For centuries Jews have believed America to be a land of freedom and financial opportunity. One such Jew was Moses Raphael Levy, who achieved tremendous financial success as an American colonial merchant.

Levy was born in 1665 in Germany to Isaac and Beila Levy. He relocated to England and his marriage to his first wife, Richea (Rycha) Asher, took place in 1695[i] in London’s Bevis Marks Synagogue.

Three children were born in London – Bilhah Abigail (b. 1696), Asher (b. 1699), and Nathan (b. 1704). According to family tradition, Moses enjoyed some financial success in England.

“After accumulating something of a competency in London, he thought he saw in the New World opportunities for adding to it, and about the year 1705 landed in New York City.”[ii]

The Levys were accompanied by Moses’s brother, Samuel, and his wife, Rachel Asher who was Beila’s sister. (The practice of brothers solidifying family and business ties by marrying sisters was not uncommon at this time.) A young man named Jacob Franks, who would eventually marry Bilhah Abigail, also came with them.[iii]

“As Ashkenazim, the Levys found themselves outnumbered. New York had been settled by Sephardim, who constituted a majority of its Jewish residents. Because there was no organized Ashkenazic community in New York until the nineteenth century, the Levys had no choice but to turn for communal support to the Sephardic establishment. They were allowed to join the Sephardic community with the understanding that they would conform to Sephardic customs. They did, and gradually became accepted as “naturalized” Sephardim.”

Moses Levy took an active interest in New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel and served as its parnas (president) for several years. Indeed, he was serving that office when he passed away on June 14, 1728.

His main interests, however, were financial.

“Taking full advantage of business and family connections in London and the West Indies, Levy soon became so successful in exporting beaver pelts and grain and importing a variety of manufactured goods that he controlled a fleet of ships, one of which he named after his daughter, Abigail.

“With the emergence of a thriving American export economy of grains, furs, and hides, Levy became ever more involved in commerce and trade. Business was so good that in 1711 Levy joined several other wealthy Jewish merchants in contributing to a fund for the completion of a spire on Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street, making the church the tallest man-made structure in the city. It was an investment that paid off. Four years later, the New York Assembly passed a bill naturalizing all resident landowners of foreign birth, regardless of religion. This law entitled Levy and his heirs to the same rights and obligations their gentile neighbors enjoyed.

“In 1716 Levy’s wife Richea died, leaving Levy with five children. Two years later, in London, Levy married Grace Mears of Spanish Town, Jamaica, where a Sephardic community had existed for over half a century. Grace bore Levy seven children.” [iv]

Their first child Rachel was born in London in 1719. She was the mother of Gershom Mendes Seixas, who served as Hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel from 1768 to 1776 and again from 1784 until his passing in 1816. (Shearith Israel did not function during the Revolutionary War, since many of New York’s Jews left the city rather than live under the British when they captured the city.  Seixas led this exodus and is often referred to as the Revolutionary War Hazzan.)

Some of Levy’s twelve children “became the ancestors of very distinguished Jews in the generations to follow. One of his sons was the real founder of the Philadelphia Jewish community, another was one of the first Jews in Baltimore. A grandson of his, likewise named Moses Levy, was considered by Jefferson for a cabinet post.”[v] The Liberty Bell was transported to America on the ship Myrtilla which belonged to Nathan Levy, Moses’s eldest son.

Levy suffered the ups and downs of the business world in his many financial endeavors.

“That the merchant-shipper of that generation only too frequently suffered reverses is eloquently demonstrated in Levy’s relations with Isaac Napthaly, a Rhode Island butcher who also aspired to be a merchant. By 1705, Napthaly, now in New York, had been granted the freedom of the city; the following year, while engaged in litigation of some sort, he succeeded in inducing Levy to become his bondsman. Two years later Napthaly ran up a debt with Levy in a commercial deal and then fled the country. He was probably hopelessly bankrupt and ran away to escape imprisonment for debt.

Note from Harry Maryles: R. Netanel is a young man (age 20) who learns in Yeshivas  Mir Yerushalayim. He studied at Hasmonian in London and describes his Hashkafos as moderate Charedi  influenced by Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch and Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

Netanel  runs a Torah Website  - Geshmak Torah - which he describes as “a user-friendly Dvar Torah service with compelling, “say-able” Divrei Torah. gTorahmakes them navigable, accessible, and pleasant to read; with content that will speak to everyone”.

I am pleased to post this Dvar Torah submitted by him for Erev Yom Kippur. His words follow.

As Moshe winds down in his final address to the people, he reiterates the responsibility they took on when they agreed the covenant at Sinai:

Today, Hashem your God commands you to perform these laws and statutes; to guard and keep them – with all your heart and soul. Regarding Hashem you have said today, that He will be a god to you; that you will walk in his ways, to keep his laws and statutes; and listen to His voice.

Hashem has said of you this day, for you to be a Chosen People for Him, as He has said to you; and you will keep His mitzvos. And He will place you supreme, above all the nations He made; for praise, honour and glory, that you would be a holy nation dedicated to Him, as was said (26:16-19).

The first part relates to our commitment to the relationship, and the second part to Hashem’s commitment. The transition though, is quite difficult:

Hashem has said of you this day, for you to be a Chosen People for Him, as He has said to you; and you will keep His mitzvos.

The opening is clearly Hashem speaking of us, but the ending, which discusses mitzva performance is clearly back to our commitment. How is adherence to Torah related to being called Am Segula? Whose commitment is this about? And what is the supremacy granted as a result?

Rabbeinu Bachye teaches that being called Am Segula – “chosen” – is not what it seems at face value. It is not a status we are born with; it is a title, an achievement that we have to work towards.

Similarly with circumcision. The very first mitzva a newborn is party to is a microcosm of the Jewish mission; perfecting what we have with what we are given, working towards the ultimate goal of perfection.

Rabbeinu Bachye says that the entire verse pertains to our commitment –– we just have to earn it.

So being chosen is in fact a bestowing of responsibility, but is in turn rewarded with being “supreme” over the other nations. What does this mean?

R. Shamshon Refael Hirsch writes how when the responsibilities are met, the world becomes a better place. The world is damaged, and being a better person repairs it.

Adam was commanded to “conquer” the world, when he was still all alone. His conquest was through listening to God; this is how all the animals knew to come to him to be named – they perceived godliness in him.

The same with Yakov – the Torah emphasises how he left Beersheba and went to Charan. The former seems redundant – it should only matter that he arrived somewhere – and the answer is that his departure does matter. When someone righteous leaves or goes somewhere, the environment and atmosphere of the place fundamentally change.

There is a story told of a young Chafetz Chaim, who saw the ills of the world, and decided to change the world. Seeing that the task was too monumentally large, he changed his mind, and set out to change his community. After seeing that that too was impossible, he downgraded his ambitions again, and decided that if he could not make them better, he’d at least himself.

And by making himself better, he really did change the world.

R. Hirsch teaches that by being better people, the world becomes a better place. There is famine, war, child slavery and kidnapping in the world, and while people attempt to deal with the symptoms, it is ultimately futile if humans aren’t more humane.

This is also what we mean when we make brachos, when we say Asher Kidshanu; and what we mean we say Ata VChartanu on Yomim Tovim – the very next words confirm that v’Kidashtanu b’Mitzvosecha – what distinguishes us is our mitzvos.

The Torah assures us that perfection of the world comes through perfection of self. On Rosh HaShana we daven for the world to become a better place. It’s in our hands to make it so.

Visit the Emes Ve-hmunah blog.

Noam Greshuny’s story is one of triumph of the spirit.

Six years after being critically wounded during the Second Lebanon War, Gershuny won a gold medal at the Paralympics Games in London playing tennis, beating the number-one ranking player, American David Wagner 6:3, 6:1.

During the second week of the Second Lebanon War, on July 20^th, two Apache helicopters on their way to an operation in Lebanon collided over Israel’s northern border. One pilot, Major Ran kochbah was killed immediately. The second pilot, Gershuny, was critically wounded. He spent months in rehabilitation, during which he discovered his love for tennis.

Six years later he made it to the top, bringing Israel its first gold medal from the London Paralympics Games and the first ever in tennis. His family and friends were at the game to support him.

When Greshuny ascended the podium to receive the medal and heard Israel’s national anthem HaTikvah playing in the background he was overcome by his emotions, shedding a tear.

Afterwards, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the 29-year-old athlete to congratulate him, telling him “you symbolize the victory of the human spirit over the difficulties created by the reality in which we live.”

President Shimon Peres contacted Gershuny as well, saying, “You have proved that you are good on the court as well as you are in the sky.”

When Gershuny was interviewed by IDF radio he said, “I don’t know if it had an affect on me, the fact that I was wounded for the country, giving my life and body for her. I would do it all over again, even if I knew that this would be the outcome. This may have made me happier, the fact that I am able to bring so much pride to the country.”

Israeli Olympic windsurfer Lee Korzits was her country’s last hope in the London games, in which not one member of the team had managed to earn a medal. Korzits had won two straight World Championships. Indeed, she stayed in the top three spots of the windsurfing event in Weymouth for the first seven days, only to slip in the end to the sixth-place overall finish in the women’s competition at London 2012 on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Korzits told Israeli reporters that she doesn’t feel the pressure, and that unlike her rival in the competition, “I enjoy the pressure and I’m not sure they do so much.”

Then, referring to the possibility that she could be the second Israeli woman athlete to bring home an Olympic medal, Korzits confessed: The truth is I really want it. Keep your fingers crossed for me in Israel (the Hebrew term is more like ‘hold your fingers for me,’ same meaning), go to shul, say Shma Israel, pray for me Maariv, Shachrit, whatever it takes.”

She told another Israeli reporter about her plans (Ynet has since taken down the page, but the website BeHadrei Haredim kept the text): “I get on the surfboard, say ‘Shma Israel, Hashem Elokeino Hashem Echad’ and I go to war.”

Had she won the medal, the home press probably would have forgiven Korzits those unusual expressions of religious fervor. But she lost, and so, on top of her heartbreak at having failed to live up to her own expectations, she became a popular target for any hack with an anti-religious agenda.

Amir Peleg at Ynet was plain mean: “Lee said that on the day before the competition she was saying Tehilim and asked the public in Israel to pray for her. I don’t know if while she was praying, her opponents weren’t watching tapes or working out in the gym. What’s certain is that the prayer strategy did not prove itself. Some count on Tehilim against incoming rockets (certainly not the inventors of Iron Dome), but against gifted windsurfers it absolutely fails, even if the others are goyim… Korzits counted too much both on the wind (which was low on Tuesday) and on spirituality (Ruach v’Ruchniut).”

And former Meretz MK Yossi Sarid was even meaner in his Haaretz column: “My heart foretold bad omens when we found out about the need for Si’ata d’Shmaya (Divine help): normally, one must say Tehilim and call out ‘Shma Israel’ before a final chance after which there are no more chances. That’s when we understood where the wind was blowing, when it suddenly changed directions and became a holy spirit (same play on wind and spirit as before – easy pickin’ when you gang up on a windsurfer…).”

And Sarid concluded: “This is what happens when we have nothing left to count on except on our Father in Heaven, when we’re out of options down in the water… And those chances are further reduced when poor Lee must carry on her surfboard and entire nation.”

Finally, Uriel Daskal, sports editor for the Kalkalist finance magazine, told IDF radio: “The state of Israel is sick, both emotionally and physically. The state prefers to invest in kolels and Torah studies (than in sports). In the end it hurts all of us.”

In April 2009, while surfing in Hawaii, Lee Korzits was severely injured after being hit by another surfer. The surfboard rammed into her back, breaking two ribs. At first the Doctors thought the damage to her spine was irreversible, and told her they doubted she would be able to compete professionally. But in Israel Lee underwent rehabilitation and made a full recovery. She returned to sailing in 2010, claiming that the injury had motivated her to do what she loves most. In the summer of 2011, she won a silver medal at the European Championship, her first medal in a major competition since her world title in 2003. Her success continued at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, winning her second world title. By winning the world title she made history once again, becoming the first Israeli, male or female, to win two world titles at any sport. A few months later she added her third world title at the 2012 RS:X World Championships.

The Daily Mail reported that Stamford Hill, London-based Orthodox Rabbi Dov Berish Englander, 47, on holiday at the scenic seaside town of Aberystwyth in West Wales, “got into difficulties” while performing a full body ritual immersion.

Last Thursday, Rabbi Englander walked into the ocean for an early morning ritual bath. A guest at a hotel overlooking the bay rang 999 after seeing him struggling to stay afloat. A lifeboat and rescue helicopter were sent to the scene and the lifeboat crew pulled the drowning rabbi from the water.

Despite the efforts of paramedics to resuscitate Rabbi Englander, he was declared dead at Bronglais General Hospital, Aberystwyth.

Rabbi Englander was greatly respected for his scholarship and charitable work.

The seaside resort of Aberystwyth is a popular destination for Haredi families.

Police are not treating the incident as suspicious.

In June, Satmar Chasid Rabbi Chaim Breisch died after struggling in a rough sea off Broadstairs, Kent.

Even though he insists that the IOC has already commemorated the atrocity committed by Black September Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympic Games, it was announced this week that IOC president Jacques Rogge would address a planned ceremony by the Olympic Committee of Israel, the Israeli Embassy in London and cross-communal British group the Jewish Committee for the London Games on August 6. Ankie Spitzer, widow of slain Israeli fencing coach Andre Spitzer, is planning to give him a piece of her mind.

JTA reported that other Jewish speakers are also expected to criticize the International Olympics Committee president when he attends a memorial ceremony for Israeli coaches and athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Monday’s service, which is a Jewish community event, has created a “dilemma” for organizers, according to the London Jewish Chronicle.

IOC president Jacques Rogge refused international appeals including from that of President Barack Obama to the Israeli widows of the Munich 11 to legislators around the world to hold a moment of silence during last week’s opening ceremonies of the London Olympics for Israelis slain by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich games.

British Jewish leaders said they did not feel that they could withdraw an invitation to Rogge because they did not formally offer one, according to the Chronicle. Rogge has said he will attend the event and he has met privately with two widows of the murdered Israelis.

“If the Israeli Embassy and London Jewish Community were not organizing it, he would not have any memorial to go to, raged Ankie Spitzer, who sponsored the original petition to the IOC that sparked international reaction.

“If they can’t do the right thing at home, in the Olympic ceremony, why come?”, she continued. “I have been asked to speak. What I am going to say to the IOC will not be nice. But that’s too bad. I do not want to see them there… I will tell them they are two-faced hypocrites and should have stayed at home. ”

According to the ADL, back in 1973, Spitzer wrote the IOC, requesting that the Munich 11 be remembered at the upcoming Montreal Olympics. She never received a reply. Since then, Spitzer and other victims’ families have continued to write, calling for an official recognition and moment of silence. But from Montreal, Moscow, Los Angeles and Seoul, to Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing, the only commemorations organized have been done so by the Israeli Olympic Committee and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

“It’s good that he (Rogge) should be there to see how people feel and he should witness it. It will bring the message home to him,” Spitzer told the Chronicle.

According to EJP, dignitaries expected to attend Monday’s service will include British Prime Minister David Cameron, who will also address the gathering, as well as London mayor Boris Johnson, who previously declared his support for the appeals for a minute’s silence at the Games. A message of support will also be relayed from Prince Charles, and international delegates from participating Olympic nations will be present.

Israel’s official representative will be Sports Minister Limor Livnat, who also attended the Opening Ceremony of the London Games on Friday in place of President Shimon Peres. Livnat wore a black ribbon on her arm in tribute to the victims, and observed her own minute of silence during Rogge’s opening address.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are from “The Forerunners – Dutch Jewry in the North America Diaspora” by Robert P. Swierenga, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1994.

The nineteenth century witnessed a decline in religious observance by most of American Jewry. Changes were instituted in Orthodox synagogues that led many of them to affiliate with the Reform movement. Many religious leaders went along with – and some even encouraged – these changes. There were, however, some men who did their best to maintain traditional Judaism in the face of what at the time seemed an unstoppable tide of change. One such man was the Rev. Samuel Isaacs.

“Isaacs was born on January 4, 1804, in Leeuwarden – the capital city of the province of Friesland in the far northern Netherlands – the son of a prominent merchant-banker, Meyer Samuel Isaacs (Isaks) and Rebecca Samuels, his wife. This devout family had five sons and four became ministers. The Leeuwarden synagogue seated six hundred and was one of the largest congregations outside the main Jewish centers in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague.”

The Napoleonic Wars adversely affected Dutch Jews engaged in trade with London and Meyer Isaacs found himself increasingly in debt starting in 1805. Things were so bad by 1814 that the Isaacs family relocated to London. There, Meyer, who was a well-educated layman in both secular and Torah subjects, became a teacher. In addition, he made sure educated that his sons received excellent religious and secular educations.

Samuel, who was only ten when his family moved to England, was young enough to learn to speak English without a Dutch accent. “This ability later earned him many speaking engagements in America, where sermons and public addresses in English were much preferred to the customary Yiddish or German tongue.”

“After completing his education Samuel taught Hebrew for a time at the Jewish Orphanage of London and then in the 1830s he became principal of a Jewish day school.” In 1839 he married Jane Symmons. At about the same time he was offered the position chazzan at Ashkenazi Congregation Bnai Jeshurun of New York. The result was that Samuel and his new bride sailed for New York a few days after their wedding. The trip took three months.

“The arrival of an English Jewish preacher was indeed a novelty in those days, for in 1839 preaching in the vernacular was a rarity. The Elm Street synagogue near Walker Street [where Congregation Bnai Jeshurun was located] was crowded every Sabbath to hear the new preacher, and not a few non-Israelites were attracted.”[i]

The synagogue thrived under Isaacs’s leadership despite the fact that on a number of occasions groups left the synagogue to form their own minyanim where davening was conducted in accordance with the minhagim of the region where the mispallelim came from. In 1844 a major schism developed. Rather than fight, Chazzan Isaacs, the shamus and at least ten other Dutch families chose to withdraw quietly and form a new congregation which they named Shaaray Tefila.

This new congregation, which was formally organized in 1845, consisted primarily of English and Dutch Jews. Reverend Isaacs served as it spiritual leader until his passing in 1878.

“Isaacs’s long tenure at Shaaray Tefila marked the high point of Orthodoxy in New York Judaism…. Isaacs devoted his pulpit to the defense of pure religion undefiled, calling the faithful to observe the full Mosaic law, the Levitical dietary rules and purification rites, and especially to keep the Sabbath. Honoring the Sabbath was difficult for Jewish retail merchants and clerks because Saturday was the major American shopping day, and state and local Sunday closing laws often kept Jewish businesses closed on that day as well – until they won legal exemptions.

“Reverend Isaacs’s second theme was to uphold Orthodoxy against the new Reform Judaism that German Jews were bringing to America in the 1840s. Among other worship practices, Reform introduced mixed choirs and instrumental music, integrated seating, prayers in English, abolition of head coverings, and confirmation for young women as well as young men. Reform congregations also were lax in enforcing religious discipline and Sabbath-keeping.

“Isaacs challenged these new ideas ‘from the fertile fields of Germany, where everything grows fast, although not always wholesome.’ What is at issue, he warned, is that Jews are ‘assimilating our system to that of Christianity ….’ ”

Sportscaster Bob Costas remembered the 11 Israelis killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics on air as the Israeli delegation entered the Olympic stadium in London.

“These games mark the 40th anniversary of the 1972 tragedy in Munich, when 11 Israeli coaches and athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists,” Costas said during NBC’s broadcast of the opening ceremonies last Friday.

“There have been calls from a number of quarters for the IOC to acknowledge that with a moment of silence at some point in tonight’s ceremony. The IOC denied that request, noting it had honored the victims on other occasions.”

Costas noted that International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge held a moment of silence in the Olympic Village earlier in the week.

“Still,” Costas said, “for many, tonight, with the world watching, is the true time and place to remember those who were lost, and how and why they died.”

After 12 seconds of on-air silence, Costas cut to a commercial.

(JTA)