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Third to None: The Saga of Savannah Jewry
Third to None The Saga of Savannah Jewry Author:Rabbi Saul Jacob Rubin THIRD TO NONE is a comprehensive, thoroughly annotated history of the first Jewish community established in the South and the third organized on the American continent. The book fills a void in the documentation of Jewish life in the New World. — Savannah was the scene of the largest migration of Israelites in the Colonial period. 42 Portuguese &... more » German Jews set sail from England aboard the William and Sarah in January of 1733, arriving at Yamacraw Bluff on July 11th. From these 42 and others who later took up residence in the city have descended some of America's most eminent personages -- Cardozos and Seixases, Sheftalls and Minises, Nuneses and De la Mottas. The ancestors of Uriah Levy (owner of Monticello) and Mordecai Manuel Noah (often referred to as the founder of American Zionism) were in the first contingent of Savannah pioneers. The founder of the Jewish community of the nation's capital, Isaac Polock, began his mercantile career along the shores of the Savannah River. Three American Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, so esteemed Savannah's Hebrew congregation that they addressed letters to its members on the subject of religious liberty. President Washington's instrument was the first sent by an American President to a Jewish worshipping body.« less