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Malcolm Lazin, Haym Solomon 250th Commemoration chair and Laura Leibman, Princeton Professor of American Jewish Studies, in front of Washington statue and wall. (Photo credit: Jon Marks)<\/p>\nMalcolm Lazin, Haym Solomon 250th Commemoration chair and Laura Leibman, Princeton Professor of American Jewish Studies, in front of Washington statue and wall. (Photo credit: Jon Marks)<\/p>\n
By Jon Marks<\/p>\n
Of all the tributes bestowed on Haym Saloman, relatively unknown outside the Jewish world for his financial and other contributions that helped defeat the British during the Revolution, there\u2019s one few know that remains a part of our daily lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the dollar bill, there\u2019s a Jewish star on it,\u201d said Jeffrey Lasday, senior chief of external affairs at Jewish Federation, moments before the ceremonies honoring Saloman got underway Oct. 19 in Washington Square. \u201cIf you look above the eagle there\u2019s a cluster of stars. They\u2019re in the formation of a Jewish star in tribute to Haym Saloman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today\u2019s crazy world it\u2019s very important for the American people to recognize contributions the American Jewish community have made to America. Today symbolizes one of those contributions he made to the founding of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ceremony continued to bring that out, telling the story of Saloman, a Sephardic Jew born in Poland in 1740 who decided to emigrate to the colonies in his early 30s, starting out in New York. Malcolm Lazin, who moderated the ceremonies attended by 100 or so people as well as a number of military men, picks up the story here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he arrived in New York, he became very prosperous doing international trade transaction with the Dutch, French, and the Germans,\u201d said Lazin, Haym Saloman 250th Commemoration chair and a former federal prosecutor. \u201cBut he did what was the unlikely thing when he joined the Sons of Liberty, which would be the equivalent of the Haganah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was viewed as a terrorist organization. He gets imprisoned twice. The second time he is literally sentenced to death but fortunately is able to escape and ends up in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere he quickly comes to the attention of Robert Morris and becomes the co-financier of the Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that capacity, Saloman opened his personal account to help fund the cause, paying disgruntled soldiers, buying food and needed munitions. He also gave money to luminaries John Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.<\/p>\n
According to Lazin, the $20,000 Saloman handed out is the equivalent of $500,000 today. More important, it emboldened the colonists to better take on the Redcoats, who for long stretches of the Revolution seemed to have the upper hand.<\/p>\n
Everything culminated at the battle of Yorktown, Virginia, which took place Oct. 19, 1781, exactly 245 years to the day of the ceremony. With Cornwallis\u2019 surrender, it turned out to be the final land battle of the Revolution.<\/p>\n
And it might not have happened if not for the man who died penniless at 44, likely from tuberculosis he contracted while in British prison. \u201cHaym Saloman is the Jewish Founding Father of this nation,\u201d said Lazin, standing to the side of a statue of George Washington in the square. Behind Washington is a wall filled with inscriptions headed by \u201cFreedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness.\u201d In front of him is a flame commemorating the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the quintessential patriot,\u201d continued Lazin. \u201cSomeone who put the country first and put his life at risk as a freedom fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those efforts, recognized by Washington and the Founding Fathers back then, still resonate. \u201cHaym Saloman financed the Battle of Yorktown for General Washington, the last land battle of the Revolutionary War, said Brig. Gen. Frank McGovern of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. \u201cWithout his support, Washington could not have achieved what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made a great sacrifice and we\u2019re thankful for what he did. Without it we don\u2019t know what the future holds. There\u2019s an unbreakable link between those who served with General Washington and those serving today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re honored to be part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet there\u2019s nothing in writing to verify Saloman\u2019s role and you won\u2019t find his John Hancock anywhere. \u201cYou won\u2019t find his name on any of the documents,\u201d said Lazin, presiding over a ceremony that included a rendition of Irving Berlin\u2019s \u201cGod Bless America\u201d by Congregation Rodeph Sholom Cantor Bradley Hyman. \u201cbecause at that moment in time Jews were not allowed to vote and could only hold public office by swearing on the Christian or Protestant Bible, which he was unwilling to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
While living in the city Saloman became a member of Congregation Mikveh Israel, while at the same time associating with those at nearby Rodeph Sholom. Recognizing his efforts and aware that Saloman and other Jews weren\u2019t being treated fairly, President George Washington decreed that would change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Revolution is really groundbreaking because it happens to be a moment when Jews hope they have the opportunity to have a lot of the rights that we take for granted be possible,\u201d said Laura Leibman, Princeton professor in American Jewish Studies and a leading historian of early American Jewish life, \u201cOne of the things that we see is that immediately the leaders of different Jewish communities and all of the major population centers write letters to George Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re asking \u2018Are we going to have protections against anti-Jewish violence? Are we going to have rights like everybody else?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose letters are so important. They\u2019re the moment where the new leader of this nation is saying \u2018Yes, the government is going to have your back. You can expect that you will be treated like any other citizen.\u2019 That was his response.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, nearly 250 years later, what would Saloman, whose wife Rachel bore him four children, think of the way Jews are treated today? \u201cI think he would be probably totally amazed by how far we\u2019ve come,\u201d conjectured Lazin, noting not only did Saloman and his family face antisemitism but several Jewish New Yorkers had their homes and their synagogue set on fire. \u201cWhile all things are not perfect, in the aftermath of World War II, it started to make it a little bit socially unacceptable to be overtly antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Leibman says there should be more. \u201cThis is part of what the Founding Fathers were agitating for,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey wanted to make sure that everybody in the country was going to be safe regardless of their religion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was part of the promise the Founding Fathers gave to Jewish American communities. They were going to be protected and it wasn\u2019t going to be a place where prejudice against Jews was tolerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Jews the Revolution is really important, laying the groundwork for what is going to be Jewish rights. We think in our current climate, it\u2019s a promise that\u2019s been partially fulfilled, but something we still desire and look forward to being completely fulfilled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Revolution and people like Haym Saloman were so crucial making it clear the Jews deserved certain rights at the time. We\u2019ve worked for those rights and ideally someday they will be fulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Marks is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Malcolm Lazin, Haym Solomon 250th Commemoration chair and Laura Leibman, Princeton Professor of American Jewish Studies, in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[127852,117677,127853,127854,127855,127856,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-312944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-brig-gen-frank-mcgovern","tag-congregation-mikveh-israel","tag-haym-saloman","tag-haym-salomon-250th-remembrance","tag-laura-leibman","tag-malcolm-lazin","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}