United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783

Aaron Lopez (1731-1782) was a member of the Converso (converted) community of Portugal. In order to freely practice Judaism, he and his family left Portugal and relocated to British North America, settling in Newport, Rhode Island and later, Massachusetts. He began a successful mercantile business and eventually became a key supplier of the American revolutionary forces.

The collection contains numerous shipping records along with correspondence and accounts with merchants, mercantile families, and firms including Henry Lloyd of Boston, Henry Cruger of Bristol, George Hayley of London, William Stead of Sheffield and New Bedford whaler Joseph Rotch. The collection contains manifests, mercantile accounts, notations, correspondence and inventories of estates for several of the children of Aaron Lopez.

Originally from England, the Franks family were colonial merchants who settled in New York City in the 1700s. This collection documents parts of their life through correspondence, legal documents, and financial records. The correspondence is primarily written by Abigail Franks in New York to her son, Naphtali, in England. Also included in the collection are the notes and correspondence of Dr. Leo Hershkowitz, who co-edited a book on the letters of the family entitled the Lee Max Friedman Collection of American Jewish Colonial Correspondence: Letters of the Franks Family (1733-1748), written with Isadore S. Meyer in 1968.

The documents in the collection were originally bound in a leather book embossed with the title "Autograph Letters and Documents Relating to American Jewish History." As of April 2023, the AJHS has not discovered how or why donated Rosenbach materials were removed and placed in the bound volume. Notes found in the collection of documents include several items that were removed for exhibitions and never returned to the book. The earliest of these notes is from 1937, indicating that the volume was created prior to that year. In 2023, the documents were removed from the bound book by the Cahnman Preservation Laboratory at the Center for Jewish History and digitized by the staff of the American Jewish Historical Society. The documents were then ingested into the Center's digital management system and are now viewable to the public.

The collection holds various documents from prominent members of Jewish society in the 18th and 19th centures, plus some advertisements and book pages. Documents relate to the American Revolution and tariffs; American Revolution pensions; politics between Whig and Democratic issues during the 1840s; other correspondence and items published from pamphlets promoting books or schools.

This collection contains original manuscripts of Haym Salomon, one of the main financiers of the American Revolutionary War, including his marriage contract, financial records, personal and business correspondence, and items related to his own estate, as well as the estates of his family and business associates. The collection also contains a family record kept by Salomon's son, bilingual Hebrew-English family bibles and prayer books, and items of Haym Salomon's wife, Rachel, as well as other family members.

Two documents related to Col. Franks requesting pensions for his service during the American Revolution, one indenture agreement between Franks and Florence Mitchell, and Franks' last will and testament intentions.

Collection contains a promissory note, signed in Hebrew by an unidentified person, for a sum of money owed Isaacs (1761), and a certificate of indebtedness of New York State to Aaron Isaacs for goods purchased, signed by Commissioners William Floyd and Isaac Roosevelt (1781). Also an estate inventory for Isaac Wickham Isaacs, 1816.

Contains the correspondence of Gen. John Taylor to Bernard Judah about his father, Samuel's, pro-revolutionary activities in Montreal in 1774, describing in detail the provisions he supplied the American forces, and questioning the propriety of Gen. Benedict Arnold's involvement. Includes an unidentified letter depicting the virtues of Samuel Judah and materials relating to his financial position in Montreal.

This collection contains the legal and personal papers of several generations of the Levy family, including Moses Levy (1665-1728); Moses' sons Nathan Levy (1704-1753), Isaac Levy (1706-1777), Samson Levy (1722-1781), and Benjamin Levy (1726-1802); Samson's sons Moses Levy (1756-1826), Samson Levy, Jr. (1764-1831), and Daniel Levy (1766-1844); Isaac's son Asher Levy (1756-1785); and Benjamin's son Nathan Levy (1759-1846). Materials include business and property records, a letter of renunciation of allegiance to King George III during the American Revolution, correspondence, Continental currency, and wills.

The Papers of Max J. Kohler (1871-1934) document his life's work as lawyer, historian, writer, researcher, and defender of Jewish and immigrant rights. Correspondents include many of Kohler's contemporaries in the field of history and immigration law including Cyrus Adler; William Taft; John Bassett Moore; Mortimer Schiff; David Hunter Miller; Baron and Baroness de Hirsch; the Straus Family including Oscar Straus; Luigi Luzzatti; Leon Huhner; and Julian Mack. Subjects include U.S. immigration law, American-Jewish history, Col. Alfred Dreyfus, Haym Salomon, Ellis Island, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler, the publication God in Freedom, international treaties, and the Peace Conference of 1919.

The Mordecai Sheftall collection consists of the family papers and business records of the American Revolution patriot, Mordecai Sheftall, and the Sheftall family of Savannah, Georgia from 1761-1873. This collection includes a American Revolution provision returns (1777-1778), and correspondence for the Continental Army and Navy of Georgia and South Carolina. The collection also includes an original Works Progress Administration Guide to the materials.

The children and descendants of Isaac Mendes and Rachel Levy Seixas included individuals who had a great impact on communal affairs and colonial Jewish life in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, and Richmond. Though this collection does not preserve the total volume of papers produced by every family member, the documents contained herein demonstrate the importance of the family in both Jewish and secular life in late 17th and early 18th century North America.

The collection is valuable to researchers studying the Seixas family; civic, mercantile, and religious contributions of Jews in the colonial era; Jewish communities in New York, Philadelphia, Newport, and Richmond; the importance of religion to Colonial Jews; Jewish participation in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and World War I; Jewish converts to Christianity; Jews as masons; and Congregation Shearith Israel of New York.

Prominent individuals in this collection include: Ephraim Hart, Grace Seixas Judah, Mrs. Jesse Judah, Israel Baer Kursheedt, Sarah Seixas Kursheedt, Hayman Levy, Nicholas Low, Isaac Moses, Naphtali Taylor Phillips, Benjamin Mendes Seixas, David G. Seixas, Gershom Mendes Seixas, Isaac Benjamin Seixas, Isaac M. Seixas, Jacob B. Seixas, Joshua Seixas, and Moses Mendes Seixas.

The collection includes: account records, books, circumcision instructions and register, correspondence, drawings, estate papers, a eulogy, family trees, legal documents, petitions, photographs, prayer books, a sermon, and shipping records.

This collection is arranged into four series: Series I: Family Papers; Series II: Moses Seixas (1744-1809); Series III: Gershom Mendes Seixas (1746-1816) and descendants; and Series IV: Benjamin Mendes Seixas (1748-1817) and descendants.

Uriah Phillips Levy rose to the rank of Commodore in the United States Navy despite religious hostility. He succeeded in abolishing corporal punishment in the Navy, and is credited for preserving Thomas Jefferson's estate, Monticello. His papers consist of correspondence, financial and legal records, publications, papers, newspaper articles, a notebook, and a book.