The Jewish world of Alexander Hamilton

The Jewish world of Alexander Hamilton

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2021.

xvii, 254 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 25 cm.

923.273 H217por 2021 MB

(OCoLC)1240494084

" ... Porwancher's story begins in the 1750s in a colony in the Danish West Indies, where Hamilton's mother, Rachel Faucette, married a merchant named Johann Michael Levine, who sometimes went by the name of Lavien, a Sephardic version of Levine. Porwancher is convinced that Levine was Jewish and that Rachel -- born to a Christian family in the British Caribbean -- converted in order to marry him, as was required by Danish law at the time. Faucette's marriage with Levine was troubled, leading her to flee to a nearby British Caribbean colony where she met the Scotsman James Hamilton, who conceived with her the future Founding Father out of wedlock. Assuming Faucette's conversion to Judaism before this birth, Alexander Hamilton was thus born a Jew, according to Jewish law. What is more, there is strong evidence that he was raised with a Jewish education, as he attended a Jewish day school on the island colony of Nevis at least until the age of 13, the year of his mother's death ... as Porwancher argues, Hamilton's connections to Jews and Judaism continued throughout his life. During a long professional life as a practicing lawyer and public figure he defended Jewish rights. Notably, he spoke out against antisemitism and ensured that a Jew be appointed to the board of his alma mater, Columbia University - the first Jew on the board of any American college ..."--Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-246) and index.
L2021G113

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