biography
| name: |
Seixas, Gershom Mendes
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1746–1816)
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| biography:
| Rabbi, born in New York City, New York, USA. The son of Isaac Mendes Seixas who emigrated to America from Portugal (1730), he was minister of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York for almost 50 years (1768–1816). When British forces took over the city, he removed the synagogue's religious objects from the city, and in 1780 he helped found the first synagogue in Philadelphia. One of 13 ministers at George Washington's first inauguration, he was appointed a trustee of Columbia College (1787–1815). He urged Jews to enter the mainstream of American society, and to this end was the first rabbi to preach sermons in English in an American synagogue. |
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