 most grotesque personality of all seems to have been 
 a woman, Jemina Wilkinson by name, who had 
 many followers and concerning whom much has been 
 written (see Cleveland s History of Yates County, N. Y., 
 vol. i., pp. 38-138 ; Literary Diary, vol. ii., pp. 374, 
 380-2; 510-11; vol. iii., pp. 289-90; 334). She be- 
 Ueved herself to be "the son of G d and the Messiah re- 
 appears in flesh" and preached her ravings about, as 
 successfully as her contemporary Johanna South - 
 cote, in England, an aged lunatic, heralding herself 
 forth as the destined mother of a yet unborn Mes 
 siah (concerning the latter see the London Quarterly 
 Review, vol. xxiv., p. 496; McClintock and Strong s 
 Cyclopedia, s.v., vol. ix., pp. 896-7 ; and Lord Byron s 
 Vision of Judgment, stanza xxviii, with note thereto). 
 She died in 1815. 
 
 Being somewhat of a mystic himself, Dr. Stiles 
 was profoundly interested in visionaries, though he 
 did not care to admit it and condemns all these 
 pseudo-prophets in no uncertain tones. He was fas 
 cinated by the doctrines of the Zohar, which, in com 
 mon with most scholars of the age, he believed to 
 have been composed by Simeon ben Yohai (see 
 ^upra, pp. 20, 21, 52, 53) and he loved to penetrate 
 into its lore with the aid of his Jewish friends. Nov. 
 23d and 25th, 1772 find him deep in study : " This 
 
Forenoon I spent reads Dionysius Areopag. whom I 
 find to have the same sublime mysteries as the 
 Zohar." 
 
 In R., Moses, he seems to have found his affinity so 
 far as fondness for the Kabalah is concerned. On 
 the 8th of Dec. he had the last interview with him 
 and "conversed much upon the Messiah" (p. 322) ; 
 on the 14th the rabbi sailed for the West Indies 
 (entry under same date in Diary, I.e.), having so 
 journed altogether about five weeks in Newport. 
 
 In view of the vast number of rabbis and scholars 
 bearing the name Ashkenazi and hailing from Poland 
 or Russia, an attempt at identification would be a 
 thankless task. The diarist was so exact in his 
 statements, especially when furnishing biographical 
 data, that it is safe to assume, that had the rabbis 
 whom he met written any books, he would have 
 mentioned them. That would have made identifi 
 cation comparatively easy. As it is, the meagre 
 items, given here and elsewhere, pertaining to the 
 rabbis and laymen with whom he had come into 
 contact, will have to suffice until fresh material, pos 
 sibly accessible among his unpublished papers, is 
 forthcoming. 
 
 " He now [1773] commenced" says Holmes, his 
 son-in-law and biographer (Life of Ezra Stiles, Bos 
 ton, 1798, p. 1 68 et seq.), " an acquaintance with Haijm 
 Isaac Carigal, a Jew rabbi, who had lately come to 
 Newport. Having travelled very extensively in the 
 eastern world, and being a man of observation, 
 learning, and intelligence ; his conversation was 
 highly entertaining and instructive. He was born 
 at Hebron, and educated there and at Jerusalem. 
 He had travelled all over the Holy Land, and had 
 visited Damascus, Aleppo, Grand Cairo, Bagdat, 
 Ispahan, Smyrna, Constantinople, Salonica, Rome, 
 Florence, Bologna, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Paris, 
 
8 4 
 
 London. The Doctor was greatly delighted with 
 his society, and had frequent interviews with him, 
 for the purpose of acquiring the pronunciation of the 
 Hebrew ; of ascertaining the meaning of ambiguous 
 expressions, in the original of the Old Testament ; 
 of learning the usages of the modern Jews ; of con 
 versing on past events relating to this extraordinary 
 nation, as recorded in sacred history ; and of tracing 
 its future destiny, by the light of prophecy. They 
 cultivated a mutual friendship while together, and 
 corresponded in Hebrew when apart. One of the 
 Doctor s Hebrew letters on the divinity of the Mes 
 siah, and the glory of his kingdom, consisted of 
 twenty-two quarto pages. 
 
 "The rabbi, not long after his arrival, attended 
 his worship, by agreement, and heard him discourse, 
 in an affectionate manner, on the past dispensations 
 of God s providence toward his chosen people; on his 
 promised design of rendering them an exalted nation* 
 in the latter day glory of the Messiah s kingdom : 
 and on the duty of Christians, and of all nations, to 
 desire a participation in their future glorious state. 
 The rabbi had never heard a Christian preach a ser 
 mon before. Though he attended church at St. 
 Peter s, in Rome ; at St. Paul s, in London ; at Venice, 
 and various other places ; and had been at the Chris 
 tian churches in Jerusalem, he never heard any ser 
 vice, excepting prayers. 
 
 "So catholic was the intercourse between this 
 learned Jew, and learned Christian ! They often 
 spent hours together in conversation and the inform 
 ation, which the extensive travels of the Jew en 
 abled him to give, especially concerning the Holy 
 Land, was a rich entertainment to his Christian 
 friend. The civilities of the rabbi were more than 
 repaid. The Doctor very frequently attended the 
 worship of the synagogue, at Newport, not only 
 
85 
 
 while Rabbi Carigal officiated, but at the ordinary 
 service, before his arrival, and after his departure. 
 
 "With six [five; see the list above] other rabbis 
 of less eminence, he became acquainted and showed 
 them every civility ; while he maintained a friendly 
 communication with the Jews in general, at New 
 port. Such rare and unexpected attentions, from a 
 Christian minister of distinction, could not but afford 
 peculiar gratification to a people, conscious of being 
 a proverb and a by- word among nations. To him, 
 they, accordingly, paid every attention, in return ; 
 and expressed a peculiar pleasure, in admitting him 
 into their families and into their synagogue. 
 
 " His civilities and Catholicism toward the Jews, 
 are worthy of imitation. It is to be feared, that 
 Christians do not, what ought to be done, toward the 
 conversion of this devoted people. While admitted 
 into most countries in Christendom, for the pur 
 poses of trade and commerce,instead of being treated 
 with that humanity and tenderness, which Chris 
 tianity should inspire, they are often persecuted, or 
 contemned as unworthy of notice or legard. Such 
 treatment tends to prejudice them against our holy 
 religion, and to establish them in their infidelity. 
 Besides this the study of the Hebrew language hath 
 been too much laid aside, and we have by that means, 
 been less able to convince the Jews. It is certain 
 that this study hath not only been neglected, but 
 ridiculed ; whereas nothing could be of greater use 
 to us than a great skill, not only in the Biblical He 
 brew, but the Rabbinical and Talmudical also, to 
 enable us to convince the Jews. By such a skill we 
 might be enabled to use their own weapons against 
 them ; and to dispute against them from the avowed 
 principles of their ancient wise men, for whom they 
 are prone to profess a profound regard. Such was 
 the use which the Doctor made of his Hebrew learn- 
 
86 
 
 ing." (See also Hannah Adams History of the Jews 
 from the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Present Time, 
 London ed., 1818, pp. 461-63 ; my notes in Publica 
 tions of the Jewish Historical Soc., No. 3, pp. 122-125 
 and the authorities there mentioned ; No. 6, p. 79 ; 
 No. 8, pp. 121, 124-5.) 
 
 The foregoing summary of the relations between 
 these two divines is perhaps not as full as it should 
 be, in view of the wealth of material which may be 
 found collected under one caption, in Appendix //., 
 but, owing to exigencies of space, it is not possible 
 here to do more than to hurry over the points 
 elaborately set forth in the subjoined chapter, bear 
 ing upon the Rabbi s personality, his correspondence 
 with the diarist, and some minor details appertain 
 ing to the subject. For other essential features of 
 this remarkable friendship the reader is referred to 
 the chronicler s own words which render the record 
 of this mutual kinship far more valuable than a gen 
 eral resume by another hand would be. 
 
 The first reference to Carigal in the Day-Book is 
 under date of March 5th, 1773 and the last mention 
 of him is on November 3d, 1775. Altogether, the 
 rabbi s stay in Newport did not exceed five and a 
 half months, during which time he does not seem to 
 have left the city once. From the wonderfully ac 
 curate chronological Memoir of the rabbi, given in 
 the Diary under date of July 7th, 1773, it appears 
 that besides travelling extensively through the 
 Orient, he visited Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland 
 and England, and, what seems to be a very impor 
 tant fact, that he made two previous journeys to 
 America; one in 1761, when he officiated for two 
 years in Curacoa, W. I., in place of the rabbi who 
 was finishing his studies abroad, and another in 
 1771, to Jamaica, where during a residence of only 
 twelve months, he is said to have been able to save 
 
as much as one thousand dollars out of his earnings, 
 certainly not as rabbi, to send to his wife in Pales 
 tine. From the West Indies he travelled in the 
 summer of 1772 to Philadelphia, and thence to New 
 York, staying about six and a half months in both 
 places, and arriving at Newport, March 3d, 1773 
 (according to a previous entry in the Diary, vol. i., p. 
 354, the rabbi arrived on March 4th). He seems to 
 have had a desire to live in the West Indies, for after 
 a brief sojourn in Newport, not as the officially 
 recognized spiritual head of the Jewish community, 
 but as its guest, he returned to Barbadoes by way 
 of Surinam, where he died, about 1778, aged 46 
 years, having been born in 1733. Dr. Stiles. gives a 
 very full account of his studies and travels; names 
 all his teachers some of whom may be identified by 
 bibliographers; mentions the cities and countries 
 he visited, including two journeys to London, 
 where, we are told, he earned the respectable salary 
 of ;ioo sterling as teacher at the " Bit Madrash " / 
 refers to his family, living at Hebron, consisting of 
 a wife and two children, a son and a daughter ; and 
 scatters, here and there, other bits of curious infor 
 mation regarding his Jewish friend, which attests 
 his keenness of sight and his extraordinary zeal for 
 accuracy. With an eye for things singular and pic 
 turesque, he describes with much evident relish the 
 rabbi s person, his official and ordinary habit and 
 gives such minute details of dress as even a woman 
 might envy. That portion of the Diary is quite an 
 interesting contribution to Jewish Costumkunde and, 
 if space allowed, I would be tempted to quote the 
 passage in full (I.e., pp. 362-363). He makes many 
 curious statements which others would call absurd 
 in this connection, as for example that the rabbi, 
 on the eve of Purim (March 8th, 1773), wore phylac 
 teries and "the white silk Surplice," or Tallith (p. 
 
354;. an d "other Jewish Talismans" (p. 362;. The 
 most conspicuous article of dress the rabbi wore, 
 was the enormous headgear, which Dr. Stiles de 
 scribes as a "high brown furr cap, exactly like a 
 Womans Muff, and about 9 or 10 inches high" (pp. 
 354, 363), in evidence on all occasions, even in the 
 synagogue. 
 
 The diarist s first impression of him seems to 
 have been quite favorable. "He is a large man, 
 neat and well dressed in the Turkish habit," says 
 the author, and comments on the rabbi s "ingeni 
 ous and sensible " appearance. "He had a long 
 black Beard," says he later on, "the upper lip partly 
 shaven his Head shaved all over." That does not 
 seem plausible, in view of the rabbi s piety ; it is 
 more likely that he was bald and wore the ungainly 
 sable helmet, which is to be seen in his portrait, to 
 disguise this deficiency. As to his upper lip being 
 partly shaven, it is very evident by looking at the 
 likeness before us, that his moustache was of a ten 
 der growth. This is all that the author has to tell 
 us as to his physical appearance. The rest may 
 easily be supplied by the reader, who scans the rab 
 bi s physiognomy, which he now has the opportunity 
 of doing for himself. It is an expressive, intelli 
 gent face; the forehead broad and receding; the 
 ears large, the eyes somewhat dreamy and lustre 
 less ; the beard apparently well trimmed and taper 
 ing to a point. He seems to be attired in a coat of 
 many colors, fitting closely to the neck, where it is 
 relieved by a white collar, or narrow scarf, as also 
 at the cuffs, which are trimmed with some white 
 material. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of 
 all is the hand, whose delicately shaped fingers are 
 almost like a woman s. The pose is one nat 
 ural to a scholar, who is about to expound with up 
 lifted forefinger some intricate passage from an 
 
open book, possibly a volume of the Talmud, which 
 he holds on the palm of his left hand. He looks to 
 be of powerful build and there is a kindliness and a 
 suspicion of benevolence lurking about his lips, 
 which would bespeak him a gentle temper, quite in 
 accord with the tidings his Christian biographer 
 gives of him. The portrait of Rabbi Karigal, as the 
 diarist sometimes spells his name, is mentioned (vol. 
 iii., p. 94), by him on September iQth, 1783, as be 
 ing in the college library at Yale. Upon inquiry I 
 was told by Prof. F. B. Dexter, of that University, 
 and editor of the Literary Diary, that it was no 
 longer there. He referred me to the Rev. J. L,. 
 Jenkins, of Jamaica Plain, Mass, a great-grandson of 
 Dr. Stiles, in whose posession the portrait now is, 
 and to whose kindness I am indebted for the privi 
 lege of reproducing it in this place. In answer to 
 my request to furnish me with some account of this 
 rare and interesting relic he wrote as follows : "The 
 picture I have of the Rabbi is an oil painting what 
 I think is called life size. ... I fear I shall not suc 
 ceed in describing it. It has been greatly admired 
 and much curiosity has been felt as to who painted 
 it and where. The robe of the rabbi is red and his 
 fur head dress, such as Rev. Stiles called a lady s 
 muff. On the painting is the following inscription 
 part of it shows, I think on the photograph you 
 had made : 
 
 I<ABBI RAPHAEL HAIJM ISAAC HARGAL 
 Born at Hebron educated there and at Jerusalem 
 
 MDCCLXXII 
 
 I know little of the painting itself. In my child 
 hood it was in the home of my grandmother, Rev- 
 Stiles daughter Emelia [vide vol. iii., p. 633* of the 
 Diary, for references to her], and was some years 
 ago given to me. At one time it was sent to .... 
 
Copyright, 1902, by GEORGE ALEXANDEK KOHUI. 
 
 RABBI HAYYIM ISAAC CAHIGAL. 
 (1772.) 
 
Boston to be restored and it attracted much atten 
 tion. It is not known who painted it. It is thought 
 I believe to have been painted in Europe." 
 
 If the date 1772 on the painting is genuine, it 
 might have been done by an artist in New York, for 
 he was in that city during six months of that year, 
 having come direct from Jamaica. As to the spell 
 ing of his name on the portrait, it is significant to 
 note that in no other instance is he called Raphael, 
 and Hargal is possibly the phonetic form of Car gal 
 (see above Satius for Seixas, p. 53). Dr. Stiles him 
 self spells it variously, and the title-page of one of 
 the Rabbi s sermons, done into English by Abraham 
 Lopez, Newport, 1773, has the form Karigzl. Fur 
 thermore, we find the following spelling by bibliog 
 raphers : Karigol, Carregal and Kragol (see, besides 
 the sources mentioned in my essay, Publications of 
 the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 3, p. 123 ; 
 Zedner s Catalogue, pp. 167, 182). Our Rabbi was, 
 most probably, the son of R. Hayyim Moses ben 
 Abraham, a prolific author, who flourished in Pal 
 estine at the beginning of the XVIIIth century, 
 and who, strangely enough, is omitted in Azulai s 
 Shem ha-Gedolim. The only other Karigal 6tttKlp) 
 known to bibliographers (vide Michael s Or ha- 
 Hayyim, p. 108, No. 220) is Abraham Karigal, a con 
 temporary of Mardokhai ha-Levi of Kahira, Egypt, 
 in whose collection of Responses called Darke Noam, 
 Venice, 1697-98, 46 and 52, his name is mentioned. 
 He was, in all likelihood, the grandfather of our 
 Rabbi. 
 
 Dr. Stiles seems to have stood in some awe of his 
 friend s learning, and records with much wonder 
 ment that he began his studies at the age of seven 
 and that in his seventeenth year he was ordained 
 Rabbi. Carigal understood, besides Hebrew, his 
 native tongue, both vulgar and classical Arabic (the 
 
latter not so well), the Syriac and Chaldaic dialects 
 and Spanish. It is plausible to suppose that he spoke 
 English, too, for it is hardly possible that the diar 
 ist, however proficient in Hebrew, could carry on an 
 intelligent conversation in the holy tongue with aTal- 
 estinean Rabbi. Of Spanish, as he himself confessed 
 upon one occasion, when listeni g to his friend s dis 
 course in the synagogue (p. 377), he understood very 
 little ; it is, therefore, not unlikelythat the Rabbi, who 
 had spent some years in England prior to his com 
 ing to America, spoke to his Christian friend in 
 English. Apart from the experience derived from 
 his extensive travels, this itinerant Maggid was a 
 man of deep culture, and orthodox as he was in his 
 religious views, he had catholic sympathies- He 
 once told Dr. Stiles (cf . p. 387) that " he wished well 
 to others besides his own Nation, he loved all Man 
 kind," quoting Leviticus xix. 18 in support of his 
 liberal opinions. His wisdom and diffidence are 
 more than once praised by his f iend, who never 
 tires of adding yet another sheaf to the harvest of 
 his tribute. He gives an interesting account of the 
 Rabbi s style as an orator, his fervor and vehemence 
 in a discourse of three-quarters of an hour being par 
 ticularly noted ; criticises his manner of reading 
 and his pronunciation of Hebrew as compared to 
 Hazzan Touro s, and vouchsafes us, now and then, 
 a glimpse into their more intimate moods and con 
 ferences. It is impossible to summarize, however 
 briefly, all that the Appendix (No. II.) holds: the 
 visits they exchanged, the topics they discussed, the 
 letters they wrote when together and apart, some of 
 the diarist s being quite voluminous, even after Car- 
 igal had, so to speak, completely passed out of his 
 life. This latter phase, their correspondence in 
 Hebrew, will be duly considered by the present 
 writer in another place. It remains to be said, in 
 
93 
 
 conclusion, that it was Carigal s intention to settle 
 in Antigua, W. I., after leaving Newport, there be 
 ing at that time, according to his own knowledge, 
 three Rabbis settled in the New World, "one in 
 Jamaica, another at Surinam, and another at Eusta- 
 tia or Curacoa" (p. 392). Carigal s farewell visit to 
 Stiles sounds a tender note: He "took leave of me 
 very affectionately," writes the diarist (pp. 399-400), 
 "praying God to bless me. I told him I parted from 
 him with great Reluctance, and should ever retain 
 an affection for him that it was probable we might 
 never see each other in the Land of the Living and 
 wished we might after Death meet together in the 
 Garden of Eden. . . . He wished me reciprocally and 
 my Family every blessing and .... said he loved 
 me from the heart, had my Name in his Book, and 
 should send it to Jerusalem, where I should be soon 
 known as I was here." 
 
 The Rabbi s book is, no doubt, lost to the world, 
 but the memory of the man he would fain have 
 honored is preserved along with his own aere peren- 
 nius ! 
 
 The fourth on the list of the diarist s Rabbinical 
 acquaintances is ^?. Tobiah Ben Jehudah. He first 
 met him on visiting the synagogue, November 19th, 
 1773, on which date he writes that he " was intro 
 duced to a new Rabbi from Poland." Three days 
 afterwards we read : "Visited this Afternoon by 
 Rabbi Tobiah Bar [sic] Jehudah late from [blank 
 space follows] near Cracow in Poland aet. 48. We 
 had much Conversation on the Zohar. . . ." The 
 following day we are told that the Rabbi called 
 again, but Dr. Stiles was not at home, and being a 
 man very punctilious in matters of courtesy and 
 etiquette, the visit was returned before many hours 
 had passed. The Rabbi appears to have been a 
 guest of Mr. Touro s, the Reader of the synagogue, 
 
94 
 
 for it was there that the author paid his respects to 
 the Rabbi and honored them with his company at 
 supper. It being " the only Time" he "ever hap 
 pened at Meal with a Jew," the impression made 
 upon him on that occasion is of more than passing 
 interest. Just before they sat down to supper 
 Water was bro t by the Maid, in a white earthern 
 Bottle which stood in a Vase or Bason : they two 
 washed their hands, taking up the bottle and pour 
 ing the Water on the hand. I asked if this was 
 ^30 (because the Baptists say this word denotes total 
 not partial Immersions) they said yes & quoted a 
 passage of the Talmud that none can eat till they 
 had thus washed themselves in which I recollect the 
 word t>3B was twice repeated. I did not wash, but 
 sat down & eat with them. After sitting each in a 
 whispering voice said Grace for himself. The Rabbi 
 said, that in the days of Messiah, it would be allowed 
 to the Jews to eat Swines Flesh . I said that Abra 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob when they come with Messiah, 
 would not eat Food as formerly ; he said they would 
 
 I asked him the Value of a couple of Pearls 
 
 I had & of the dimensions I described ; he said if 
 good, 500 Ducats which is about 100 sterling. . . . 
 He is a great Cabbalist and Philosopher ; which two 
 Branches of knowledge are far more to his Tast 
 than the Talmud. He has a son of about 13 years 
 age when aet. 12 he had read thro the Talmud. 
 This Rabbi was educated and spent 26 years in 
 Amsterdam, whither he was sent aet. 8. He told me 
 was of the Family and ninth Descendant of R. 
 Selomoh Ishaaci the celebrated Commentator who 
 died A.D. 1180" (cf. pp. 421 and 422). 
 
 Such amenities between Jews and Gentiles were 
 not so isolated as one might suppose ; many in 
 stances illustrative of this interchange of civilities 
 in all ages are pointed out by Israel Abrahams, in 
 
95 
 
 his fascinating book on Jewish Life in the Middle 
 Ages, Philadelphia, 1896, pp. 422-29. A striking ex 
 ample is that ot John Buxtorf, senior (1564-1629), 
 the distinguished Christian Hebraist, who, from the 
 year 1617 on, gave one or two Jewish scholars, to 
 gether with their families, food and lodging. On 
 one occasion, Abraham b. Elieser Braunschweig, 
 his collaborator on the Basel edition of the Bible, 
 invited him to be present at the initiatory ceremonies 
 of his eight-day-old son. He came attended by his 
 son-in-law and two other citizens, all of whom were 
 heavily fined for the offense ; the father of the in 
 fant had to pay 400 gulden, Buxtorf 100 and the 
 others, in lieu of money, had to suffer a three days 
 imprisonment (cf. the article in Literaturblatt des 
 Orients, 1847, P- 811; Steinschneider, Hebr. BibL, 
 vol. xxi., p. 99, and sources cited). A Jew of Frank 
 fort in the i8th century stood god-father to a Chris 
 tian child (Schechter, Studies in Judaism, p. 354), and 
 Schudt relates, that being called to account for this 
 breach of law, the Christian parent blandly admitted 
 that he appointed the Jew to that sacred office sim 
 ply to wheedle him into giving a silver cup for a 
 baptismal gift (Pathen-Geschenk]. This same author 
 tells us moreover, that at the beginning of the same 
 century, on the island of Zante,the relations between 
 Greeks, Romans, Englishmen and Jews were of 
 so cordial a nature, that a Jew was often asked to be 
 god-father to a Christian child (see Juedische Merk- 
 wtierdigkeiten, 1715, vol. i., p. 223, where authorities 
 are given). 
 
 In the above account, here and there curtailed by 
 the editor of the Diary, we have a curious resume of 
 the Rabbi s accomplishments and ancestry. That 
 he was a descendant of Rashi (who, by the way, died 
 in 1105 not 1 1 80) need not be seriously considered ; 
 Jews were never sure of their lineage and genealog- 
 
96 
 
 ical trees, improvised to order, were a pastime for 
 the most scrupulous of them. They loved to date 
 back their lineage to some distinguished scholar and 
 this is but another instance of such conceits. 
 
 Dr. Stiles was naturally more interested in him 
 because of his leaning towards mysticism than he 
 otherwise would have been. Being a "great Cab- 
 balist and Philosopher," he made good his oppor 
 tunity and inquired into such things for example as 
 alchemy and other trancendental lore (vide vol. ii., 
 pp. 173-74; iii., 348, 470, etc.). On one occasion 
 (July ist, 1777) he seems to have felt the need of 
 apologizing for his interest in such subjects and 
 states most emphatically that he is no "Adept" of 
 what he terms the "Rosacrucian Philosophy," adding 
 this bit of information touching our rabbi: "The only 
 Man that I ever suspected as a real & true Adept 
 was Rabbi Tobias [sic] of Poland, but he evaded my 
 Interrogatives & communicated to me nothing I 
 believe he was only a conjectural speculative Phil 
 osopher" (cf. vol. ii.p. 174). Of another man, whom 
 he believed to be an "adept," he says (ibid., p. 216) 
 that he might have passed among the Chemists for a 
 
 DK> hyi . . ." 
 
 The evening of the 30th of November he again 
 spent in the Rabbi s society "at Mr. Touros," and he 
 records the fact that the former preached on Nov. 
 20th, 27th, and December 4th. The last time he too 
 attended, and heard him discourse in Dutch for 56 
 minutes (ibid., p. 423). The visit of this Polish Rab 
 bi put him in mind of his friend Carigal for on the 
 3d of December he finished a Hebrew letter of 22 
 pages to him. 
 
 Now we come to the fifth rabbi, whose name the 
 diarist has preserved in his journal. The single 
 reference to him, under date of June 15th, 1774 
 (ibid., p. 443) is as full as one may expect : 
 
97 
 
 "Yesterday, visited a new Rabbi come to Town. 
 Rabbi Bosquila from Smyrna in the Levant where 
 he was born and educated. He resided with his 
 Family 14 years in London, is now aet. 61, for many 
 years has followed Traffic & laidaside his rabbinical 
 Studies. He says he has not read the Talmud, 
 which I was surprised at, as by the Certificate under 
 the hand of a London Rabbi he appears to be indeed 
 a Rabbi but he has read the Zohar. The Bible 
 and Zohar he is versed in and few other Books. 
 He is of contracted and limited Literature he is 
 among the Rabbins, as a Minister whose Reading 
 has been limited to the Bible and Willards 
 [Ridglys] Body of Divinity among the Ministers of 
 New England." 
 
 The Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica does not mention 
 either Bosquila or Carigal, though both of them 
 claimed to have spent some years in London, the 
 latter as teacher at a Beth ha-Midrash (see above]. 
 The name itself is quite unique, in its peculiar or 
 thography in Jewish literature. It is possible that 
 here, too, we have a case of phonetic spelling, and 
 that Bosquila is identical with Boshal. Such an 
 identification is made plausible not only by the var 
 ious ways in which that name is pronounced (see 
 Steinschneider Bodleian Catalogus, p. 1780, No. 6440), 
 but by reason of the fact that both our Rabbi Bosqui 
 la and Moses ben Solomon dei Boshal (or Buschal) 
 hail from Smyrna. The latter flourished about the 
 middle of the XVIIth Century (see the bibliograph 
 ers) and the date of Bosquila s birth is 1713. There 
 is no other known person bearing that name. 
 
 The last one of the six Rabbis, whom the diarist 
 knew personally, was Rabbi Samuel Cohen, who is 
 mentioned, under date of June 29th, 1775 (ibid., p. 
 578), as arrived from Jerusalem 3^ years ago. Him 
 too, as was his custom, the worthy Doctor visited 
 
9 8 
 
 first. The call was soon afterwards returned by the 
 Rabbi, in company with the Reader of the syna 
 gogue, who seems to have taken all such dignitaries 
 of the temple under his wing. The Rabbi is "set, 
 34," writes the diarist (ibid., p. 584) on July 10th ; 
 " was born & educated in the Holy Land, & came 
 from Hebron about 3 years ago. He is a Priest, be 
 ing of the Family of Aaron. Very agreeable. His 
 
 learning rather general than profound " The 
 
 account, owing to exigencies of space, breaks off 
 again abruptly, and the only other items recorded 
 of his Jewish friend are that the latter preached in 
 the synagogue on the occasion of the Continental 
 Fast ordered by Congress at Philadelphia and ap 
 pointed by Proclamation by the General Assembly 
 of the Colonyjuly 20, 1775 (p. 591); and that he visited 
 him August 16th (p. 601), after the Rabbi had paid 
 his respects to him some three weeks before (July 
 26th, p. 594). Their chief topic of conversation was 
 on some seeming inconsistencies of the Biblical 
 code, the decipherment of certain rock-inscriptions 
 on Mt. Sinai and some minor points in the topog 
 raphy of Jerusalem all of which are too unimpor 
 tant to be reproduced. During the Rabbi s residence 
 at Newport he attended worship once, on the 15th 
 of July (p. 585). 
 
 This is the long but uniformly interesting story 
 of the literary friendship between Ezra Stiles and 
 the six Jewish wise men from the East, whose name 
 and fame are so faithfully chronicled for righteous 
 ness in the journal of one of the most learned and 
 loyal Americans in New England. It forms a pre 
 cious chapter in the history of human culture. 
 
FURTHER PROGRESS IN SEMITICS AND THE STUDY 
 OF HEBREW AT YALE. 
 
 The arrival of Rabbi Carigal in Newport was an 
 epoch in the life of Dr. Stiles. It was not without 
 influence upon his Hebrew studies. At the very 
 first interview with his Jewish friend be conversed 
 on the difference of the dialects of the Chaldee, 
 Syriac, and Rabbinical Hebrew, on the Targums, 
 Talmud and kindred subjects (vol. i., pp. 357-8). 
 Before long we find him corresponding at length in 
 fluent Hebrew and filling a score of quarto pages, 
 addressed to the Rabbi, with a dissertation on the 
 divinity of the Messiah, composed in the sacred 
 tongue (see supra, p. 84). This interesting corres 
 pondence, together with other Hebrew and Arabic 
 papers, are preserved among his literary remains at 
 the Yale University Library and, it is to be hoped, 
 will soon be made accessible by the present writer 
 elsewhere. They afford ample material for a spe 
 cial chapter, setting forth the attainments of Dr. 
 Stiles in Hebrew and other Semitic languages. On 
 the 19th of June 1773 (vol. i., p. 388) he finished 
 reading Abulfeda s Description of Africa in Arabic ; 
 on December loth, then entering into his 46th year, 
 he "began to read a daily portion of theTargum of 
 Onkelos in Chaldee" (ibid. p. 424); on the 31st he 
 wrote another long letter of 29 pages in Hebrew to 
 Rabbi Carigal and he records the interesting fact 
 that Rev. Dr. Samuel Locke, President of Harvard 
 College, whom he lauds as a "Hebrician," made an 
 "Oration in Chaldee at the first public Commence 
 ment after his Election to the Presidency," which he 
 heard (p. 390). At one of these academic functions 
 in July, 1773, there was, besides the other scholastic 
 tournaments, "a Dialogue in Arabic" (p. 400) which 
 speaks well for the Oriental department of that in- 
 
100 
 
 stitution. January i8th of the following year finds 
 him examining the Syriac translation of the New 
 Testament (p. 431); February 2d, the Targum on 
 Psalm XLV. (p. 435), and by the 14th of May, he 
 "finished-reading the Targum on the last 16 Chap 
 ters of Isaiah by Jon a Ben Uzziel" (p. 440). On 
 November i6th he consults the Targum on Zech- 
 ariah (p. 476) ; on the 18th he is busy comparing 
 New Testament passages in Syriac (p. 485); and on 
 the 1 6th of December he records with much joy the 
 receipt of a batch of Rabbinical commentaries from 
 New Haven via New York, and adds that he has 
 now "a feast of Hebrew" (pp. 501-2). On February 
 15th, 1775 he is reading a dissertation "on the He 
 brew Points," concerning the antiquity of which he 
 addresses a letter to a tutor at Yale. A copy of this 
 is preserved among his papers (p. 517). March 23d 
 finds him deep in the perusal of "the History of 
 Hai Ebn Yohdhan, written in Arabic by Abu Jaafar 
 Ebn Tophail about A.D. 1150" (p. 528). On May 
 18th, having finished the Bible, he began again with 
 critical reference to the Greek and Hebrew versions 
 and occasional use of the Zohar, the Syriac text and 
 the Rabbis (p. 555). His critique of the compara 
 tive utility of all these aids to interpretation (pp. 
 556-58; 591-2) is highly entertaining. On July 
 iQth he is writing another letter in Hebrew to his 
 friend Carigal (p. 589); on the 2/th he is "reading in 
 the Talmud" (p. 594). Then follows quite a signifi 
 cant pause in his Oriental studies, owing, no doubt, 
 to the strenuous times through which the country 
 was then passing. On the nth of July, 1778, he 
 resumes his pastime, for such it was to him, only 
 now his attention turns to Armenian (vol. ii., p. 
 282) instead of Syriac. 
 
 On the 27th he enters upon a new phase of 
 his scholastic career as teacher of Semitics at 
 
IOI 
 
 Yale. Though this service was not required of 
 the college president, he volunteered, wishing 
 to benefit the college to the utmost of his power. 
 The entry he makes in his Day-Book under this 
 date is highly interesting, inasmuch as he makes 
 us acquainted with some "Hebricians" among the 
 tutors and students, the latter numbering a little 
 over a score, all mentioned by name. The 3ist of 
 the month finds him duly installed in his new dig 
 nity (ibid., pp. 290-291). A little less than a year 
 afterwards (June 28, 1779 ; ib., p. 350) a Hebrew 
 oration is a feature of the exercises connected with 
 the public examination of the candidates for the de 
 gree of A. B. at Harvard College. On the 30th he 
 jots down some complacent reflections on the excel 
 lent progress made by the freshmen in Hebrew. "I 
 began with the Alphabet" says he "& carried the 
 whole Class thro more or less accordg to their Arriv 
 als. I divided them into 2 parts one have recited 
 the first & part of the 2 d psalm ; the other & prin 
 cipal part have finished translating the seven first 
 psalms and parsed the first & part of the 2 d psalm." 
 No wonder then, that in the full glow of pride, he 
 should exclaim : "I do not find that any Class have 
 been carried thro half so much these many years" 
 (p- 35)- For over a year we hear nothing more of 
 his classes; on July 24th 1780 (p. 452) the freshmen are 
 again under his charge in Hebrew and it would seem 
 from an entry in the Diary, under date of August 
 2ist, that they had a daily recitation (p. 459). The 
 next year he began his instruction on June 20th, 
 only half of the Freshman Class participating (p. 541). 
 On September 12th, 1781, though " in constant 
 fear that Commencement will be interrupted by the 
 Enemy," elaborate exercises were held, which were 
 all the more interesting because it was the first 
 public ceremony after an intermission of seven 
 
102 
 
 years. The duties of the President on that occasion 
 were arduous, including "an Oration upon the Ori 
 ental Learning, in Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic." 
 The manuscript of this Hebrew oration, we are told 
 by the editor of the Diary (p. 554, note 2), is preserved 
 among Dr. Stiles s papers. It appears that it had, 
 originally, been written in 1778, this being the first 
 opportunity for its delivery. That day must have 
 been a great intellectual feast for Dr. Stiles. On 
 the 10th of October he is deep in the Babylonian 
 Talmud (p. 558), and January 4th, 1782, finds him 
 engaged in teaching " two Hebrew Classes at sep 
 arate Recitations" (vol. iii., p. 1). The study of 
 Hebrew at Yale seems to have been encouraged by 
 a special endowment-fund of " 22 Silver Money 
 per ann. to the President & Fellows of Yale College 
 for .... a Professorship of Hebrew and other Ori 
 ental Languages." The donor was the Rev. Richard 
 Salter (Diary, May 15th, 1781; vol. ii., p. 533; vol. 
 iii., p. 262). On the afternoon of a hot summer day, 
 July 22, 1782, Hebrew recitations were resumed 
 (ibid., vol. iii., p. 32); on the following day he in 
 structed two classes, and thenceforth two Hebrew 
 exercises a day were quite the rule (ibid., pp. 33, 36, 
 51, 81, 88, 89, 90 et passim). Sometimes, in his zeal 
 for Hebrew studies, he taught three hours at a 
 stretch (p. 88). By the 3d of September, 1783 (p. 91), 
 the Freshmen had gone through three Psalms in 
 the original. The next year there were several 
 flourishing Hebrew classes (p. 127). In the mean 
 while the diarist sought recreation in reading Ethi- 
 opic texts (p. 117) and acquiring French (p. 130), 
 besides indulging in occasional disquisitions upon 
 Biblical themes, quoting all the learned data at his 
 command. Sometimes, too, as in vol. iii., p. 88, he 
 calls our attention to Semitic scholars and Oriental 
 ists, concerning whom the present writer has a word 
 
to say in another place. We even hear of a balloon- 
 ascension, the chief attraction of which, to the diar 
 ist, appears to have been " a flag of the United 
 States," with the legend, " Nil Intentatum nostri 
 liquere afixed to it in seven different Languages 
 viz Latin Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic French 
 & German" (May 10, 1785; vol. iii., p. 161). Prizes 
 were evidently offered to Hebrew classes as an in 
 ducement to study (ibid., p. 134), although the Doc 
 tor s own children, out of pure devotion, read their 
 Bible through five and six times, as in the case of 
 his two daughters, 17 and 19 years old respectively 
 (ibid.}. The Hebrew recitations were continued at 
 regular intervals. On one day the journal records 
 three exercises. It is needless to do more now than 
 refer to the entries on the subject of the progress 
 of his classes, the quotations being altogether too 
 numerous to reproduce (See pp. 141, 144, 148, 164, 
 
 167, 174, 175, 176, 183, 200, 232, 234, 236, 237, 255, 257, 
 
 258, 267, 270, 271, 272, 273, 275, 276, 278, 279, etc., etc.). 
 Occasionally a tutor examined his Freshmen in the 
 sacred tongue (cf. p. 272). It is not to be assumed 
 that Dr. Stiles s pupils were all enthusiasts in their 
 work. Quite to the contrary. We have on record a 
 characteristic confession from the pen of one, who 
 was then, in 1788, a Senior, and who (the Hon. Jer 
 emiah Mason) writes thus in his Autobiography: 
 " During our Senior year .... the President insisted 
 that the whole class should undertake the study of 
 Hebrew. We learned the alphabet, and worried 
 through two or three Psalms, after a fashion ; with 
 the most of us it was mere pretense. The President 
 had the reputation of being very learned in He 
 brew, as well as several other Eastern dialects. For 
 the Hebrew he possessed a high veneration. He 
 said one of the Psalms he tried to teach us would 
 
104 
 
 be the first we should hear sung in heaven, and that 
 he should be ashamed that any one of his pupils 
 should be entirely ignorant of that holy language " 
 (Diary, vol. iii., p. 306, note 2). 
 
 The diarist was too sagacious not to know that 
 his students were not all uniformly devoted to 
 Semitics. On June 3oth, 1790, he writes under the 
 burden of this knowledge : " From my first Acces 
 sion to the Presidency 1777 to 1790 I have obliged 
 all the Freshmen to study Hebrew. This has 
 proved very disagreeable to a Number of the Stu 
 dents. This year I have determined to instruct only 
 those who offer themselves voluntarily, and that at 
 subsecivis horis only without omitting any of the 
 three daily classical Recitations to their Tutor. 
 Accordingly of 39 Fresh. 22 have asked for Instruc 
 tion in Heb. and these Accordingly I teach at iv. 
 P.M. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. I have be 
 sides several of the other classes at other times * 
 (ibid.,^. 397). And yet, despite the revolt against 
 the study of Hebrew, some of the students gained 
 proficiency in Semitics and at college-commence 
 ments, Sept. 14, 1785 and Sept. 12, 1792, one of 
 their number "delivered an Hebrew Oration" (ibid., 
 p. 184; 474). Dr. Stiles must have been a wonder 
 ful pedagogue, for in less than two week s time, he 
 says, that he taught a Freshman, wholly ignorant 
 of Hebrew, almost the entire grammar, including 
 i the translation and parsing of Psalm I. in the orig 
 inal (see p. 410). 
 
 Though his time was well occupied, the genial 
 diarist did not for a moment neglect his own private 
 studies. His critical researches and exegetical notes, 
 scattered throughout the pages of the journal, would 
 vindicate for him quite a prominent place in the 
 ranks of American Orientalists (vol. ii., pp. 465-7; 
 .508 ; iii., 3 ; 32-33 ; 347). To a lengthy passage from 
 
the Book of Tobit, which he quotes in full, he ap 
 pends a rather tedious, if learned, dissertation on 
 Messianic prophecy, and fixes the approximate date 
 of the Return of the Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild 
 the Third Temple, which, he maintains, will take 
 place A.D. 2370. "They will accomplish this effect 
 ually about perhaps 20 miles North of it [Jerusalem] 
 & elect themselves a King whose Name shall be 
 David or Beloved." There is much more in this 
 strain, showing that Dr. Stiles was really one of the 
 forerunners of Zionism. He called himself a " Mil- 
 lenialist," and was always gratified to find similar 
 views and convictions in others (cf, vol. iii., p. 393). 
 The Hebrew phrases, generously interspersed here 
 and there in his remarks (sadly misprinted in the 
 Diary, as, for instance, in vol. ii,, pp. 465, 466, 508; 
 vol. iii., pp. 32, 534), would indicate his easy famili 
 arity with certain idioms and colloquialisms current 
 among Jews (cf. vol. iii., pp, 33, 35). He is very 
 fond of using Hebrew characters, and, once or twice 
 (pp. 35, 36), he employs them as a sort of cipher- 
 code. The name YHVH was never absent from his 
 speculations on mystic emblems (vol. iii., p. 470), 
 and he actually believed, judging from a significant 
 passage in his Day-Book (February llth, 1781 ; vol 
 ii., p. 509), to have spread new light on Messianic 
 prophecy by his own interpretation of Jewish au 
 thors: "So the Christians with their Rights can 
 better understand the Rabbinical Writ gs than the 
 Rabbins themselves." All his zeal and enthusiasm 
 in examining original Hebrew texts (vol. iii., p. 
 201), passages in the Syriac version (ibid., p. 208), in 
 the Targum and other Jewish commentaries (p. 
 342) were directed toward the attainment of one 
 object to glorify Christian doctrine. He was not 
 narrow in any sense, not even in theology, but yet 
 his constant insistence upon Jewish proofs of New 
 Testament truths is a bit trying. 
 
"Justin Martyr s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew " 
 must have lent him much food for kindred thought 
 (ibid., p. 345). On March 25th, 1790 (ibid., p. 386), he 
 records that he has " finished the Transl a of the Life 
 of Joseph the Father of Christ into Hebrew twenty 
 eight Pages Quarto, I translated it from the Latin," 
 adds he, " which was a Trans 1 from the Arabic, 
 which had been translated from the Hebrew o r 
 Syriac. As a curious Experiment I translated it 
 into Hebrew." Three years later (January 5, 1793; 
 ibid., p. 433) he writes : " Yesterday I finished trans- 
 lats the Hist7of Joseph the Carpenter in English. 
 It was originally written in Hebrew by the Apostles : 
 thence translated into Arabic : thence by Willen in 
 1722 into Latin: from thence I translated it into 
 English," I leave the solution of this curious bib 
 liographic puzzle to learned specialists. 
 
 Besides delivering several discourses on the Ori 
 ental languages (ibid., pp. 213, 236, 335, 341, 421); 
 "reading Josipus [sic] Ben Gorion " (ib. t p. 237) and 
 a large quarto volume by Bayerius on " Hebrew- 
 Samar. Shekels & Coins/ sent to him by Dr. Benja 
 min Franklin, an occasional donor of Hebrew books 
 (ibid., p. 388; cf. vol. i., p. 70;, he made some study 
 of vulgar Arabic, as spoken by negro slaves in Trin 
 idad, in the West Indies (vol. iii., p. 276), and in 
 July, 1793, devoted much time to "read g the Alco 
 ran " (p. 498 ; cf. also p. 518). Nor was this all ; on 
 September 9th, 1781 (vol. ii., p. 553), he wrote a 
 "Letter in Hebrew to Mr. Simpson [sic] the aged 
 Jew at Wilton in Norwalk " [Connecticut], concern 
 ing whom Prof. Dexter s abbreviated text tenders 
 no other information save that he was an old man, 
 "set. 86 circa ... a Refugee from N. York." The 
 diarist visited him on January 18, 1782 (vol. iii., p. 3), 
 and describes with much care a MS. Bible, written 
 on parchment and held to be 1200 years old, which 
 
the owner s son, Mr. Simson [sic], Jr., had brought to 
 him for inspection (ibid., pp, 3,32-33). Owing to exi 
 gencies of space, I shall reserve this interesting bibli 
 ographic note for publication elsewhere, tog-ether 
 with other critical items from the Z&zrp, here omitted. 
 Dr. Stiles had other Jewish correspondents besides 
 those already mentioned in these pages. Under 
 date of May 3d, 1790 {voL iii., p, 392) we read: "Last 
 week I rec d a Lett, from Mr. Isaac Pinto a learned 
 Jew at N York, dated 14 Apr., upon the Heb. In 
 scription which I found at Kent last falL He adds 
 no Light upon the subject being as much puzzled 
 as I was, ..." Here the editor of the journal breaks 
 off abruptly and we learn nothing more of these 
 Semitic antiquities, but elsewhere he refers quite 
 often to other alleged inscriptions in Punic or Phoa- 
 nician character graven on a Rock at Dighton, 
 Mass., the identity of which puzzled him a good 
 deal. The eager diarist had made two copies of 
 the rock-engraved legend, one in 1766 and another 
 in 1788. He mentions other Hebrew inscriptions in 
 Rhode Island and Connecticut, one of which he 
 assumes, because the " characters are good Hebrew " 
 and well executed, to have been the work of " Jews 
 who have been visiting the Kent & New Milfd. 
 Mountains for Gold Mines for 30 y. past " (cf. p. 368). 
 The date on one of them is 1733, Mr. Pinto s letter 
 to Dr. Stiles is upon the elucidation of this mystery 
 (see, concerning Pinto, the references in Appendix /., 
 No 2 : " Jews in New Haven and elsewhere in Con 
 necticut "). The diarist appears to have written a 
 dissertation upon these Hebrew antiquities (ibid., p. 
 396) and to have corresponded with a number of 
 learned archaeologists on the subject (see also pp. 
 19-20; 72; 330; 366; 402). Similar finds have been 
 made in Brazil, in the West Indies, in Newark, N. 
 J., and New York, and there is quite an extensive 
 controversy extant as to their authenticity. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 STATISTICAL NOTES 
 LTHE JEWS IN NEWPORT. 
 
 Among Dr. Stiles papers is a list of " Jews in New 
 port in 1760," as follows {Literary Diary, vol. i., p. 11, 
 note 2] : 
 
 2 Harts, 4 souls 
 
 Moses Levy & Brother, 7 " 
 
 - Sarsidas, 6 " 
 
 Aaron Lopez, 7 
 
 Moses Lopez, 11 " 
 
 Jacob Isaacs, 5 " 
 
 Isaac Elizur, 2 " 
 
 old Police, 6 
 
 Issachar Police, 1 " 
 
 - Police, junior, 2 " 
 
 Rod. Levarez [Alvarez ?}, 5 " 
 
 - Hart, 2 " 
 
 - Lucina, 
 
 To this list is appended the note, " Moses Levy 
 reckoned 56 souls of Jews Mar. 2, 1761, and 10 Fami 
 lies." 
 
 From the draft of a letter of Dr. Stiles to the Rev. 
 Dr. Nathaniel Lardner, of London, dated June 20, 1764. 
 and preserved among the Stiles Papers : 
 
 We have 15 or 20 Families of Jews here, almost the 
 only ones in New England (& perhaps there are not so 
 many more on this Continent). They have erected a 
 small synagogue in New York ; and another at Newport, 
 met in for the first time in December last; it is superbly 
 finished withinside at a cost of 2,000. sterling; in the 
 place of the Ark they have deposited Three Vellum 
 Copies, Rolls of the Law, one of which is said to be 
 above Two hundred years old, which I judge true from 
 the Aspect & Rabbinical Flourishes. They have a 
 Chuzzan from Amsterdam [on the Scrolls of the Law, 
 see our notes supra, pp. 59, 61]. 
 
109 
 
 In 1755 Dr. Stiles, writing to a friend in England, 
 reports fifteen Jewish families in Newport (vide above, 
 p. 18). 
 
 In 1760 the number remains the same (see Willner, in 
 Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 6, p. 124). 
 
 The following is a "List of owners of vessels in 
 Newport in 1762, according to the diarist (Willner, I.e.): 
 
 " Mr. Lopez 1 brig 
 
 * Hart 1 ship 2 brigs 
 
 " Jacob Isaacs 1 brig 
 
 " Elizur 2 sloops 
 
 " Meyers 1 sloop " 
 
 Aaron Lopez, as we have seen above (p. 30), had, in 
 1772, about 20 vessels. 
 
 In 1773 he wrote : " There are now in Town about 
 Twenty-five Families of Jews " (cf. supra, p. 23). 
 
 Although Ralph Isaacs, Jr., frequently mentioned in 
 the Diary (cf. Index, vol. iii., p. 605 a ), is said to have 
 been of Jewish descent (see Publications, No. 6, pp. 
 151-53), he need not be taken into account in this paper. 
 
 2.JE WS IN NE W HA VEN AND EL SE WHERE 
 IN CONNECTICUT. 
 
 In 1760, Dr. Stiles found, on inquiry, that there were 
 no Jews in the colony of Connecticut. 
 
 In 1762 he records that a list of all families in Bristol 
 contains no Jews. On January 6th, 1762, he writes : 
 "I learn in conversation with Capt. Jno. Nichols that 
 there are no Jews in New Haven." One year later, 
 January 27th, 1763, he says: "Dr. Hubbard of New 
 Haven [father-in-law of Dr. Stiles] writes me that five 
 Papists, but no Jews live there " (Willner, I.e.). 
 
 On the 7th of September, 1772, he set out on a jour 
 ney to Connecticut, and in a separate volume, called 
 Itinerary, under date of September 13th., we read the 
 following item (vol. i., pp. 283-84) : 
 
 "The Summer past a Family of Jews settled here, the 
 first real Jews (except two Jew Brothers Pintos who 
 
renounced Judaism & all Religion) that settled in N. 
 Haven. They came from Venice, sat down some little 
 Time at Eustatia in W. Indies, & lately removed here. 
 They are three Brothers (Adults) with an aged Mother, 
 and a Widow & her Children, being in all about 10 or 8 
 Souls Jews, with six or 8 Negroes. Last Saturday they 
 kept holy; Dr. Hubbard was sent for then to see one 
 of them sick : he told me the Family were worship 8 by 
 themselves in a Room in which were Lights & a sus 
 pended Lamp. This is the first Jewish Worship in 
 New Haven. . . . [editor s abridgment] These Jews 
 indeed worship in the Jewish Manner ; but they are not 
 eno to constitute & become a Synagogue, for which 
 there must be 12 Men at least. So that if there shd. 
 hereafter be a Synagogue in N. H. it must not be dated 
 from this Besides these there is a few [Jews?] in Town 
 that belong to none of these Meetings but are Separates 
 & associate with others scattered in the neighboring 
 parishes." 
 
 The two brothers, whose estrangement from the 
 synagogue is noted by the accurate diarist, were Jacob 
 and Solomon Pinto, the latter being among those cap 
 tured by the British in 1779 (Diary, vol. ii., p. 365; cf. 
 supra, p. 35). They are both included in the " Roll of 
 the Citizens of New Haven Feb. 5, 1784." At their 
 first incorporation, as among the "Persons Quallifyed 
 according to Law to be made Free of this Corporation" 
 (Diary, vol. iii., pp. 107, col. 2; 109, col. 2). Whether 
 they were related to the Pintos of New York, who are 
 likewise mentioned by the diarist, it is difficult to deter 
 mine. 
 
 A Jacob and Samuel Pinto are signed as witnesses 
 to the will of Joshua Isaacs dated July 13, 1744 (Record 
 of Wills in N. Y. Surrogate s office, vol. xv., Nos. 245 
 and 246, pp. 235-37 ; see my notes in Publications Am. 
 Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 3, p. 143, note 20), and members 
 of the same family, no doubt, lived in Surinam and in 
 the West Indies. 
 
Ill 
 
 Isaac Pinto, who is most likely identical with the 
 English translator of the Sephardic prayerbook (see 
 my notes, I.e., pp. 118-22; and also in Bishop Wright s 
 Early Prayerbooks in America, New York, 1896, where 
 a facsimile of the title-page is given ; see furthermore 
 an article in the Israelite, Cincinnati, 1863, vol. x., No. 
 13, p. 100: "An American Hebrew Translator"), cor 
 responded in Hebrew with Rabbi Carigal in Newport, 
 in June, 1773, with reference to some Arabic words in 
 Ibn Ezra (Diary, vol. i., p. 386; see Appendix II., 
 entry: "June 14th "). In May, 1790, Dr. Stiles received 
 a letter from Mr. Isaac Pinto, whom he describes as a 
 learned Jew in New York, upon some Hebrew rock- 
 inscriptions which taxed the diarist s ingenuity (voL 
 iii., p. 392). It is evident from all this that at least 
 learned Jews in colonial America kept pretty well in 
 touch with one another. 
 
 3. JEWS IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 11 Mr Tauro the Jew priest or Chuzan of this Town 
 tells me," says Dr. Stiles, under date of July 18th, 1771 
 (vol. i., p. 124), "there are about a Dozen Jew Families 
 in Philadelphia, and that they are opening a Synagogue 
 there. He is lately from New York, but did not see 
 the York Chuzan because he was gone to Philad a upon 
 that affair. I suppose therefore that he has gone to 
 form them & begin the Synag. Worship there. They 
 have no Edifice as yet. But I conclude this may date 
 the Beginning of the Synag. Worship in Philad a ." 
 
 Of the alleged conversion of Mr. Hayes, a Jew of 
 Philadelphia, who had a brother living in Newport, we 
 have already spoken (cf. supra, pp. 45-46). 
 
 On February 20th, 1789 (vol. iii., pp. 341-2), Dr. 
 Stiles drew up a comparative table of " Births & Burials 
 in the City of Philadelphia from Dec. 25, 1787 to Dec. 
 55, 1788." The list is too long to be copied in full. 
 The largest number of " christenings " among German 
 Lutherans was 421; burials, 157; among Jews,yfo<? of 
 one and two of the other. 
 
112 
 
 " Remark 1. Say Totals of Deaths in the year 1161 
 or 1200, and this 30th part, then the Number of Inhab . 
 in the City may be estimated 35 Thous d Souls. Rem. 2. 
 As 1200 : 35 or 3600 : : 100 : 3000 Souls. At which rate 
 the Sects stand thus : 
 
 Germans 229 -f Swedes 1 5 = 244 
 
 Eng. Episc 152 
 
 Quakers 148 
 
 Romanists 145 
 
 Presbyterians 101 but 173 inch Germ. Calv. 
 
 Baptists 4 
 
 Sweeds 15 
 
 JEWS 2 
 
 Moravians 6 " 
 
 4. JEWS IN GEORGIA. 
 
 According to the account of the Rev. Mr. Fink 
 (quoted by Dr. Stiles, vol. i., pp. 353-4), there were in 
 Savannah, Georgia, in 1770 or 1771, the following 
 denominations: 
 
 Families Men Negroes Total 
 
 Chh of England 180. . . .664. . . .521 . . .1185 
 
 Lutherans 35. ... 134 59. ... 193 
 
 Presb. & Independ ts. . . .92. . . .327. . . . 172. . . .499 
 
 JEWS 6 27 22 49 
 
 Infidels 11 23 7 30 
 
 Negroes besides ... ... 40 
 
 \ Total:} 324 1175 782 1996 
 
 I think this is not accurate. The 324 families cannot 
 yield many more than 1175 souls, which he calls "Men." 
 The third item in the total count ought to be 781, not 
 782. It is interesting to note that the Jews owned 22 
 negro slaves. In New Haven, too, as we have seen 
 above (see this Appendix, No. 2), " 10 or 8 Souls Jews " 
 had "six or 8 negroes." We remark in passing that 
 the Jews in New York and New England, as has been 
 pointed out elsewhere (see my Essay, The Jamaican 
 
Anti- Slavery Movement and the Jews, 1902), were large 
 slaveholders. Isaac Rodriguez Marquise, a Jewish 
 merchant of New York, who carried on an extensive 
 trade in the West Indies, makes it one of the provisions 
 of his will, dated October 17th, 1706, that in case his 
 " dear mother, Rachel Marquise .... cannot agree 
 with them [his children] or likes to live by herself, she 
 is to receive 50, and a good serviceable negro woman 
 shall be purchased for her" (see Abstracts of Wills, vol. 
 i., 1665-1707, in "Collections of New York Historical 
 Society for the year 1892," New York, 1893, p. 439 ; also 
 Jewish Messenger, June 28th, 1901, p. 11). 
 
 For statistics of the Jews in Jerusalem in the year 
 1773, communicated to Dr. Stiles by Rabbi Carigal, see 
 Appendix II., entry: "July 16th." 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 RABBI HAJIM ISAAC CARIGAL AND 
 EZRA STILES. 
 
 {March 5 th , 1773, vol. i, p. 354.] : Visited . . . two 
 young gentlemen returning home from Philadelphia. 
 They arrived here yesterday from New York, and tell 
 me there came with them from New York a hebrew 
 
 Rabbi from Macpelah in the Holy Land." . 
 
 [This is the first reference to Carigal, or as he is some 
 times called, R. Isaac, in the Diary. ,] 
 
 {March 8 th , ibid.] : " This Evening I went to the 
 Synagogue, it being the Eve of Purim. The Chuzan 
 read thro the Book of Esther. There I saw Rabbi 
 Carigal I judge aet. 45. lately from the City of Hebron, 
 the Cave of Macpelah in the Holy Land. He was one 1 
 of the two persons that stood by the Chuzan at the 
 Taubauh [sic] or reading Desk while the Book of 
 Esther was read. He was dressed in a red Garment 
 with the usual Phylacteries and habiliments, the white 
 silk Surplice ; he wore a high brown furr Cap, had a 
 long Beard. He has the appearance of an ingenious & 
 sensible Man. ..." 
 
 [March 30 th , pp. 357-8.] : " This Afternoon the Rabbi 
 came to visit me in Company with Mr. Lopez. The 
 Rabbi is aet. 39, a large Man, neat and well dressed in 
 the Turkish Habit. We conversed largely on the 
 Gemara, the 2 Talmuds (of which he preferred the 
 Babylonish), the Changes of the Hebrew Language in 
 different Ages &c. &c. He was born in Hebron, where 
 he says are only 107 Families of Jews. From aet. 7, 
 has followed his Studies. He says, one may break 
 fast at Hebron and dine at Jerusalem, which are but six 
 hours apart. He has been at Samaria, Tiberias, and 
 thro the Holy Land, at Constantinople &c. &c. He 
 spake of Aly Bey, and shewed me a passage in the 
 Zohar which he said predicted that the Russians should 
 
conquer the Turks. I observed that in the Original it 
 was that Edom should conquer the Ismattiteste re 
 plied that Edom there denoted a Northern Power, and 
 the Ismaelites those of their Religion. He said he 
 did not understand Arabic to read it, upon my showing 
 an Arabic Extract from Eutychius. Yet he said it was 
 the common Tongue now in the Holy Land, and only 
 the Jews were not allowed to learn the Writings. I 
 shewed him the first Psalm in Arabic but in Hebrew 
 Letters He read it off freely and I suppose I then 
 for the first Time heard the true pronunciation of 
 Arabic. He said the vernacular Arabic now was differ 
 ent from the antient. We talked upon the difference of 
 the Dialects of the Chaldee, Syriac, and rabbinical 
 Hebrew, on the Targums &c. Evening coming on he 
 took Leave in a polite & friendly manner. 
 
 [April 6 th , pp. 360-1. J : " In the Afternoon I visited 
 Rabbi Haijm Isaac Karigal aet. 39. He was born 
 at Hebron near the Cave of Macpelah. Has travelled 
 all over the Holy Land and to Aleppo, EzekielsTomb, 
 and Bagdat [sic] the Extent of his Travels Eastward : 
 Constantinople Holland -- London -- Amercia. 
 We conversed much freely he is learned and truly 
 modest, far more so than I ever saw a Jew. . . . 
 I asked him how he approved the LXX Translation ? 
 He said he had never seen it: but the Gemara spake of 
 it as made for King Ptolomy and allowed it to have 
 been done by Learned Jews or 72 persons sent by the 
 
 Sanhedrim " 
 
 [April 8 th , pp. 362-3.] : " This day is Passover with 
 the Jews. I went to the Synagogue. The Chocam 
 [sic] Rabbi was there; he was one called up to the 
 Reading of the Law but I observed he did not read 
 his own portion of the Law which I wondered at; 
 however he audibly pronounced the short prayer in 
 stead of the Huzzan before reading his part, and after 
 the Huzzan had read the portion, the Rabbi alone and 
 without the Chuzan lift up his voice and pronounced 
 
n6 
 
 the Blessing. This is repeated by the Chuzan usually 
 for every one of the 7 persons but this part the 
 Rabbi did for himself ; and he performed no other part 
 of the Service as distinct from the Congregation. 
 
 The Rabbi s Dress or Aparrel : Common English 
 Shoes, black Leather, Silver flowered Buckles, White 
 Stockings. His general Habit was Turkish. A green 
 Silk Vest or long under Garment reaching down more 
 than half way the Legs or within 3 Inches of the 
 Ankles, the ends of the Sleeves of this Vest appeared 
 on the Wrists in a foliage Turn-up of 3 inches, & the 
 Opening little larger than that the hand might pass 
 freely. A Girdle or Sash of different Colors red and 
 green girt the Vest around his Body. It appeared not 
 to be open at the bottom but to come down like a petti 
 coat ; and no Breeches could be discovered. This 
 Vest however had an opening above the Girdle and 
 he put in his Handkerchief, and Snuff-box, and Watch. 
 Under this was an inner Vest of Calico, besides other 
 Jewish Talismans. Upon the vest first mentioned was 
 a scarlet outer Garment of Cloth, one side of it was 
 Blue, the outside scarlet ; it reached down about an 
 Inch lower than the Vest, or near the Ankles. It was 
 open before, no range of Buttons &c. along the Edge, 
 but like a Scholars Gown in the Body but plain and 
 without many gatherings at the Neck, the sleeves 
 strait or narrow and slit open 4 or 5 Inches at the End, 
 and turned up with a blue silk Quarter Cujf, higher up 
 than at the End of the sleeve of the Vest. When he 
 came into the Synoguge he put over all, the usual Alb 
 or white Surplice, which was like that of other Jews, 
 except that its Edge was striped with Blue straiks, 
 and had more Fringe. He had a White Cravat round 
 his Neck. He had a long black Beard, the upper Lip 
 partly shaven his Head shaved all over. On his 
 Head a high Fur [Sable] Cap, exactly like a Woman s 
 Muff, and about 9 or 10 Inches high, the Aperture 
 atop was closed with green cloth. He behaved mod- 
 
"7 
 
 estly and reverently. Some part of the Singing in the 
 Synagogue this day was exceeding fine & melodious. 
 
 {April 17 th . p. 367\ : " Went to the Synagogue, Mr. 
 Rivera began and read the Prayers &c. till the Taking 
 out of the Roll of the Law, which Rabbi Hajim Isaac 
 held up and turned around and shewed to all parts of 
 the Synagogue, and then went to his place and the 
 Chuzzan proceeded & read the Law," 
 
 \April 22 nd & 23- , p. 368] : "At Synagogue Even 
 ing prayers." 
 
 " I visited the Rabbi. He shewed me the form of 
 the Candlesticks of Moses and Zechariah. We dis 
 coursed on many Things. . . I asked him whether 
 Moses wrote all the Pentateuch, particularly the Ac 
 count of his own Death? & also Gen. 36, 31? he an 
 swered, yes; that he wrote of Things future and pres 
 ent, so Isaiah wrote of Cyrus. I asked him whether 
 by the usual Intercalation, the hebrew chronology was 
 perfect the Jewish year exactly solar? yes. How 
 long their chronology had been reduced to perfection, 
 & whether antiently there were no Errors or Devia 
 tions from Solar Time? He said it was perfect from the 
 Beginning, the principles of it were laid down in the 
 six Days Creation, & had been delivered down from 
 the earliest Antiquity. I wanted more closely to at 
 tend to this Matter, as he spake with the deliberate 
 Confidence of Demonstration and he is a Man of 
 great Modesty and Candor, and most remote from a 
 disposition to obtrude his own Assertions without being 
 ready to offer the Reasons. But we had not Time." 
 
 [April 26 th , p. 370} : "This afternoon Rabbi Isaac 
 with Mr. Tauro [elsewhere spelt Touro] visited me, 
 
 and sat with me in my Study till Evening We 
 
 viewed a large sheet of antient Characters of the orig 
 inal Oriental Paleography ; & examined some Medal 
 lions or Coins with Samaritan Letters, one of Simeon 
 the Maccabean Prince. Upon which a Dispute arose, 
 whether Moses wrote in Samaritan or Chakiee ? The 
 
i 18 
 
 Rabbi said he wrote in the present Letter of the Heb. 
 Bible that Ezra did not change the Letter, & would 
 by no means allow that the Samaritan was original. 
 He had never seen these Sheckels & Coins, & was 
 unacquainted with the Reasoning upon them. He at 
 tempted to consider them as spurious, but at length 
 seemed to grant them genuine ; yet knew not how to 
 account for Inscriptions in Samaritan with Jerusalem tht 
 Holy, which a Samaritan would not say after the Return 
 from Babylon. He was puzzled yet spake like a Man 
 of Candor, & dissented in such a manner as was pleas 
 ing and noble I asked him whether Lots Wife 
 
 was still standing in a Pillar of Salt on the Shores of 
 the Dead Sea? or whether this Fable was without 
 Truth. He said he had not seen it, having never been 
 there, nor even to any part of that Sea, tho Hebron 
 was but 6 or 7 miles off from the Sea. For the Turks 
 do not suffer the Jews to travel all the holy Land they 
 are allowed to visit Jerusalem & some other places 
 but restricted as to others ; which was the reason 
 that though he lived so near the Dead Sea of Sodom, 
 he had never visited it." 
 
 [May 10 th , pp. 373-4.]: "This Afternoon R. Isaac 
 visited me again. I shewed him the Inscriptions on 
 Mt. Sinai, which he had never seen nor ever heard of 
 before but he could not read them yet seemed much 
 pleased with then:. I shewed him my Drawing of the 
 Writing Rock at Dighton, but neither could he decipher 
 
 this [vide above, p. 108.] I asked him what age 
 
 the oldest Copy of the Hebrew Bible was he ever saw ? 
 He said the oldest he ever saw was one at Hebron, 
 which was nine hundred years old. I observed there 
 was a Copy of the Lxx in the Kings Library in Eng 
 land 1400 years old written in Egypt by a Christian 
 Lady Thecla ; and this was the oldest Book I knew of 
 in the World.* He said he had never heard of this. 
 
 * EDITOR S NOTE: "The famous Codex Alexandrinus 
 
H9 
 
 As he had been at Bologna, having lived six years in 
 Italy, I told him Montfaucon said that there was a very 
 antient Copy of the Law in the University of Bologna, 
 which had been bought of certain Rabbins who asserted 
 it to be the very copy written by Ezra the Scribe.* 
 I asked him, whether he saw it when he was there; he 
 said he had heard nothing of it, & did not believe it 
 true." 
 
 {May 15 th , ibid.} : "Went to Synagogue while the 
 Huzzan read the Law, the Rabbi sitting at the 
 upper end of the Synagogue, the Huzzan pronounced a 
 Word wrong Levit. 25, 29, upon which the Rabbi cor 
 rected him publicly, and called out Gaulto, Gaulto, and 
 obliged the Huzzan to correct himself. The Rabbi 
 appears to have great Authority." 
 
 [The words underscored have, no doubt, reference to 
 theHebrew^Wrt^ (^x:) in the passage cited. It is 
 interesting to know how Hebrew was pronounced by 
 a Palestinian Rabbi of the xviiith century. 
 
 Prof. F. B. Dexter informs us, in a footnote, on p. 
 375, that under date of May 24th, 1773, there is inserted 
 in the Diary a letter in Hebrew to Rabbi Carigal, with an 
 English translation. The subject is the antiquity of the 
 Hebrew letters. Two years later, on Feb. 16, 1775, he 
 is found writing a letter on the same subject (Antiquity 
 of the Points) to Mr. Tutor Lewis of Yale College. 
 " The more I consider the subject, the more I am in 
 clined to judge the Points co-eval with the Hebrew 
 Language," says he. Prof. Dexter states, in a note on 
 p. 517 of vol. i.,that Dr. Stiles has preserved a copy of 
 this letter (see supra, p. 100). We read in the Diary 
 under date of Sept. 30th, 1773, that he "Finished Tran 
 script of Letter to the Rabbi," and on December 3d, 
 
 transferred from the King s Library to the British Museum in 
 1753 ; now referred to about A. D. 450. The inscription upon it 
 which makes Thekla the scribe is not credited." 
 
 *A like antiquity has been claimed for almost all the Biblical 
 codices in the world. G. A. K. 
 
120 
 
 that he had written a Hebrew Letter of 22 pages to Kar- 
 igal. On Dec. 30th of the same year, he writes : "Fin 
 ished another Copy of my Lett r in Heb[rew] to R. Car- 
 igal in 29 pages" ; and on July 19th, 1775, we read this 
 entry : "Writing a Hebrew Letter to R. Carigal of Bar- 
 badoes." He had received but two from the Rabbi 
 since his removal to Surinam and thence to the West 
 Indies ; one, on Dec. 25, 1773, and the other, on Nov. 
 3d, 1775. All this correspondence, as well as the let 
 ters of the Rabbi to Dr. Stiles, are preserved at the 
 Yale University Library.] 
 
 [May 28th, pp. 376-7\\ "Pentecost. Went to the 
 Synagogue at ix h. A.M. At reading the Law the Rabbi 
 was desired and read the Ten Commandments. But 
 before reading the Law and the Prophets the Rabbi 
 went to the Desk or Taubauh and preached a Sermon 
 about 47 minutes long in Spanish. It was interspersed 
 with Hebrew. His Oratory, Elocution and Gestures 
 were fine and oriental. It was very animated. He 
 exhorted them not to perplex themselves with Tradi 
 tions and Criticisms, but to attend to certain capital 
 points and principal points of Religion he expatiated 
 upon the Miseries and Calamities of their Nation in 
 their present Captivity and Dispersion and comforted 
 them under their Tribulations by the assured Prospect 
 of the Messiahs Kingdom he exhorted them not to be 
 discouraged but persevere &c he shewed that Calami 
 ties and sufferings were not Evidence of their being 
 forsaken of God that Adversity and Judgments were 
 the common Lot of all Nations Kingdoms and Countries 
 and instanced in the Desolation made by the Erup 
 tion of Mt. Vesuvius near Naples in Italy which he said 
 he had seen, and beheld the Deluge of liquid Matter, 
 flowing and carrying all before it, overwhelming Vil 
 lages, Houses, Temples, people &c yet Christians did 
 not consider this as an Evidence against their Religion : 
 neither was the Destruction of the Temple and City of 
 Jerusalem by the Romans &c any argument against the 
 
121 
 
 Truth of the Jewish Religion. They were chastised for 
 their Sins, but not forsaken of God, who was the com 
 mon Parent of all mankind, while he had chosen Israel 
 his peculiar Treasure. Then he enlarged with Fervor 
 on the Divine Benevolence and seemed to be elevated 
 with very sublime Ideas of the divine Benevolence 
 Mercy and Love ; which he converted into an argument 
 for their loving one another, which he earnestly pressed 
 upon them and closed with a serious Prayer. The 
 Affinity of the Spanish and Latin enabled me to under 
 stand something of the Discourse but after all I have 
 but an imperfect Idea of it. He wore Spectacles thro 
 the whole Sermon, and frequently looked down on the 
 Desk before him as if he had the Discourse written, but 
 I dont know that he had any Writing. The Jews intend 
 to print it. He was dressed in his Fur Cap, scarlet 
 Robe, green silk Damask Vest, and a chintz under 
 Vest, girt with a Sash or Turkish Girdle besides the 
 Alb. with Tzizith. The Jews dont admire his reading 
 (the X Commandments) and indeed he speaks off with 
 much greater Fluency and Ease than he reads, tho he 
 reads correctly. There was Dignity and Authority 
 about him, mixt with Modesty. After the Sermon, two 
 Rolls of the Law were brought forward with great 
 Solemnity, and after Elevation the parasang {parashat 
 including the xxth Chapter of Genesis was read as 
 usual : at reading the X Commandments the whole 
 Congregation rose up and stood. After which Mr. 
 Rivera s little son 8 or 9 aet. read the first Chapter of 
 Ezekiel then Prayers for all Nations, for the Jews, for 
 the King and Royal Family, for the Magistrates of 
 Rhode Island. The Law was then returned in solemn 
 procession singing the usual Psalm : then Alms Prayers 
 and Singing concluded the Whole. The Synagogue 
 was decorated with Flowers &c. About the Time the 
 Rabbi began sermon which was a few minutes before 
 X h three of the Commissioners came in, viz. Gov. 
 Wanton & Judge Oliver and afterwarJs Judge Auch- 
 
122 
 
 muty and were seated in the Seat of the Parnass or 
 President of the Synagogue. The whole service ended 
 a quarter after twelve. I have often found that I can 
 better understand the English pronunciation of Hebrew 
 than the Spanish, German or Polish; every nation pro 
 nounces a little differently. I mean that the Jews whose 
 Vernacular Tongue is English pronounce so that I 
 understand it better than when pronounced by a Jew 
 whose vernacular Tongue is dutch &c. Accordingly I 
 easily perceive the Words, when Riveras son (born 
 here) reads, tho he is taught by a Dutch Master. But 
 when this Jerusalem Rabbi read the Law I could under 
 stand it as well as if I read it myself, and much better 
 than I can understand Mr. Tauro the Huzzan, tho I 
 have been used to his reading 13 or 14 years. I must 
 say, however, that tho the Rabbi reads more correctly 
 than Tauro, yet the latter exceeds him in a certain 
 Grandeur of Utterance, and a more bold and lofty 
 Sonitus Verborum. (The Sermon was translated and 
 printed.)" 
 
 [The full title of this sermon is: A Sermon preached 
 at the Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, called The 
 Salvation of Israel" on the Day of Pentecost, or Feast of 
 Weeks, the 6th day of the month SlVAN, the year of the 
 Creation 5533, or May 28, 1773; being the Anniversary 
 of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. By the Vener 
 able Hoc ham, the learned Rabbi, Haym Isaac Karigel 
 (sic), of the city of Hebron, near Jerusalem, in the Holy 
 Land. Newport, Rhode Island: Printed and Sold by 
 S. Southwick, in Queen Street, 1773. A copy of this 
 rare publication is in the Leeser Library in Philadelphia 
 and in the collections of the American Jewish Historical 
 Society. See Publications of the A. J. H. S., No. 1, p. 
 123; No. 3, pp. 122-3; No. 6, p. 79. From a MS. note 
 in the copy in Philadelphia, which was a gift from 
 Rebecca Gratz to the Rev. Isaac Leeser, we learn that 
 the English translator of the sermon was Abraham 
 Lopez. The only local fact to be gleaned from its 
 pages is that Aaron Lopez was the Parnass of the 
 congregation. 
 
 On June 27th, 1773 (vol. i., p. 392), Dr. Stiles writes 
 
"3 
 
 that Carigal brought him a copy of his sermon, trans 
 lated into English, and on the 29th he was already copy 
 ing it. (See also entry under June 8th.)] 
 
 [June Ttk,p. 378} . "Last Monday just before I set 
 out on my Journey [to Woodstock] I received a Letter 
 in Hebrew from Rabbi Isaac Karigal, in answer to 
 mine. To-day I sent a Note to him, and this After 
 noon he made me a Visit accompanied with Mr. Lopez. 
 We spent the Afternoon very agreeably. We had much 
 Conversation upon the Antiquity of the Hebrew Let 
 ters [see supra, under May 15th.] .... We went to the 
 Redwood Library.* He admired the Writings of 
 Selden." 
 
 [June 8th, ibid.]: "The Rabbi told me that he had 
 nothing written when he preached at the Synagogue 
 but that he had sealed it first in his head and so deliv 
 ered it that he was able to recollect it and to gratify 
 the Jews here he should write it in Spanish, and they 
 would translate it into English, and then he would give 
 me a Copy. But he would not consent that it should 
 be printed. He said that none but Rabbis preached, 
 and they usually preached on all the Holidays, but not 
 every Sabbath, & always without notes. "t 
 
 [ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE NAME OF EGYPT :] 
 [June llth, - - p. 385]: "Speaking of the Cir 
 cumcision of the Copti Christians, I observed R. Is. 
 Karigal pronounced it not Copt but Kipt. I suppose 
 this is a relict of the old Name in Homer s Day. Egypt 
 which the English pronounce Ejipt, the Germans nearly 
 
 * Among the "Names of the Redwood Library Compa.," 
 incorporated August 29, 1747, we find Abm Hart and Moses 
 Lopez. Cf. Willner, in Publications of the American Jewish 
 Historical Society, No. 8 (1900), p. 123. G. A. K. 
 
 \ Another homiletic publication issued subsequently by I^abbi 
 Carigal is said to be extant in the library of the New York His 
 torical Society. Cf. my paper on " Early Jewish Literature in 
 America," in Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 3, p. 
 144. -G. A. K. 
 
1*4 
 
 Ecipt or Ekipt the English accent the E, the Germans 
 the y and almost suppress the E. If we consider y as 
 Y or ui; and accenting i assume the power of vi in 
 Guipt as wi in wit, at the same time using u as a vowel 
 and not as V, we shall come nearly to the original 
 sound of Eguipt or Guipt or Kuipt or Gipt or Cypt 
 or Gypt Thus Equipt armed. Homer wrote it 
 The Hebrews called that country Mitzraim, 
 
 but if we write Egypt in Hebrew Letters and point the 
 Vav with hirak it will show not Egopt nor Egupt but 
 Eguipt or Egipt not Ejipt but Ekipt or Kipt, as the 
 Rabbi called it." 
 
 [June 14- th , - -pp. 386-7.} "In the Forenoon I 
 went to visit the Rabbi discoursed on Ventriloquism 
 & the Witch of Endor & the Reality of bringing up 
 Samuel. He had not heard of Ventriloquism before 
 and still doubted it. He showed me a Hebrew Letter 
 from Isaac Pinto a Jew in N. York,* in which Mr. Pinto 
 who is now reading Aben Ezra desires R. Carigals 
 Tho ts. upon some Arabic in Aben Ezra. But the 
 Rabbi says he supposes Aben Ezra wrote in the Goran 
 Arabic which he doth not understand. The Rabbi . . . 
 is extremely fond of persuads himself that there has been 
 no change in the Pentateuch since Moses left it ; and 
 shewed me a Passage of St. Austin de Civitate Dei in 
 a Hebrew book of David Nieto ; it was rendered into 
 Hebrew to this Effect, that there was an Impossibility 
 that the Jews shd. have corrupted their holy Books, 
 since in all Dispersions they were found the same. He 
 was much pleased that he was able to shew me some 
 thing out of our Fathers for my Extracts out of his 
 Rabbins. I turned him to the strong Expression in his 
 
 * On Isaac Pinto of New York, author of an English trans 
 lation of the Portuguese Ritual (a facsimile of whose title-page 
 js given in ishop Wright s Early Prayerbooks in America, 
 New York, 18%). cf. my notes supra, Appendix I., and in Pub. 
 lications, No. 3. pp. 118-122; cf. also, No. 4, pp. 129, 227-228. 
 
 G. A. K. 
 
125 
 
 Letter " your Love has made such an indelible impres 
 sion upon the inmost Tho ts. & Affections of my Heart 
 that Volumes of Books are not sufficient to write the 
 thousandth part of the eternal Love wherewith I love 
 thee" and asked him how he could use so strong an 
 Expression of Friendship ? He in reply said he wished 
 well to others besides his own Nation, he loved all 
 Mankind, & turned me to Levit. xix, i8, thou shalt 
 love thy Neighbour as thyself." 
 
 [June 23 d , pp. 388-9. J : In the Afternoon Mr Delisle 
 and I went and visited the Rabbi, and conversed with 
 him from III o clock to Sunset. Then I went to a 
 monthly Evening Meeting at Col. Daytons and preached 
 
 on Col. I, 12, 14 I asked him [Carigal] wether a 
 
 Man losing his Wife by Death, might marry her Sister 
 afterwards? requesting his Exposition of Levit. xviii, 
 18. He asked what should forbid it ? and added, it 
 was frequently practiced with the Jews it was plain 
 from the Words of Moses, "in her Lifetime" that the 
 prohibition extended no longer, and that after the Life 
 time and at the death of his Wife the prohibition ceased. 
 I asked him whether a man might Marry his Wife s 
 Sister s Daughter? he asked what should forbid it? it 
 was often done so with the Jews. I said Moses forbid 
 an Aunt marrying the Nephew, or a Woman to marry 
 her Sister s Son, and why not a man to marry his 
 (Wife s) Sisters Daughter. He said there was a diffe. 
 rence the Aunt and Nephew mentioned by Moses 
 were of Kin i. e. one blood and one flesh ; not so the 
 Wifes Sisters Daughter. I ought to have stated the 
 Case a little otherwise, and put the parrallel Question, 
 on a Woman or Aunt marrying her Husbands Brothers 
 Son, where there is no blood " 
 
 {June 27 -8th, pp. 391-3} : " Rabbi Isaac Carigal was at 
 Meeting in the Forenoon, having asked me Liberty 
 before hand. I sent my son to wait upon him to my 
 house before Meeting and he came accompanied with 
 
126 
 
 two Jews I put them into my Pew. These are the 
 notes or leading Thoughts in the Sermon I preached. 
 
 Ps. cvi, 4, 5. 
 
 1. The Seed of Jacob are a chosen and favorite peo 
 ple of the most High, and the subjects of the peculiar 
 Care of Heaven, and of most marvellous Dispensations. 
 11. That notwithstanding God s Chastisements of their 
 Iniquity & Imperfection in Calamities, Captivities and 
 Dispersions ; yet God hath not forgotten his Covenant 
 with Abraham and his posterity, but intends them great 
 Happiness and will fulfill his promise in making them a 
 very glorious Nation and a Blessing to the World in the 
 latter Day Glory of the Messiahs Kingdom. 111. It 
 should be the Desire of Christians and of all Nations, 
 to partake hereafter with Israel in their future glorious 
 state, that we may share & rejoyce in the Gladness of 
 God s people & the Glory of his Inheritance 
 
 IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 1. Hence how highly priviledged was Israel in being 
 chosen &c.? 2. Hence learn the Design of Providence 
 in still preserving a Remnant of this people, that of this 
 seed he may make a glorious Nation hereafter. Jer. 
 xlvi, 27, 28. 3. Hence learn the Dignity and Glorious 
 Character of the Messiah. He is worthy of all Honor 
 and Obedience and Love and Praise from all the Nations 
 on Earth, yea from all Worlds. 4. Live so holily here, 
 that we may all come together united in one glorious 
 Body before the Throne of God ; and joys in the end 
 less Hallelujahs of the Eternal World. 
 
 These are only Minutes which I had written before 
 me ; but I enlarged in Delivery, being an hour and 
 quarter in Sermon. The Rabbi came home and staid 
 with me till 1 h. o clock. He said he had never heard a 
 Christian preach a Sermon before and yet he had been 
 at Church in St. Peters in Rome and St. Pauls in Lon 
 don, and at Venice &C &c. but never heard anything 
 
127 
 
 but prayers. He had been in the Christian Chhs at 
 Jerusalem, but heard only Prayers. Thus he said, I 
 was the first Minister he had ever heard preach in all 
 his Travels. He said the Latin Church at Jerusalem 
 had an Organ, but none other; neither Greek or Arme 
 nian &c. Churches in the East have any Organ. I asked 
 whether Davids Organ was like the Organs in Churches ? 
 he smiled and said, he did not know. I asked him 
 whether they had organs in the Synagogues ? he said 
 he never saw but one, and he knew not of any other 
 in the Synagogue at Prague he saw and heard an 
 Organ He brought me a copy of his own Ser 
 mon at the Synagogue, translated into English. He 
 said he understood near half my Sermon to-day. 
 
 This Afternoon the Rabbi visited me. We spent the 
 Afternoon very agreeably. He told me that there was 
 one Rabbi at the Synagogue in Jamaica, another at 
 Surinam, and a third at Eustatia or Curacoa. Thus 
 there are now three Rabbis settled in America. There 
 are none on the Continent of No. America. The Rabbi 
 has a prospect of settling in the Synagogue at Antigua, 
 and this will mase a fourth in America. Isaac Carigal 
 says he was made a Rabbi when he was about 19 or 
 twenty years old. He said the Ceremony of Imposition 
 of Hands was not used in these Days that after an 
 Examination and Approbation by other Rabbies they 
 gave him a written Certificate in which he was declared 
 a Rabbi. He wants now 3 or 4 months of being fourty 
 years old, so was born A. D. 1733, and was made a 
 Rabbi about A. D. 1753. He began to travel aet. 20. 
 and has visited Damascus, Alleppo, Grand Cairo, Bag- 
 dat, Ispahan, Smyrna, Constantinople, Salonica, Rome, 
 Florence, Bologna, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Paris, Lon 
 don, &c. Of all Cities he gives the preference to Ven 
 ice & London." 
 
 [June 29th, ibid.\ : " Copying the English Translation 
 of R. Carigal s Sermon at Pentecost/ \Vide, supra.\ 
 
ia8 
 
 [June 30th\ : " This Afternoon Mr. Abraham de Isaac 
 Tauro the Hazan or Reader in the Synagogue here was 
 married to Miss Hayes a Jewess. Rabbi Isaac per 
 formed the Ceremony." [Cf. Daly s Settlement of the 
 Jews in N. America, 2nd ed., N. Y., 1893, p. 81, note 
 87.] 
 
 [July 5th,p. 394} : " Visited the Rabbi." 
 
 lJuly 7th, pp. 394-6} : " This Afternoon I spent with 
 the Rabbi. ... I asked him when he expected the Mes 
 siah ? He said daily, probably within about 40 years 
 but they had no Reckoning in which they were agreed. 
 
 I asked if he had any knowledge of the Relicts 
 
 of the Tribe of Manasseh at Patna or the Ganges in 
 Bengal ? He said no and was surprised with the 
 account I related to him given by English Merchants 
 I told him I had written a Letter to Astracan to inquire 
 after the X Tribes [cf. supra, pp. 9-13, 50], and the 
 Queries I sent as Circumcision on 8th Day, Aversion 
 to Swine s flesh, Marriage Leviri cum Glore &c. This 
 brought on the Question about the Countenance of the 
 Usage of marrying a Brothers Wife. He said the Rab 
 bins had for a long Time been against this practice, 
 except under a perfect state of their Inheritance and 
 Religion : that they recommended the pulling off the 
 Shoe &c and that this was usually done, especially at 
 Constantinople that sometimes the Brother would not 
 give up his right, and then the Widow was held not to 
 marry any else that this particularly was the Case of 
 his own Daughter, who had been married to her Hus 
 band but a few months, and he dying his Brother insists 
 on her as his Right, but she refusing to marry him, is 
 however so tied to him (as the Rabbi expressed it) that 
 she cannot marry to another : tho she would be glad 
 to cast away the shoe. 
 
MEMOIR OF #. ISAAC KARIGAL. 
 
 A. D. 1733, Oct. 15 or Tisri 15 A. M. 5493 born at 
 Hebron ; & studied under R. David Malamed, R. Meir 
 Gedalia, R. Mordecai Zabi, R. Haijm Jehuda Gomez 
 Pato, R. Haijm Rechamim Bajaiu Brother of Mordecai, 
 and R. Isaac Zedeka ; the three first dead, the others 
 now living. 
 
 1750. JEtat. 17, created and entituled Hocham & 
 Rabbi by the above Rabbins at Hebron. The Honor 
 pronounced and declared by R. David Malamed. Read 
 half the Talmud. Began to preach. Some created at 
 reading a quarter of the Talmud. 
 
 1754. yt. 20 y<2, began his Travels. Went first to 
 Egypt, visited Damiata, Alexandria & Cairo 2 or 3 
 months ; thence by Water to Smyrna, resided there 2 
 or 3 months ; thence to Constantinople, resided there 
 two years ; thence by Land to Adrianople and Salon- 
 ica and by Water again to Smyrna, about 3 months ; 
 rom Smyrna by Land in a Caravan thro the lesser 
 Asia by Cogni, and Aleppo to Damascus; from Da 
 mascus to Aleppo again, thence across Euphrates to 
 Ur of Chaldees, Bagdat and Ispahan, which terminated 
 his oriental Travels : From Ispahan back to Aleppo. 
 
 1757. Embarking on board ship at Scandarone he 
 arrived at Leghorn in Italy Oct 1757. Spent two years 
 in travelling Europe. From Leghorn he went to Flor 
 ence, Rome, Bologna, Milan, Padua, Venice (twice)* 
 Vienna, Prague, Nuremberg, Ausburg, Frankfort, 
 Mentz, Holland and London. 
 
 1761. He came to Curacoa in America, & tarried 
 there two years, taking care of the Synagogue in room 
 of one gone to Holland to finish his Studies and be 
 made a Rabbi : upon whose Return R. Isaac went 
 about. 
 
 1764. From Curacoa for Amsterdam & theuce over 
 Land to Frankfort, Nuremberg, Ausburge, to Leghorn. 
 At Leghorn took ship for the holy Land, landed at Joffa 
 or Joppa, thence rode to Jerusalem in one day, and in 
 
half a day more the next day to Hebron (in Aug. 1764) 
 arriving at Hebron 21 Days after he sailed from Leghorn. 
 He has a Wife, a Son and a Daughter at Hebron. He 
 tarried at Hebron almost four years ; and then 
 
 1768. Shipt at Joppa and landed at Marseilles; 
 thence by Land through France, resided at Paris 4 
 months ; thence to England. He resided at London 
 2 Yz years, and taught the scholars in the Bit Madrash 
 there, receiving an annual Salary of 100 sterling 
 There was but one Rabbi in Office in London R. Moses 
 Cohen Azavado now living : R. Nieto was indeed living 
 then, but Emeritus or out of Office. 
 
 1771. From London R. Isaac came a second Time 
 to America and went to Jamaica, where he staid one 
 year, and remitted thence Via London and Leghorn 
 1000 Dollars to his Wife in Hebron. 
 
 1772. He came from Jamaica in the Summer of 1772 
 to Philadelphia where he staid one month ; and came to 
 N. York where he staid 5 y 2 months ; and arrived at 
 Newport March 3, 1773. He goes from hence to 
 Surinam. Ex Ore Rabbi 
 
 (Died in Barbadoes 1778 circa.) 
 
 [July 12-19tk, pp. 398-400}: "The Rabbi came and 
 
 spent the Afternoon with me He said, when he 
 
 was a Boy set. 10, there came to Hebron a Samaritan, 
 who spent the Sabbath I think at the House where he 
 lived that the Samaritan kept the Sabbath very strictly 
 & soberly continually reading his Prayers, but did not 
 go to the Synagogue with the Jews at the Time of their 
 Worship, but went there afterwds. that he supposes 
 they must have a considerable Collection of Prayers, & 
 thinks the most of them may be probably like the Jews, 
 & so very antient." 
 
 [14th] : "Writing an Hebrew Letter." 
 
 [15tk] : " Spent the Afternoon with the Rabbi, partly 
 at the Redwood Library and partly at my House. I 
 asked him whether the Rabbins of this Age thought 
 
themselves to have any particular Reasons for expect 
 ing the Messiah immediately? He said not; but he 
 thought it was high Time for him to come ; He added, 
 that if all Nations were in War and universal Tumult 
 and Confusion, then he should expect him immediately, 
 but this not being more the Case now than in every cur 
 rent Age, &c ..... The Rabbi has the Zohar in 3 vol. 
 4 to , printed at Constantinople ..... " 
 
 [16th] : " Comparing my Zohar with the Rabbi s. In 
 company with the Rabbi. He told me he rode over the 
 River Jordan on Horse-back against Jericho which was 
 near the River : he said it was a very shallow River and 
 almost dry in Summer. He had been at all the twelve 
 or 13 Synagogues in the Holy Land, and gave me the 
 following account which I wrote from his Mouth. 
 
 ( 5 Synagogues at Jerusalem, large 
 
 One Thousand | 2 at Saphat large 2 at Damascus 
 
 Families \ 1 at Tiberias small ^ 1 at Sidon 
 
 Jews in all 
 
 Judea 
 or Holy Land 
 A. D. 1733. 
 
 1 at Hebron large 107 Families, 1 at Alleppo, large 
 1 at Gaza large Only 12 Synagogues 
 
 1 at Shechem small in the Holy Land 
 
 1 at Acco large 
 
 12 and 1 at Jaffa only a Chamber for Worship 
 (_ occasionally, but not every Sabbath. 
 
 He said there were more Synagogues in Syria than 
 Palestine ..... " 
 
 [18th] : " In the Evening Rabbi H. I. Karigal came to 
 take his Leave of me and my Family, which he did very 
 affectionately. He is to sailthe first Wind for Surinam. " 
 
 [19th] : " Finishing a Hebrew Letter to the Rabbi. In 
 the Afternoon I visited the Rabbi, and shewed him my 
 Letter which. I had not Time to copy it being four 
 leaves or eight pages. He desired me to copy it and 
 send it to him, and to correspond with [him], telling me 
 he would always wrifeto me from any part of the World 
 wherever he should be. As he had told me that he had 
 rode over Jordan against Jericho, I observed to him 
 that he had then seen the place where Joshua led Israel 
 thro Jordan on dry Ground; and asked him if the 
 stones Joshua put in the Bottom of Jordan were still in 
 
being adding that if they were there they might easily 
 be found, as the water was so shallow. He said he did 
 not think of it when he passed Jordan, but that he 
 believed the place of the Passage was a little higher 
 
 up Mr. Rivera* shewed me a Marriage Contract 
 
 of his Wife to her former Husband. Conversed upon 
 
 their Customs as to Matrimony I asked the 
 
 Rabbi whether there would be any marrying, any Rela 
 tions of Husbands and Wives in the Resurrection ? he 
 said yes. Whether Sarah would then be Abraham s 
 Wife? yes. If a woman had had more Husbands than 
 one, whose wife would she be ? particularly whose Wife 
 would Mrs. Rivera be then present, whether Mr. Rive 
 ra s or her former Husbands in the Resurrection? 
 The Rabbi was at a loss and could not determine. He 
 said there were various opinions about it God Al 
 mighty could only could determine he was contented 
 to know that the Resurrection state would be happy 
 and glorious, though he did not pretend to be able to 
 answer and solve all Questions and mysteries concern 
 ing the Circumstances of the Resurrection state. He 
 again took leave of me very affectionately praying God 
 to bless me. I told him I parted from him with great 
 Reluctance, and should ever retain an affection for him 
 that it was probable we might never see each other in 
 the Land of the Living and wished we might after 
 Death meet together in the Garden of Eden and there 
 rejoyce with Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and with the 
 Soul of the Messiah till the Resurrection. He wished 
 me reciprocally and my Family every Blessing and 
 desired me to write him by every opportunity said he 
 loved me from the Heart, had my Name in his Book, 
 and should send it to Jerusalem, where I should be soon 
 known as I was here." 
 
 * Jacob Rodriguez Rivera, one of the most prominent of the 
 early (Portuguese) Jews in Newport. He was a large importer 
 particularly of dry-goods. He died Feb, 19, 1789, aged 75 years. 
 
 [Editor.] 
 
133 
 
 \July 21st, p. 400}: "This day Rabbi Haijm Isaac 
 Karigal sailed for Surinam." 
 
 \Sept. 30th, p. 414} : " Finished Transcript of Letter 
 to the Rabbi." 
 
 [Dec. 3rd and 30th, pp. 423, 427 \ : " Finished a He 
 brew Letter of 24 pages to R. Haijm Isaac Karigal." 
 
 " Finished another Copy of my Lett, in Heb. to R. 
 Carigal in 29 pages." 
 
 [Dec. 25th, p. 426]: "Received a Letter from R. 
 Haijm Isaac Carigal dated at Surinam Sept. 19." 
 
 [July 19th, 1775, p. 589} : " Writing a Hebrew Letter 
 to Rabbi Carigal of Barbadoes." [On Nov. 3, 1775, he 
 received another letter from Carigal (cf. p. 631.) Cf. 
 also Willner, Publications, No. 8, pp. 124-5]. 
 
 On July 22, 1775, Dr. Stiles sent a packet to " Rabbi 
 Carigal at Barbadoes" (vol. i., p. 591); a portrait of 
 the Rabbi is mentioned in vol. iii., p. 94, Oct. 19, 1783.] 
 
APPENDIX 111. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
 NOTES ON SOME JEWS MENTIONED IN THE DIARY. 
 
 Owing to exigencies of space, a number of interesting 
 passages concerning English Jews and Judaism in gen 
 eral, had to be omitted by the present writer. Some 
 of these references will be discussed by him elsewhere; 
 in this appendix it is intended to call attention to certain 
 data, furnished by the diarist, which it has been deemed 
 best to group under one rubic. The notes and paralleled 
 illustrations accompanying these extracts, though for 
 the most part accessible, will not be considered out of 
 place by the general reader, to whom the tedium of 
 research is not so attractive. 
 
 1. JEWS IN CHARLESTON, S, C, 
 
 [Vol. I, p. 453, August 2, 1774] : (< In the Afternoon 
 I was visited by Mr. Acosta a Jew Huzzan of the 
 Synagogue in Charleston, So. Carolina. He is aet. 52. 
 born in London & educated under Hochem Rabbi 
 Nieto there till aet. 29. Then he came to America & 
 in 1754 instituted a Synagogue at Charleston." 
 
 Who Acosta was we cannot determine. There are 
 so many Covtas, Acostas and Da Costas mentioned in 
 Jewish contemporaneous annals, that it is impossible 
 to identify him. The poet and historian, Isaac da Costa, 
 has written a brief account of Jewish Peerage (Adelijke 
 Geslachten onder de Israeliteri], as an appendix to his 
 work Israel en de Volken (Utrecht, 1876, pp. 460-537), 
 where a historic sketch of this family is given (see also 
 the indices to all the nine volumes of the Publications 
 of the American Jewish Historical Society for several 
 references to the same name). Among the earliest 
 Jewish settlers in Charleston are mentioned Abraham 
 and Isaac De Costa (vide Judge Daly s Settlement of the 
 
Jews in North America, ed. Kohler, New York, 1893, 
 p. 76, note). 
 
 Another Hazzan, a near kinsman of Moses Cohen de 
 Azevedo, Haham of the Portuguese Synagogue in 
 London, and son of a Charleston Rabbi was called to 
 fill the post of Reader in that city, at the beginning of 
 the XlXth century. His sojourn there was brief and 
 he parted from his people in bitterness of spirit. James 
 Picciotto, in his fascinating Sketches of Anglo- Jewish 
 History, London, 1876, pp. 271-2* has this to say about 
 the unpleasant episode : 
 
 "In 1807 the Bevis Marks Synagogue furnished a 
 minister to the Portuguese Congregation of Charleston, 
 South Carolina, in the person of Benjamin Cohen 
 D Azevedo, son of their former Rabbi. The South 
 Carolinians, who had trumpeted forth their wants in 
 high sounding language, and had dwelt on their poten 
 tial liberality and generosity in terms which at all 
 events had not the merit of modesty, showed scant 
 courtesy to the nominee of the parent Synagogue 
 itself. They sent back Benjamin C. D Azevedo with 
 out assigning any plausible cause. This line of con 
 duct stung to the quick the Portuguese pride of the 
 rulers of Bevis Marks, who resented it in no measured 
 words, and took the returned minister in their service 
 as teacher." 
 
 We remark in passing that Moses Cohen de Azevedo 
 (or D Azevedo), is the author of a sermon (and "Order 
 of Service") held in Bevis Marks Synagogue Dec. 13, 
 1776 (3rd of Tebet 5537), upon the day appointed as a 
 day of humiliation and prayer for the success of the 
 Royal arms, and restoration of peace, at the time of 
 the revolt of the American Colonies. A copy of this 
 rare tract is in the library of the British Museum and 
 another was exhibited, as the property of Mr. Clarence 
 de Sola, at theJAnglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, held 
 in London, in 1887 (see Catalogue [London, 1887], p. 
 41, No. 859; G. A. Kohut, in Publications of the Am.- 
 
if* 
 
 Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 6, p. 159; for fuller title see 
 Zedner s Catalogue, London, 1867, p. 477). 
 
 As to the Jews in Charleston, information is at hand 
 in a number of articles scattered in various places, 
 notably in vols. I. and II. of The Occident, edited by 
 Rev. Dr. Isaac Leeser, in Hannah Adams s History of 
 the Jews, ed. of London, 1818, pp. 465-67 (quoted from 
 a letter written Jan., 1811, by Mr. Philip Cohen, "a 
 respectable Jewish merchant in Charleston"); Judge 
 Daly s Stttlement, 2nd ed., pp. 70, 71, 75-6, 105 seq.; 
 Publications of the Am. Jew. Hist. Soc., No. 2, pp. 6, 
 51-55; No. 3, pp. 92-94; No. 9, p. 101; Lady Magnus, 
 Outlines of Jewish History, Philadelphia, 1890, pp. 350, 
 351, 357, 362; Simon Wolf, The American Jeiv as Patriot, 
 Soldier and Citizen, Philadelphia. 1895, pp. 40, 372-81; 
 Cyrus Adler, in Jewish Encyclopedia, voi. I. (New 
 York, 1901), pp. 498 2 , 503 2 , 313; see also supra, p. 153. 
 
 2. A NEWPORT JEW, A PORTRAIT, AND 
 AN EPITAPH. 
 
 [Vol. I, p. 620, October 3, 1775] : " Mr. Isaac Mark 
 a learned Jew gave me the Picture of R. Manasse Ben 
 Israel who was aet. 38, A. D. 1642 : a very learned 
 Hocham & Philosopher, & in great Reputation among 
 the Christian Learned in Italy. R. Judah Monis the 
 Hebrew Professor at Harv. Coll. made much Use of 
 his Writings & taught them as a classical Book." 
 We know nothing concerning the identity of Isaac Mark. 
 The name Marks is not uncommon in American Jewish 
 annals (see the Indices to the 9 vol s. of the Publications 
 above quoted), but no reference to any one bearing 
 that name in Newport has been found. 
 
 A search through the Stiles papers in Yale University 
 Library may bring to light the portrait of Manasseh ben 
 Israel. In this connection we wish to add that a pen- 
 and-ink sketch of the painting of Rabbi Hayyim Isaac 
 Carigal (see page 90), made in 1787 by St. John Honey- 
 wood, a graduate of Yale in 1782, from whose hand 
 
137 
 
 there is a pencil sketch of " Ezra Stiles, jun. Esq., of 
 Vermont, ae. 22," dated Sept. 13, 1780, inserted in the 
 Diary (cf. vol. II, p. 468, note 1, and Index, vol. Ill, 
 p. 602 1 , under " Honey wood ") is preserved among 
 the literary remains of the diarist. It is about one-half 
 of the size of the reproduction, published in these 
 pages.* 
 
 As to Judah Monis and his curious career see the 
 data referred to above on pp. 22, 23, 39-42. We subjoin 
 the inscription on his wife s tombstone, taken from a 
 volume now quite scarce, entitled: "Epitaphs \from 
 the Old Burying Ground \ in Cambridge \ with Notes 
 by William Thaddeus Harris, Junior Sophister in 
 Harvard College, | Cambridge ; Published by John 
 Owen, | 1845 ", p. 114: 
 
 Here lyes buried y body of 
 M s ABIGAIL MONIS consort 
 to Mr JUDAH MONIS; (Hebrew 
 Instructor in Harvard College] 
 who departed this life 
 Octo* y* 27 th . 1760. in y 
 W h year of her age. 
 
 This epitaph was probably composed by her hus 
 band, who died four years after, in 1764, at the ad 
 vanced age of eighty-one years, forty of which he 
 spent in his academic office. At her demise, the old 
 Hebraist retired to Northborough, where he resided 
 with her relations, to whom he bequeathed a consider 
 able portion of his estate, which is said to have been 
 quite large (see Hannah Adams, History of the Jews, 
 the edition already quoted, p. 461 ; G. A. Kohut, in 
 Publications, No. 3, p. 114). 
 
 * For this information I am indebted to the courtesy of Prof 
 F. B. Dexter, of Yale University. 
 
3. OBITUARY NOTICES OF THF LOPEZ 
 FAMIL Y. 
 
 [Vol. I, p. 529, March 27, 1775]: -Attended the 
 Funeral cf Mr. David Lopez who died yesterday Morn 
 ing aet. 61, and was this day at Noon buried in the 
 Jews Burying Ground. He came from Portugal a few 
 years ago, & with his two sons was circumcised, having 
 been obliged to live secreted in Portugal. No Mourning 
 tho the Family wealthy." 
 
 Concerning David Lopez I find but one solitary note 
 in the interesting " Genealogy of the Lopez Family," 
 written in New York between 1822 and 1839 by Sarah 
 Lopez, and addressed to her friend Mrs. Priscilla Lopez 
 of Charleston, by her request. This valuable document 
 is printed in full in the Publications of the Am. Jew. 
 Hist. Soc., No. 2, pp. 103-6. Reference to an earlier 
 David Lopez is made in the Diary of Samuel Sewall 
 1674-1719 ("Collection of Massachusetts Historical 
 Society," vol. V, fifth series, Boston, 1878), vol. I, p. 231. 
 Under date of Oct. 16, 1688, Judge Sewall informs us 
 that his daughter "Little Hannah [born 1679; died 
 1724] going to school in the morn, being enter d a little 
 within the Schoolhouse Lane, is rid over by David 
 Lopez.", She " fell on her back," continues her father, 
 "but I hope little hurt, save that her Teeth bled a 
 
 Little, was much frighted ; but went to school " 
 
 She survived the accident thirty-six years. 
 
 [Vol. Ill, pp. 24-5, June 8, 1782] : " On 28th of May 
 died that amiable, benevolent, most hospitable & very 
 respectable Gentleman Mr. Aaron Lopez Merchant, who 
 retire from Newp 1 Rhd. Isld in these Times resided 
 from 1775 to his Death at Leicester in Massachusetts, 
 He was a Jew by Nation, came from Spain or Portugal 
 about 1754 & settled at Rh. Isld. He was a Merchant 
 of the first Eminence ; for Honor & Extent of Com 
 merce probably surpassed by no Mercht in America. 
 He did Business with the greatest Ease & Clearness 
 always carried about a Sweetness of Behav a calm 
 
139 
 
 Urbanity an agreeable & unaffected Politeness of man 
 ners. Without a single Enemy & the most universally 
 beloved by an extensive Acquaintance of any man I 
 ever Knew. Hia^ Beneficence to his Famy Connexions, 
 to his Nation, and to all the World is almost without a 
 Parallel. He was my intimate Friend & Acquaintance ! 
 Oh ! how often have I wished that sincere pious & 
 candid mind could have perceived the Evidences of 
 Xty, perceived the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ, known 
 that JESUS was the MESSIAH predicted by Moses & the 
 Prophets ! The amiable & excellent Characters of a 
 Lopez, of a Manasseh Ben Israel*, of a Socrates^ & a 
 Gangenelli, would almost persuade us to hope that their 
 Excellency was infused by Heaven, and that the vir 
 tuous & good of all Nations & religions, notwithstandg 
 their Delusions, may be bro t together in Paradise on 
 the Xtian System, finding Grace with the all benevolent 
 & adorable Emanuel who with his expiring breath & in 
 his deepest agonies, prayed for those who knew not 
 what they did. 
 
 Mr. Lopez was journeys with his Wife & some of his 
 Famy on a Visit to Newport, and within five Miles of 
 Providence at Scotts pond as he was Waters his Horse, 
 the Horse plunged beyond his Depth with the Sulky, 
 when M r Lopez leaped into the Water ; & tho his 
 serv t attempted to save him he was lost. His Corps 
 was carried to Newport & there interred in the Jew 
 Burying Ground the Demonstration of universal 
 Sorrow attended the Funeral." 
 
 This noble tribute, voiced by so disinterested a per 
 sonage as President Stiles, adequately interprets the 
 general esteem in which the benevolent and upright 
 Aaron Lopez was held by his contemporaries. The 
 
 * In a little duodecimo volume, just come to hand, I find 
 equally extravagant praise of Manasseh ben Israel, the intimate 
 friend of Vossius, Barlaeus, and Hugo Grotius. The book is en 
 titled : Sorberiana siveExcerpta ex oreSamuelis Sorbiere,t\.z.. 
 Tolosae, 1691; see pp. 147-149. 
 
140 
 
 diarist in his eulogy is so carried away by his fervent 
 regard of the character of this excellent Israelite, that 
 he expresses his hope of his eternal felicity, quite in 
 accord with the fine precept of the Rabbis, who said 
 that the righteous of all nations have a share in the life 
 to come." If the Christological phrasing of this liberal 
 sentiment is somewhat narrower than the Jewish 
 teaching, it must not be attributed to any other cause 
 than his missionary zeal on behalf of Christ. He was, 
 withal, mindful of the dignity and convictions of others, 
 differing from him in matters of faith or theological 
 doctrine. This forbearance, and his honest, straight 
 forward manner through life, belong to the loftiest traits 
 of his character. His esteem for Aaron Lopez was 
 held to be so great, that when he visited Newport, in 
 May, 1783, he was asked to compose the English 
 inscription for that eminent Jew s tomb. According to 
 a note of Prof. Dexter s (Diary I.e. note 1), several 
 drafts of the epitaph are to be found among the Presi 
 dent s unpublished papers. The complete inscription 
 is printed in the Rhode Island Historical Magazine, vol. 
 vi. (October, 1885), pp. 90-91, where a collection of 
 other Jewish epitaphs from the Hebrew Cemetery in 
 Newport is given by the Rev. A. P. Mendes, the then 
 minister of the congregation (printed I.e., pp. 81-105 ; 
 /. also Frankel s Monatsschrift ftier die Geschichte 
 und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, vol. iv, p. 295etseg., 
 and the authorities cited in Publications of the American 
 Jew. Hist. Sec. , No. 6, pp. 67, 68, 75). The English of 
 the inscription reads very appropriately : 
 
 * He was a merchant of eminence 
 of polite and amiable manners. 
 Hospitality, Liberality and Benevolence 
 were his true characteristics 
 
 An ornament and valuable Pillar to 
 
 the Jewish Society of which he was a 
 
 member. His knowledge in commerce 
 
 was unbounded and his integrity irreproachable ; 
 
141 
 
 thus he lived and died, much regretted, 
 esteemed and loved by all. 
 
 A documentary passage, dated Dec. 5th, 1786, pre 
 served among the manuscripts in the Library of Con 
 gress, speaks of him as "an eminent Jew merchant," 
 who bore "a most respectable, unblemished character 
 and was universally esteemed " (cf. Publications, No. 8, 
 p. 147). In Emory Washburn s Brief Sketch of the 
 History of Leicester Academy, Boston 1855, pp. 7, 8, and 
 9 will be found an interesting account of the personality 
 and estate of Aaron Lopez, whose home was converted 
 into a scholastic institution at the instigation of Colonel 
 Crafts, the originator of the project. We quote from 
 that record the following : 
 
 " While his mind was thus exercised how to 
 
 accomplish the plan he had conceived, the death of 
 Aaron Lopez, and the removal of the families of Jews 
 from Leicester, to which place they had resorted from 
 Newport to escape the hostilities which the English 
 waged upon that town, opened to Col. Crafts the means 
 of carrying forward his favorite scheme. 
 
 " Mr. Lopez was one of the merchant princes of his 
 day. He was at one time extensively engaged in com 
 merce and possessed of great wealth. He was dis 
 tinguished for hospitality and benevolence, and his fine 
 gentlemanly manners, united with a character of irre 
 proachable integrity, secured him the respect and 
 esteem of all who knew him. 
 
 "His place of business before the Revolution had 
 been Newport, then the commercial emporium of New 
 England. In the summer of 1777, I believe,^ he, 
 together with several other families of Jews, removed 
 to Leicester, where they purchased and occupied estates, 
 and Mr. Lopez resumed, to a limited extent, his mer 
 cantile pursuits. 
 
 " To accomodate these and to provide for his family 
 a suitable residence, he erected what was then regarded 
 
as a spacious and commodious dwelling-house, contain 
 ing a larger center room for the purposes of a store. I 
 shall have occasion to speak more particularly of this 
 estate in another connection. 
 
 " On the 20th day of May, 1782, Mr. Lopez started 
 with his family, to visit Providence, they in a carriage, 
 and himself in a gig drawn by one horse. In passing 
 Scott s pond, in Smithfield, on his way, he drove his 
 horse into the water, as was supposed, to drink, when, 
 by some means, he got beyond his depth, upset the 
 gig, and Mr. Lopez was drowned in the very presence 
 of his family, who could render him no assistance [see 
 also Daly Settlement, 2d ed., p. 86 for another account]. 
 
 (The inventory of his estate shows a property of 
 nearly $100,000, including a stock-in-trade of more than 
 $12,000, and indicating by the character of the furni 
 ture and family stores on hand, a style of living not 
 common at that day in the country.) 
 
 " This circumstance, together with the return of 
 peace, induced these families to return to Newport, 
 leaving, however, among the inhabitants of Leicester, 
 a grateful remembrance of their residence here, which 
 was cordially reciprocated. 
 
 " This train of events rendered it necessary to sell 
 the estate of Mr. Lopez, and the same was offered at 
 
 auction The original deed of the estate bears 
 
 date May 7, 1783." 
 
 The residence of Aaron Lopez in Leicester was soon 
 thereafter converted into an Academy, which has since 
 become the alma mater of some of the foremost men of 
 the nation. Dr. Stiles too, refers to a visit of his to 
 Leicester, Mass., June 15, 1778 (cf. Diary, vol. ii., p. 
 273), on which occasion "Mr. Rivera a Jew Merch* at 
 part 8 presented him with half dozen Bottles Wine Sac." 
 Much useful and interesting information concerning the 
 sojourn and social status of the Newport Jews in Lei 
 cester, will be found in an article on "Aaron Lopez in 
 Leicester, prepared through the courtesy of Hon. N. 
 
43 
 
 Taylor Phillips [from notes supplied by the Hon- 
 Andrew H. Green, of New York]," published in the 
 Jewish Comment (Baltimore), Oct. 18, 1901, pp. 3-5. 
 For other particulars on the life and services of Aaron 
 Lopez, see the indices of the Publications and especially 
 No. 6, j,p. 70-75. 
 
INDEX 
 
 | Biblical proper names, book titles and other irrelevant items are not included : nor 
 are the "Additions and Corrections," at the end of the book, indexed.) 
 
 Abarbinel R.. 49. 
 
 Aben Ezra, 49, 50, 124. 
 
 Abraham, Lewis, 62, 63. 
 
 Abrahams, Israel, 79, 94. 
 
 Abulfeda, 99. 
 
 Acosta, Mr., 134. 
 
 Adams, Hannah, 47, 86, 136, 
 137. 
 
 Adler, Cyrus, 136. 
 
 Afghans, Jewish Origin of, 10. 
 
 Ainsworth, 22. 
 
 Alexander, John, 40. 
 
 Alfandari, Aaron ben Moses, 
 65. 
 
 Aliphander, Aaron, 65. 
 
 Alison, Francis. 20. 
 
 Alvarez, 108. 
 
 Aly Bey, 114. 
 
 Amsterdam, 94. 
 
 A nglo-Jewish Historical Ex 
 hibition, 135. 
 
 Anna de I<ohan, 70. 
 
 Antigua, \V. I., 93, 127. 
 
 Antonia, Princess of Wuertem- 
 berg, 69. 
 
 Apta, Poland, 80. 
 
 Arnold. 34. 
 
 Ashkenazi, 83 ; see also Moses 
 Bar David. 
 
 Athias, 52. 
 
 Auchmuty, Judge, 19, 121. 
 
 Austin, Mr., 19. 
 
 Austin, St., 124. 
 
 Azavado, Moses Cohen, 130. 
 
 Azevedo, Benjamin Cohen, 135. 
 
 Azevedo, Moses Cohen, 135. 
 
 Azulai, Abraham, 66. 
 
 Azulai, Hayyim Joseph David, 
 65, 66, 80, 91. 
 
 Bag Ive [?], Phinehas Morde- 
 
 cai, 65. 
 Bajaiu, Haijm I^echamim, Rab 
 
 bi, 129. 
 Barbadoes, W. I., 87, 120, 130, 
 
 133. 
 
 Barlaeus, 139. 
 Bartlett, 26. 
 Basnage, 50. 
 Baxter, Rev. Mr., 41. 
 Bayerus, 106. 
 Bevis Marks Synagogue in 
 
 London, 135. 
 
 Bengal, the Ten Tribes in, 128. 
 Ben Jacob, 65. 
 Berliner, A., 79. 
 Bible, Influence of, in New 
 
 England, 5-7. 
 Boshal , Moses ben Solomon 
 
 dei, 97. 
 
 Bosquila, Rabbi, 80, 97. 
 Boston, Jews in, 46. 
 Bradstreet, Mr., 43. 
 Braunschweig, Abraham ben 
 
 Eliezer, 95. 
 Bruce, 11. 
 Bruce, J., 71. 
 Brunner, A. W., 56. 
 Buschal, see Boshal. 
 Bush, Rev. Dr., 10. 
 Buxtorf, John, 44, 69, 95. 
 Byron, Lord, 82. 
 
 Car gal [Carigal], 91. 
 
 Carigal [Raphael], Haijm Isaac, 
 16, 19, 38, 53, 56, 64, 66, 80, 
 83, 96, 97, 99, 100, 111 and 
 Appendix II. ; his person 
 ality described, 88-89; 91, 
 
146 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 114, 116-17, 121 ; his Por 
 trait, 90; Chronological Me 
 moir of his Life, 129-130; a 
 pen-and-ink Sketch of him 
 among the Stiles Papers, 
 136-7. 
 
 Carregal, see Carigal, 
 
 Carvalho, Emanuel H,, Rev., 
 54, 
 
 Charleston, S. C., Jews in, 43 r 
 47 [Converted Jews], 134- 
 36. 
 
 Chauncy, Charles, 71, 72, 
 
 Clark, Mr., 31. 
 
 Cleveland, 82. 
 
 Cochin, Jews of y 1 1 , 12 ; see also 
 Malabar. 
 
 Cohen, Philip, 136. 
 
 Cohen, Samuel, Rabbi, 80, 
 97-98. 
 
 Colman, Benjamin, Rev., 22 y 
 42. 
 
 Cotton, Mr., 55. 
 
 Columbia College has Hebrew 
 Trustee, 54, 
 
 Connecticut, Jews in, 106, 107, 
 109-11; Hebrew Inscriptions 
 there, 107. 
 
 Constantinople, Jews in, 23, 
 128. 
 
 Conversions of Jews in New 
 England and elsewhere, 37- 
 48; 85, 111. 
 
 Costa, Abraham de, 134. 
 
 Costa, Isaac da, 134. 
 
 Costa, Louis da, 76. 
 
 Costas, 134. 
 
 Countess, German, understands 
 Hebrew, 68. 
 
 Cracow, Poland, 93. 
 
 Crafts, Colonel, 141. 
 
 Cresson, Warder (Michael Roaz 
 Israel), proselyte, 76-77. 
 
 Curacoa, W. I., 86, 93, 127, 
 
 Da.ostas, 134. 
 
 Daly, Judge, 24, 25 y 30, 34 r 46, 
 128, 134, 136, 142. 
 
 Davenport f W., 52. 
 
 Davenport, J., 38, 
 
 Dayton, Col., 125. 
 
 D Azevedo, see Azevedo. 
 
 De Costa r see Costa. 
 
 Delisle, Mr,, 64, 125. 
 
 Dennison, Frederick, 34. 
 
 De Sola, see Sola. 
 
 Dexter, F. R. r 6, 21, 24, 25, 28, 
 31, 32, 38, 80, 89, 106, 119, 
 137, 140. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 74. 
 
 Dighton, Mass., Hebrew rock- 
 inscription there, 107. 
 
 Dionysius eoropag, 83. 
 
 Dixwell, 8. 
 
 Eberhard III., Duke of Wuer- 
 
 temberg, 69. 
 Edes, Peter, 62. 
 Edwards, Morgan, Rev., 45, 46. 
 Eisenmenger, 26. 
 Eleazar, Rabbi, 51. 
 Elias, ben Yizhak ben Arha, 
 
 65,66. 
 
 Eliot, John, 13. 
 Elisabeth, Princess, 69. 
 Elizur, Isaac, 35, 108, 109. 
 England, Jews in, 47, 134. 
 Epitaphs, Jewish, 137, 140. 
 Eusebius, 51. 
 
 Eustatia, W. I., 93, 110, 127. 
 Eutychius, 21, 115. 
 
 Facsimiles of old Prints, 39, 41. 
 
 Falashas, 10. 
 
 Fink, Rev. Mr., 112. 
 
 Frankel, Z., 24, 63, 140. 
 
 Frankford [Frankfort], Ger 
 many, Jews converted in, 40, 
 42. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 106. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 147 
 
 Frasier, Mr., a Jew, 42, 43. 
 
 Frazon, Joseph, the Jew, 43. 
 
 Frederick V., 69. 
 
 Friedenwald, Herbert, 76, 
 
 Friendships^ Literary, between 
 Jews and Gentiles, 94-5 ; 78- 
 98, and Appendix II, (esp. p. 
 125). 
 
 Fuerst, J., 77, 78, 80. 
 
 Qalicchi [or Gallichi], 77, 
 
 Gangenelli, 139, 
 
 Gedalia, Meir, Rabbi, 129. 
 
 Gedelia, Abraham, 65. 
 
 Georgia, Jews in, 54, 63, 112, 
 
 Gerson, Hermann, 70, 
 
 Goffe, 8. 
 
 Gomez Peto, 65, 66. 
 
 Gordon, Lord George, proselyte 
 
 to Judaism, 74-76, 
 Gratz, Rebecca, 122. 
 Green, Andrew H,, 143. 
 Gregoire, Abbe, 47. 
 Grotius, Hugo, 139, 
 Guedemann, M., 79. 
 
 Halevy, 10. 
 
 Hamilton, W. D., 71. 
 Hargal [Carigal], 89, 91. 
 Harris, William Thaddeus, 
 
 137. 
 
 Harrison, Peter, 57. 
 Hart, ->bm., 26, 123. 
 Hart, Isaac, 35, 64, 65. 
 Hart, Nathan, 35. 
 Harts, the, of Newport, 108, 
 
 109. 
 Hayes, Mr., alleged conversion 
 
 of, 45, 46, 111. 
 Hayes, Moses Michael, 46. 
 Hayes, Reyna, Miss, 46, 128. 
 Hebraists, Christian, in New 
 
 England and elsewhere, 6, 
 
 37, 68, 99, 101, 104; -female 
 
 Hebraists, 67-72. 
 
 Hebrew rock-inscriptions in 
 America, 107, 111, 118. 
 
 Hebrew^ study of, in New Eng 
 land, 5-6; see also "Hebra 
 ists." 
 
 Hebron, Palestine, 65-66, 83, 
 87, 89, 98, 114, 115, 129, 130, 
 131 (Statistics). 
 
 Heidek, Rev., 47, 
 
 Heydeck, Juan Joseph, 47, 
 48, 
 
 Hideck, Rev. Mr., 47. 
 
 Hillel, 51. 
 
 Hirshel, Jachiel, converted 
 Rabbi, 45. 
 
 Holmes, Abiel, 7, 10, 14, 16, 17, 
 21, 55, 56, 83, 
 
 Holwell, J. Z., 10. 
 
 Holy Land, Jews in, 131 (Sta 
 tistics). 
 
 Homer, 123, 
 
 Honeywood, St. John, 136, 
 137. 
 
 Hubbard, Dr., 109, 111). 
 
 Huehner, Leon, 54. 
 
 Imrie, David, 13. 
 
 Intermarriages, 47, 
 Isaac, Rabbi, see Carigal. 
 Isaacs, Aaron, 34. 
 Isaacs, Jacob, 108, 109. 
 Isaacs, Joshua, 110. 
 Isaacs, Ralph, Jr., 109. 
 Ishaaci, Selomoh, Rabbi, 94. 
 
 Jacobs. 35. 
 
 Jacobs, Joseph, 36, 48, 71, 76, 78. 
 
 Jamaica, W. I., Jews in, 86, 91, 
 
 93, 127, 130. 
 Jarchi, see Rashi. 
 Jenkins, J. L., Rev., 89. 
 Jerusalem, Jews in, 64-66, 83 
 
 [93, 97, 93, 105], 113, 131 
 
 (Statistics) . 
 Jeudah, Hijam [Hayyim], 65. 
 
148 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jews as Patriots, 29, 34-5, 
 
 53-5. 
 as Tories, 28-36, 65. 
 
 - as Whigs, 28. 
 
 - Conversions of, in New 
 
 England and elsewhere, 
 37-48,85, 111 Proselytes, 
 73-77. 
 
 - their customs, observances 
 
 and festivals referred to, 
 24, 25, 26, 27, 72, 73, 74, 
 75, 77, 125, 128, 130, 132. 
 and Afghans, 10. 
 
 - in Charleston, S. C, 43, 47, 
 
 [converted Jew], 134-36. 
 
 - in Cochin, 11, 12. 
 
 - in Connecticut, 106, 107, 
 
 109-11. 
 
 - in Constantinople, 23. 
 
 - in Georgia, 54, 63, 112. 
 
 - in Jamaica, W. I., 86, 91, 93, 
 
 127. 
 
 - in Jerusalem, 64-66, 83 [93, 
 
 97,98, 105], 113. 
 
 - in Leicester, Mass., 138, 
 
 141-3. 
 
 - in London, 23, 31, 32, 61, 87, 
 
 97 converted, 40 Chris 
 tian proselytes to Juda 
 ism, 47, 73-77 - Rabbi 
 Carigal in -130, 134, 135. 
 
 - in Malabar, 11. 
 
 - in New Haven, 35, 109-110, 
 
 112. 
 
 - in Newport, Kh. 1, 14, 16, 18, 
 
 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 et 
 seq., 43, 44, 45, 46, 53, 55- 
 64, 66-67, 78-98, 108-9, 
 138; remove to Leicester, 
 Mass., 138, 141, 142. 
 
 - in New York, 18, 23, 46, 47, 
 
 53,54,61,77,87 [106], 107, 
 108, 110, 111, 112, 124, 130. 
 
 - in Palestine, 129, 130, 131 
 
 (Statistics). 
 
 Jews in Philadelphia, 45, 54, 
 66, 87, 111-112, 130. 
 
 - in Samen, 11. . 
 
 - in Surinam, D. G., 19, 20, 
 
 87, 93 [110, 120], 127. 
 
 - and Tartars, 10, 11. 
 John, Theodore, 40. 
 Jona Ben Uzziel, 100. 
 
 Jones, Sir William, 10, 11, 12, 
 
 13. 
 
 Josippus Ben Gorion, 106. 
 Joyliff, Mr., 43. 
 Justin Martyr, 106. 
 
 Kabalah, 81, 83. 
 
 Kahira, Egypt, 91. 
 
 Karigal, Karigel, Karigol, 
 
 Kargol, Kragol, see under 
 
 Carigal. 
 
 Karigal, Abraham, 91. 
 Karigal, Hayyim ben Abraham, 
 
 91. 
 
 Kayserling, M., 48, 66, 69, 70. 
 Kidder, Bishop, 40, 42. 
 Kimchi, David, R., 49, 52, 69. 
 King, Samuel, 50. 
 Kingsley, J. L., 7. 
 Kohler, Max J., 24, 25, 26, 29, 
 
 30, 34, 76, 135. 
 Kohut, Alexander, 11. 
 Kohut, George Alexander, 135, 
 
 137. 
 
 Ladd, 10. 
 
 La Motta, Jacob De, Dr., 54. 
 Lardner, Nathaniel, Dr., 108. 
 Leeser, Isaac, l<ev., 122, 136. 
 Leicester Academy, history of, 
 
 141, 142. 
 Leicester, Mass, Jews in, 138, 
 
 141-3. 
 
 Levarez, Rod., 108. 
 Levi [or Levy], 22, 47, 48. 
 Levi, Abraham, 27. 
 Levi, David, 48. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 149 
 
 Levi, Hyam, "^5, 
 
 Levy, Moses, 35, 108. 
 
 Lewis, Mr. Tutor, 119. 
 
 Lightfoot, Dr., 41. 
 
 Lissa, Poland, a Jew from, 27. 
 
 Livy, 51. 
 
 Locke, Samuel, Rev. Dr., 99, 
 
 London, Jews in, see under 
 Jews. 
 
 Lopez, Mr., 23, 61, 109, 114, 123, 
 
 Lopez, Aaron, 17, 19, 25, 2--30, 
 34, 61, 64, 73, 108, 109, 122; 
 obituary notices of him, 139- 
 143-, his epitaph, 140-1; 
 inventory of his estate, 142; 
 removes to Leicester, Mass., 
 138, 141, 142, 
 
 Lopez, Abraham, 91. 
 
 Lopez, David, 138, 
 
 Lopez Family, obituary no 
 tices of, 138-143, 
 
 Lopez, Moses, 25, 26, 77, 108, 123, 
 
 Lopez, Priscilla, 138, 
 
 Lopez, Sarah, 138. 
 
 Lucina, 108, 
 
 Lyon, Enoc, 66. 
 
 Macpelah, Palestine, Hebrew 
 letter from, 64-, 114, 115. 
 
 Magnus, Lady, 64, 136, 
 
 Maimonides, 16, 49, 50, 51, 
 
 Major, Mr., 43. 
 
 Malabar, Jews in, 11, 
 
 Malamed, David, Rabbi, 129. 
 
 Malki, 80. 
 
 Malki, Ezra ben Raphael, 80, 
 
 Malki, Moses, 79, 80. 
 
 Manasseh ben Israel, 69, 70, 
 136, 139. 
 
 Marchant, Henry, 32, 33. 
 
 Mardokhai ha-Levi, 91. 
 
 Maria Antonio de Verona, 
 71-72. 
 
 Mark, Isaac, 136. 
 
 Marks, the name, 136. 
 
 Marquise, Isaac Rodriguez, 113, 
 Marquise, Rachel, 113. 
 Mason, 24. 
 
 Mason, Jeremiah, Hon., 103. 
 Mather, Cotton, 6, 19, 20, 42, 41 
 Mather, Increase, 38, 39, 40, 41, 
 
 42. 
 
 Mendes, A. P., Rev., 140. 
 Mendes, F. de Sola, 70. 
 Mendes, H. P., 58, 61. 
 Meyer, Louis, 22, 38, 39. 
 Meyers, 109. 
 
 Michael, H, T., 65, 66, 9L 
 Mickve Israel Congregation in 
 
 Philadelphia, 54, 
 Monis, Abigail, epitaph of, 137. 
 Monis, Judah, convert, 22-23, 
 
 39-42, 136, 137. 
 Monselico, Italy, 77, 
 Montanus, 14, 
 Montfaucon, 119. 
 Mortara, M,, 78. 
 Moses bar David [Ashkenazi],, 
 
 79, 80, 81, 83. 
 Mt. Sinai, inscriptions on, 98, 
 
 118. 
 
 Myers, Mordecai, 64, 
 Myers, Naphtali Hart, 61, 
 
 Nassy, Samuel, 20. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 56. 
 
 New England influence of Old 
 Testament thought and legis 
 lation upon its policy, 5; see 
 also under Conversions and 
 Hebraists. 
 
 New Haven, Jews in, 35, 109- 
 110, 112. 
 
 Newport, Jews in, see Jews. 
 
 - Jewish Cemetery, 43, 60, 138, 
 
 140. 
 
 - Synagogue, 16, 18, 19, 23, 24, 
 25, 26, 27, 53, 55-64, 66, 84, 
 93, 96, 98, 108, 115, 117, 119, 
 120, 122; photograph of, 60, 
 
150 
 
 INDEX 
 
 New York, Jews in, see Jews. 
 Nichols, Jno., Capt., 109. 
 Nieto, David, 124, 130, 134. 
 
 Obituary Notices of the Lo 
 pez Family, 138-143. 
 
 Olive, William, Hebraist, -37, 
 67. 
 
 Oliver, Judge, 19, 121. 
 
 Oppenheimer, D., 77. 
 
 Oppert, G., 11. 
 
 Owen, John, 137. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, 49. 
 
 Palestine, Jews in, 131 (Statis 
 tics). 
 
 Paramaribo, D. G., 20. 
 
 Parker, Mr., 70. 
 
 Parker, Paltah, 71 . 
 
 Patna, Ten Tribes in, 128. 
 
 Pato, Haijm Jehudah Gomez, 
 66, 129. 
 
 Patto, Samson Gomez, 66. 
 
 Peck, Wm. Augustus, 31. 
 
 Peto, Gomez, 65. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jews in, see Jews. 
 
 Phillips, Naphtali, 54. 
 
 Phillips, N. Taylor, 46, 54, 63, 
 143. 
 
 Philo, 52. 
 
 Picciotto, James, 74, 75, 76, 
 135. 
 
 Pinto, the Brothers, 109-110, 
 111. 
 
 Pinto, Isaac, 18, 107, 124. 
 
 Pinto, Jacob, 35, 110. 
 
 Pinto, Samuel, 110. 
 
 Pinto, Solomon, 35, 110. 
 
 Pipels, Jacob, 81 . 
 
 Polack, 46. 
 
 Poland, Jews in, 80, 83, 93, 96. 
 
 Pollack, Myer, 45. 
 
 Police, Issachar, 45. 
 
 Pollock, Isaac, 61. 
 
 Pollock, Miss, 44, 45. 
 
 Portrait of Rabbi Carigal, 9H. 
 
 Prideaux, Dr., 48. 
 
 Prince William Fred. Henry, 
 20. 
 
 Proselytes, Christian, to Juda 
 ism, 47, 73-77. 
 
 Ptolomy, King, 115. 
 
 Rashi [quoted as Jarchi], 16, 
 
 49,50,51,95. 
 Rhodes, Jews in, 80. 
 Rivera, Abraham, 61. 
 Rivera, Jacob Rodr., 26, 31, 117, 
 
 121, 122, 132, 142. 
 Rodgers, Jno, Rev., 36. 
 Rogers, J. E. Thorold, 71. 
 Rohan, Prince Renari de, 70 
 Rome, Geo., 31. 
 Rophe, Salomon, 34. 
 Russel, T. 72. 
 Russia, Jews in, 83. 
 Russmeyer, Rev. Mr., 68. 
 
 Salter. Richard, Rev., 102. 
 Salvador, 34. 
 Samen, Jews in, 11. 
 Saphed, Palestine, 80. 
 Sarsidas, 108. 
 Schechter, Solomon, 95. 
 Schreier, Eugene, 58, 61, 62, 63. 
 Schudt, Johann Jacob, 26, 69, 
 
 70, 74, 79 95. 
 Schurman, Anna Maria de 
 
 [von], 69-70. 
 Seixas [sometimes written 
 
 Satius], Penjamin, 63. 
 Seixas Gershom Mendes, Rev., 
 
 53-55. 
 
 Seixas, Moses, 35, 62, 63 [91] . 
 Seneca, 69. 
 Sewall, Hannah, 138. 
 Sewall, Samuel, 42, 43, 44, 138. 
 Shammai, 51. 
 Sheftall, 34. 
 Silva, Hiskiyah, de, 66, 80. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 151 
 
 Simeon ben Jochai, 21, 82. 
 Simon, the Jew, 4^. 
 Simpson, Mr., 106. 
 Simson, Mr., Jr., 107. 
 Smyrna, 97. 
 Socrates, 139. 
 Sola, Clarence de, 135. 
 Solomon, Haym, 34. 
 Southcote, Johanna, zealot, 82. 
 Southwick, S., 122. 
 Statistics, Jewish, 17, 59, 108- 
 
 113, 114, 131. 
 Steinschneider, Moritz, 68, 70, 
 
 72, 77, 79, 80, 95, 97. 
 Stiles, Emelia, 89. 
 Stiles, Ezra - as patriot, 36. 
 
 - corresponds in Hebrew with 
 
 Rabbi Carigal and others, 
 84,92,96,99,100,106,119, 
 120, 123, 130, 131, 133. 
 
 - friendship for Jews, 9, 27> 
 
 53, 64, 78-98, and Appen 
 dix II. ; see especially 
 pp. 126-7, 131, 132, 138-41. 
 
 - inquires into the where 
 
 abouts of the Ten Tribes 
 of Israel, 9-13, 50, 128. 
 
 - interested in Old Testament 
 
 study, 6, 9, 49, 117-18. 
 
 - literary activity of, 8, 9, 
 
 102, 106, 107. 
 
 - mystical bent of, 81, 82, 96, 
 
 124. 
 
 - pronounces oration in He 
 
 brew, 102. 
 
 - pronounces eulogy on Aaron 
 
 Lopez, 138-9. 
 
 - Rabbinical friends of, 78- 
 
 98. 
 
 - Scholarship and varied at 
 
 tainments of, 6, 7, 8. 
 - Semitic and Oriental stu 
 dies of, 14-28, 36, 37, 49-53, 
 64, 85, 99-107, 115, 117-8, 
 123-4. 
 
 Stiles, Ezra - translates into 
 Hebrew, 106. 
 
 - visits the synagogue ; see 
 
 under Newport. 
 
 - wife and children study He 
 
 brew^, 7, 68; wife attends 
 his classes, 6. 
 
 - writes Aaron Lopez s epi 
 
 taph, 140. 
 
 Stiles, Ezra, Jr., 17, 50, 68, 137. 
 
 Surinam, Jews in, 19-20, 87, 93 
 [110, 120], 127 [131, 132, 133.] 
 
 Synagogu-e in Newport, de 
 scribed, 57-60; photograph 
 of, 60; see also under New 
 port- in Palestine, 131 in 
 Syria, 131 (Statistics). 
 
 Tartars, descended from the 
 Ten Tribes of Israel, 10, 11, 
 50. 
 
 Ten Tribes of Israel inquiries 
 concerning their where 
 abouts, 9-13 [43, 47], 50, 128. 
 
 Thecla, Lady, scribe, 118, 
 119. 
 
 Titus, 56. 
 
 Tobiah ben Jehudah, 80, 93, 
 94, 96. 
 
 Tophail, Abu Jaafar Ebn, 
 100. 
 
 Tories, Jewish, in Newport, 
 28-36, 65. 
 
 Touro, Abraham, 60. 
 
 Touro Cadets, 58. 
 
 Touro [or Tauro], Isaac, 14, 15, 
 19, 24, 25, 27, 35, 46, 58, 59, 
 60,64,81,92,93, 96,111, 117, 
 122, 128. 
 
 Touro, Judah, 46, 60. 
 
 Touro Street, 60. 
 
 Treat, Joseph, 23. 
 
 Tremellius, Emanuel, 40. 
 
 Trypho, the Jew, 106. 
 
 Turner, Mr., 55. 
 
152 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Vansittart. Henry, 10. 
 Van Straalen, S., 78. 
 Veil, L. Compeigne de, 78. 
 Venice, Jews in, 110. 
 Verona, Maria Antonio de, 
 
 71-72. 
 Vossius, 139 
 
 Wagenseil, 26. 
 
 Wanton, Governor, 19, 121. 
 Washburn, Emory, 141. 
 Washington, George, President 
 
 of U. S., 54, 62-3. 
 Watson, Robert 75. 
 Werdmueller, Mr,, 45, 
 West Indies, 87, 93, 106, 110, 
 
 113. 
 
 Whaley, 8. 
 Whigs, Jewish, 28. 
 Whitefield, George W., Rev., 
 
 44. 
 
 Whittelsey, l<ev. Mr., 20. 
 Wilkinson, Jemina, 82. 
 Willen, 106, 
 Willner, Wolf, l<ev., 7, 10, 17, 
 
 18, 26, 36, 52, 56, 109, 123, 133. 
 Wilton, Connecticut, a Jew at, 
 
 106. 
 
 Wolf, J., Chr,, 74. 
 Wolf, Lucien, 48, 71, 76, 7K 
 Wolf, Simon, 20, 64, 136. 
 Women as Hebraists- see He 
 braists. 
 Wright, Bishop, lll r 124. 
 
 Yaghel [or Jagel] r Abraham, 
 
 77-78 
 
 Yaghel, Camillo, censor, 77. 
 Yale College - bicentennial, 5 ; 
 
 Hebrew on its corporate seal r 
 
 ibid.; study of Hebrew at,, 
 
 5-6 y 14, 99-107. 
 Yehudah,. Hayyim, 65. 
 
 Zabi, Isaac Hajja, 65. 
 
 Zabi, Mordecai, Rabbi, 129. 
 
 Zante, Jews in, 95. 
 
 Zedeka, Isaac, Rabbi, 129. 
 
 Zedner, J., 80, 91, 136. 
 
 Zionists, 12 r 76 7 77, 82, 
 105. 
 
 Zohar, 20, 21, 52, 53, 81, 82, 83, 
 93, 100, 114, 131. 
 
 Zubli, I<ev. Mr., 45. 
 
 Zurich, Switzerland, a convert 
 ed Jew in, 45. 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 [Only the most flagrant typographical errors are indicated here. In many case 
 punctuation and quotation marks have been omitted. These and " sprung-off letters 
 may easily be supplied by the reader. ] 
 
 Page 5 The opening paragraphs are quoted from an editorial 
 in the Jewish Exponent, Oct., 1901. 
 
 Page 9- After line 5, supply the heading: Quest for the Ten 
 Tribes. 
 
 Page 13 Line 12, for "Scoland," read: Scotland. 
 
 Page 17 Line 9 from bottom, insert parenthesis before " Holmes." 
 
 Page 18- Line 7 from bottom : "Alhazan " or (el-Hazan}, I am 
 told is the Sephardic (Portuguese) colloquial term for 
 "Deader." 
 
 Page 18 Line 6 from bottom (see also pp. 107, 124^ : The auto 
 graph of Isaac Pinto is to be found in a beautifully printed 
 edition of the Book of Exodus in the library of the Jewish 
 Theological Seminary of New York The little book (duode 
 cimo) lacks a title-page, and appears to have been printed in 
 Amsterdam, judging from certain typographical clews. On 
 the fly appears the inscription, "Isaac Pinto | Ab. 5525 July 
 1765." It belonged, formerly, to I. B. Kursheedt the owner 
 of a large collection of Hebraica and Judaica. 
 
 Page 22 Line 18, read : Cambridge. 
 
 Page 23 Line 13 from bottom, read: Constantinople. 
 
 Page 30- Line 3, close bracket after 30. 
 
 Page 30- Line 18, supply quotation marks after Revenue" and 
 omit them before "As." 
 
 Page 34- Line 10 from bottom: The name Rophe is variously 
 spelt in the records. Arnold, in his History of Rhode Island, 
 voL ii., p. 218, n., has Roffey. I find among my notes refer 
 ence to Hildreth s history of the United States, p. 102, and 
 to Benj. Cowel s (?) The Spirit of 76 in Rhode Island, Bos 
 ton, 1850 p. 194, where Solomon Rophee is cited as an officer 
 in the Continental Army. 1 cannot just now verify the 
 statement, the books not being accessible. 
 
 Page 36 Line 4 from bottom: the last four lines on that page 
 and the first fourteen lines on page 37 belong on p. 49, after 
 line 5. 
 
 Page 39 Line 4, put comma after "decades." 
 
 Page 44 End of line 4, put comma instead of hyphen. 
 
 Page 44 Line 2 from bottom, after "displeased," add: (February 
 16th, 1771; p. 91). 
 
 Page 46 Line 12, for "other" read: Mother. 
 
 Page 47 Line 15 cancel reference to "Appendix" and see instead 
 p. 73, line 9 from bottom. 
 
 Page 47 Line 11 from bottom, substitute hyphen for semi 
 colon. 
 
 Page 55 Line 22, omit \sic\\ the spelling jn in the printed Diary, 
 I.e., must be a typographical error. 
 
154 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 Page 63 Line 7, to the bibliography add : The American Jew as 
 Patriot Soldier and Citizen, pp. 53-59; an article on "Wash 
 ington and the Newport Jews," in Jewish Comment, Oct. 25, 
 1S01, p. 15. A facsimile reprint of Washington s letter to the 
 Jews in Newport is to be found in the Official Souvenir Book 
 
 of the Fair in aid of the Educational Alliance and the 
 
 Institute [New York], 1895, pi 
 The original is in the possession of Mr. Frederick Phillips of 
 
 XT ~\7 1_ S^J" 7~> . i 7 -. _/ _ _T < 7 A T 7 T T 
 
 Hebrew Technical Institute [New York], 1895, pp. 44-45. 
 
 New York. Cf. Publications of the American Jewish His 
 torical Society, No 4, p. 203; No. 6, p. 79. 
 
 Page 63 Line 14 from bottom, for "Abrahams" read: Abra 
 ham. 
 
 Page 63 Line 9 from bottom, put period instead of comma after 
 "death." 
 
 Page 65 Line 3, put period after "Land, "and for " Heborn " 
 read: Hebron. 
 
 Page 66-Line 3, for "Hodesh " read : Hadash. 
 
 Page 70 Line 14, after "years" add: In his Bodleian Catalogue, 
 col. 2574, No. 7152 he writes: " Mrt. in Frisia 4. seu 5 Maji 
 1678." 
 
 Page 72 Line 7 from bottom, for " vol. v." read: vol. i. 
 
 Page 78 End of last line, put comma. 
 
 Page 79 To bibliography on Literary Friendships, add Perles 
 Beitraege zur Gesch. der hebr iind aram. Studien, Muen- 
 chen, 1884, in many places. 
 
 Page 82 Last line, after " in" add: its. 
 
 Page 86 Line 4, after " the " add : American. 
 
 Page 92 Line 7, read "listening." 
 
 Page 94 Line 9 from bottom, for "his" read: This. 
 
 Page 95 Line 6: A similar instance is recorded in the case of the 
 /amous Cardinal Aegidius de Viterbo, in whose home Elia 
 Levita was, for a long time, an honored guest. See Rieger, 
 Geschichte der Juden in Rom, vol. ii., p. 88, note 8; Jew 
 ish Encyclopedia, vol. i., New York, 1901, p. 219 (H. G. 
 Enelow). 
 
 Page 97 Line 71, put comma after orthography." 
 
 Page 97 Line 22, after " we" add: may. 
 
 Page 99 -Line 16, for "are" read: is. 
 
 Page 105 Line 13 from bottom, for "spread" read: shed. 
 
 Page 105 Line 5 from bottom, after parenthesis supply comma. 
 
 Page 1< IS Line 14 from bottom, supply comma at end of the 
 line. 
 
 Page 109 -Line 7, supply quotation marks after " 1762. 
 
 Page 110 -Line 14 from bottom, after "1784" omit quotation 
 marks. 
 
 Page 114 Line 2, for "HAJIM" read: HAIJM. 
 
 Page 115 Line 16 from bottom, after "much" add: and. 
 
 Page 115 Line 17 from bottom, for " Amercia" read: America. 
 
 Page 116 Line 9 from bottom, read: Synagogue. 
 
 Page 117 Line 2, supply quotation marks at end of line 
 
 Page 117 Line 8, supply period after " Law." 
 
 Page 118 - Line 9 from bottom, for " 108 read: 107. 
 
 Page 119 -Line 19, omit bracket. 
 
 Page 121 Line 14 from bottom, the last word should read : 
 [parashah~\. 
 
 Page 124, line 6, after " Kuipt " add : or Cuipt. 
 
 Page 124, note, line 3, read: Bishop 
 
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 155 
 
 Page 129, line 9 from bottom : After the death of Rabbi Raphael 
 Samuel Mendez de Sola, Haham of Curaqoa who died May 
 19, 1761, Rabbi Isaac Henriquez Farro, of Amsterdam, was 
 chosen to succeed him. After serving ten months, this min 
 ister died on July 10th, 1762, aged forty six years. For a term 
 of three years the Rabbinical office remained vacant, until the 
 election of Rabbi Jacob Lopez Da Fonseca, a pupil of Haham 
 De Sola, after whose death he was sent to Amsterdam to 
 complete his studies. Accordingly, Rabbi Carigal s sojourn 
 in Curaqoa must have fallen between 1762 and 1765, not 1761, 
 as Dr. Stiles (I.e.} has it. For the above data I am indebted 
 to a valuable pamphlet by the Rev. Joseph M. Corcos, Rabbi 
 at Curaqoa, entitled: A Synopsis of the History of the Jews 
 of Curagoa (Curaqoa, 1897), p. 38, where some interesting 
 data, relative to the Newport Jews, are to be found. 
 
 Page 130 - Line 9, supply period iifter sterling." 
 
 Page 132 Line 17, omit the first "could." 
 
 Page 133 Line 6, for "24" read: 22. 
 
 Page 133 Line 4 from bottom, omit bracket. 
 
 Page 134 Line 10, for " rubic " read: rubric, and for "paral 
 leled " read : parallel. 
 
 Page 134 Line 20, for "29" read : 22. 
 
 Page 134 To line 21 add: On August 19th the diarist writes 
 (ibid., p. 455) : "This Afternoon I visited Mr. D Acosta. He 
 showed me the works of Maimonides in 4 Vol. fol." 
 
 Page 135 -Line 2: An Isaac de Costa is mentioned as minister of 
 Congregation of "Beth Elohim," in 1750. The old cemetery 
 is called the De Costa burial-ground. For this information 
 and much new material concerning the Jews in Charleston, 
 see an interesting article by Rev. Barnett A. Elzas in the 
 Jewish Comment, May 30, 1902, pp. 38-40. To the bibliog 
 raphy on p. 136 add : David Ottensosser, quoted in the sup 
 plementary note below, vol. iii., pp. 126b-127b ; The Occi 
 dent, vol. xvi. (1858 , p. 142. At the eighth annual meeting 
 of the American Jewish Historical Society a paper was read 
 by Leon Huehner, Esq., on The Jews of South Carolina 
 prior to 1800. The paper is not yet published. Elzas (I.e.), 
 in his above-quoted article, states that he has collected mate 
 rial covering some 600 folio pages treating of the Jews in 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Page 136 Line 17, for "313" read: 513, and for " 153 read: 47. 
 
 Page 136 Line 21, for " Manasse" read : Menasseh as in loco}. 
 
 Page 137 -Line 19, read: Instructer. 
 
 Page 137 Line 8 from bottom, after Northborough, add : Mass. 
 
 Page 138 -Line 1, read: THE. 
 
 Page 138 -Line 12, for "1839" read: 1830. 
 
 Page 138-Line 18, read: Collections. 
 
 Page 139 Line 18, read: Emmanuel. 
 
 Page 142 Line 13, read: Daly s. 
 
 NOTE. The first reference to Dr. Stiles and Rabbi Carigal 
 in Jewish literature is not in Jost s History, but in David Otten- 
 sosser s Geschichte der Jehudim. vol. iii., Fuerth 1825, pp. 
 125b-126a. The work is written in German and printed in 
 Hebrew type, and seems to be based on Hannah Adams s History 
 of the Jews C1812>. See also Carmoly in his Revue Orientale, 
 Brussels, 1846, vol. iii. 
 
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