Welcome!

Hello!

My name is Rebecca Gratz. I was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1781, just after the end of the Revolutionary War. When I was older, I moved with my parents to Philadelphia where we were members of congregation Mikveh Israel.  I never married, but I raised my sister’s children and started the first Hebrew Sunday School in the Americas.

History, Jews, and family are all important to me, so I know lot about how and where American Jews lived both before I was born and during my own lifetime.  If you’d like, I can tell you more about where and how we lived.

Come, follow me!

People

Some of the early American Jews helped shape communities, built synagogues, started schools, or were fabulously wealthy. Others were much more normal. They were everyday Jews, some of them down on their luck. In fact, most people in early American Jewish communities⁠—like the colonies more generally⁠—were quite poor. At times a large amount of synagogues’ resources went towards taking care of the elderly, sick, and needy. As you read more about the Jews below or start to write your own biographies, you might ask yourself, who matters? What makes a person important or worth remembering? What would you like to be remembered for some day?

Activity

Pick someone below who interests you (or another Jew from the colonies that you have heard of) and write a fuller biography of them. Use the Bio Cube planning sheet to get started. If you can’t find a quote, try using an image instead! Can’t figure out personality traits? Maybe include information about their family or where they lived.

Bio Cube Planning Sheet.pdfDownload
Bio Cube CubeBuilderDownload

If you don’t want to use a cube, check out other ways to get your ideas across: Google Sides, Prezi, or Book Creator

Resources

Learn More

Family Trees

Test yourself!

 

Daily Life

Childhood

Civil Rights

Clothing

Epidemics and Disasters

Death

Food

Houses

Marriage

Newspapers

Reading

School

Slavery

Synagogue

Trade

Writing