Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

June 30, 2026

America’s First “Rabbi”

Gershom Seixas and the American Revolution.

Although not technically a rabbi but a hazzan, Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745–1816) is the person most deserving of the title of rabbi of the American Revolution. Jonathan Sarna discusses Seixas’s fascinating life, and the early years of American Jewry more broadly, in conversation with Nachi Weinstein. (Audio, 67 minutes.)

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