Mordecai Manuel Noah
Encyclopedia
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n. Born in a family of Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
Sephardic ancestry; he was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the pre-Civil War period, and the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence.
Career
Noah engaged in trade and law, but when removing to Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, dedicated himself to politics.
Diplomat
In 1811, he was appointed by President James MadisonJames Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
as consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
at Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, then part of Imperial Russia, but declined, and, in 1813, was nominated Consul to the Kingdom of Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, where he rescued American citizens kept as slaves by Moroccan masters. In 1815, Noah received a stunning blow; In the words of US Secretary of State James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, his religion was "an obstacle to the exercise of [his] Consular function." The incident caused outrage among Jews and non-Jews alike.
Noah sent many letters to the White House trying to get an answer as to why they felt his religion should be a justifiable reason for taking the office of consul away. He had done well as consul and had even been able to accommodate the United States request to secure the release of some hostages being held in Algiers. Noah never received a legitimate answer as to why they took the office of Consul away from him. This worried Noah since he was afraid that this would set a precedent for the United States. He worried that this would block future Jews from holding publicly elected or officially granted offices within the United States.
Noah protested and gained letters from John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, and James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
supporting church-state separation and tolerance for Jews. Prominent Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
leader Isaac Harby was moved to write, in a letter to Monroe, "[Jews] are by no means to be considered as a religious sect, tolerated by the government. They constitute a portion of the People. They are, in every respect, woven in and compacted with the citizens of the Republic."
Later career
Noah moved to New York, where he founded and edited The National Advertiser, The New York EnquirerNew York Enquirer
The New York Enquirer has been the name of two unrelated newspapers published in New York City.-19th century New York Enquirer:The New York Enquirer was founded in 1826 by Mordecai Noah. According to the masthead, it was "published every Tuesday and Friday at No. 1 Williams St., New York, New York"...
(later merged into the New York Courier and Enquirer
New York Courier and Enquirer
The New York Courier and Enquirer, properly called the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in New York City from June 1829 until June 1861, when it was merged into the New York World. Throughout its life it was edited by newspaper publisher James...
), The Evening Star, and The Sunday Times newspapers.
In 1819, Noah's most successful play, She Would Be a Soldier, was produced. That play has since established Noah as America's first important Jewish American writer. She Would Be a Soldier is now included in college level anthologies.
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, he tried to found a Jewish "refuge" at Grand Island
Grand Island, New York
Grand Island is a town and an island in Erie County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 census, the town population is 20,374. This represents an increase of 9.41% from the 2000 census figure . The current town name derives from the French name La Grande Île, as Grand Island is the largest island in...
in the Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...
, to be called "Ararat
Ararat, City of Refuge
Ararat, was established as a city of refuge for the Jewish nation, was founded in 1825 by New York politician and playwright Mordecai Manuel Noah, who purchased most of Grand Island, a island near Buffalo, New York...
," after Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
, the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
. He had brought with him a cornerstone which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tishri, 5586 (September, 1825) and in the Fiftieth Year of American Independence." Noah also shared the belief among various others that some of the Native American Indians were from the Lost Tribes of Israel, from which he wrote the Discourse on the Evidences of the American Indians being the Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
In his Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews Noah proclaimed his faith that the Jews would return and rebuild their ancient homeland and called on America to take the lead in this endeavor. On September 2, soon after arriving in Buffalo from New York, thousands of Christians and a smattering of Jews assembled for a historic event. Noah led a large procession,headed by Masons, a New York militia company, and municipal leaders paraded to St. Paul's Episcopal church. Here, there was a brief ceremony- including a singing of the psalms in Hebrew- the cornerstone was laid on the communion table, and the new proclamation establishing the refuge was read. "Proclamation – day ended with music, cannonade and libation. 24 guns, recessional,masons retired to the Eagle Tavern, all with no one ever having set foot on Grand Isle." This was the beginning and the end of Mordecai Noah's venture: he lost heart and returned to New York a couple days later without once having set foot on the island. The cornerstone was taken out of the audience chamber of the church and laid against the back of the building. It is now on permanent display at the Buffalo Historical Society in Buffalo, NY.
From 1827-1828, Noah led New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
political machine.
He was a staunch supporter of slavery. He worried that emancipation would threaten the whole country's safety.
MacArthur Award-winning cartoonist Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
fictionalized Noah's scheme for Grand Island
Grand Island
-Places:In Canada:*Grand Island in Balsam Lake In the Falkland Islands:* Grand Jason Island, sometimes known as "Grand Island"In the United States:*Grand Island, California, community in Colusa County...
in his The Jew of New York
The Jew of New York
The Jew of New York is a graphic novel by Ben Katchor, inspired by Mordecai Manuel Noah's attempt to establish a Jewish homeland in Grand Island, New York in the 1820s. It was originally serialized in the pages of The Forward before being published in book form in 1999.-External links:* by J....
. Noah is also a minor character in Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
's 1973 novel Burr
Burr (novel)
Burr , by Gore Vidal, is a historical novel challenging the traditional iconography of United States history via narrative and a fictional memoir of Aaron Burr. Burr was variously the third US vice president, a US Army officer in and combat veteran of the Revolutionary War, a lawyer and a U.S....
.
The modern edition of Noah's writings is The Selected Writings of Mordecai Noah edited by Michael Schuldiner and Daniel Kleinfeld, and published by Greenwood Press.
American Conservative rabbi Henry Noah is a direct descendant.
- 1813 - 1814: Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States
- 1837 : Discourse of the Evidence of the American Indians being the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israël
- 1844: Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews
Further reading
- Mordecai Manuel Noah: Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States: In the Years 1813-14 and 15
- Major Noah: American-Jewish Pioneer, Isaac Goldberg, The Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia, 1936.
- The Selected Writings of Mordecai Noah, Michael Schuldiner and Daniel J. Kleinfeld, Greenwood Press, 1999.
- IsraIsland. Nava Semel, 2005.