USA: 135 Years Ago President U.S. Grant Attended DC Synagogue Dedication

Washington, DC. Program for 1876 dedication of Adas Israel. Photo courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

Washington, DC. Former Adas Israel today . Photo courtesy Julian Preisler.

USA: 135 Years Ago President U.S. Grant Attended DC Synagogue Dedication
by Samuel D. Gruber

On a few previous occasions I have mentioned visits of heads of state to synagogues. One of the most significant such occasions in American history was the visit 135 years ago of President Ulysses S. Grant to the dedication of the new synagogue in the national capital city of Washington, DC. On June 9, 1876, shortly before the nation's centennial, Adas Israel Congregation dedicated its modest building made festive for the occasion with flowers, "festoons of evergreens," and American flags over the Ark.

Adas Israel was established as an traditional (orthodox) congregation in 1869. The synagogue was built at the corner of 6th and G Streets, NW, then part of the city's residential and commercial center, after many years of planning and fundraising. The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, now maintains the former synagogue, which was moved to a different site in 1969, as a museum.

Washington, DC. Adas Israel on the move in December, 1969. Photo by Jim McNamara, from The Washington Post.

I have a special interest in this synagogue and its survival. It was one of the first historic American synagogues - and restoration projects - of which I learned when I first began work as historic preservationist more than 20 years ago. I later had the privilege of contributing to the Historic Structures Report prepared about the building's history, architecture and condition. You can read more about the synagogue here, and follow links for pictures and even more information.

Grant was the first U.S. president to attend synagogue services in the United States. He sat at the front of the sanctuary on a sofa rented especially for the occasion and even donated $10 to the synagogue's building fund, the equivalent of $200 today. The room was filled to capacity and latecomers were turned away.

Nowadays such an appearance - almost anywhere in the world - would not seem unusual. I reported last October about the president of Germany attending the dedication of the new synagogue in Mainz. Grant's participation in the events, however, was unusual, and more than a symbolic courtesy. It marked his reconciliation with the Jewish community and return to the principles of his predecessor George Washington, expressed in his famous lines penned to Moses Seixas of Newport, Rhode Island in 1790, that "All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

During the Civil War, Grant had issued General Orders No. 11, violating Washington's sentiment and American tradition, and expelling Jews "as a class" from the areas under his command. Grant subsequently faced charges of anti-Semitism throughout his career.

The three-hour dedication ceremony was covered in several local and national newspapers, including The National Republican, The Jewish Messenger, and the Washington Chronicle. The articles which can be read by clicking the links above provided by the JHSGW, describe the decorations, prayers, and sermon given by visiting Rabbi George Jacobs of Philadelphia's Congregation Beth El Emeth. Reading these contemporary accounts, especially those from the non-Jewish press opens a window in 19th-century American perceptions - and openness - to Judaism and American religious pluralism.

USA: Haym Salomon (& friends) Monument in Chicago

USA: Haym Salomon (& friends) Monument in Chicago
by Samuel D. Gruber

[updated Jan. 9, 2016, April 24, 2020]

all photos by Samuel D. Gruber


(ISJM) Continuing the theme of Jewish Revolutionary War heroes and their monuments and markers, mention must be made of the large sculptural group of George Washington and his two financial advisers and go-getters: Robert Morris and Haym Salomon. Historians differ on the exact role and relationship between the English-born Morris and the Polish-born Salomon (born in or near Lezno in 1740). Did Salomon do Morris's bidding, were they equal partners in securing funds for the new United States, or did Morris follow Salomon's lead? Here, in this monumental grouping in downtown Chicago, along Wacker Drive beside the Chicago River between State & Wabash, they are given equal billing next to their Supreme Commander - George Washington.

Polish-born Salomon has been dubbed “the financier of the Revolution,” and especially elevated by American Jews as a emblem of essential Jewish qualities - brains, loyalty and self-sacrifice. This statue was erected in 1941 - and though it was not commissioned by Jews - its installation provided important validation for Jewish Americans on the eve of World War II. The figures are literally presented as larger than life. The dimensions of the bronze figures are approximately 11 x 12 x 4 ft.; base: approx. 6 x 15 x 5 ft. Salomon's virtues were also celebrated in the then-popular (now largely forgotten) historical novel by Howard Fast, Haym Salomon, Son of Liberty, first published in 1941, which animates the figures on the statue.

Again, quoting my (highly unoriginal) notes in my report for the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad on foreign born heroes of the American Revolution, "After [Salomon's] escape from a British prison in New York he worked tirelessly to raise money for the army and the Congress. Salomon negotiated many loans for the Colonies from France and Holland, but never took a commission for himself. The Revolutionary leaders' diaries testify "that when money was needed for the Revolutionary War, you went to Haym Salomon." Salomon died in 1785, probably as a result of illness contracted during his imprisonment and the subsequent strain of his work.

Salomon was honored by a U.S. Commemorative stamp in 1975 in the “Contributors to the Cause" series. The stamp is inscribed “Haym Salomon, financial hero.” On the back of the stamp is printed “Financial Hero - Businessman and broker Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.”


According to the Inventory of American Art (where one can read more about the statue), "Chicago lawyer Barnet Hodes commissioned the sculpture in the 1930s to pay tribute to these patriots. He formed The Patriotic Foundation and raised the necessary 50,000 dollars. When Taft died in 1936 after completing only a small study model, his associates at the Midway Studios were given a new contract, and three of them, Nellie Walker, Mary Webster, and Leonard Crunelle, each enlarged one of the figures."

The inscription on the statue reads:

Symbol of American Tolerance and Unity and of the Cooperation of People of All Races and Creeds in the Upbuilding of the United States. / This monument designed by Lorado Taft and completed / by Leonard Crunelle was presented to the city of / Chicago by the Patriotic Foundation of Chicago (followed by list of names) Dedicated on the 150th Anniversary of the Ratification of the American Bill of Rights / December 15, 1941. On plaque on middle step of base in inscribed: Rededicated by American Mason Heritage Council October 6th 1962.  On the front of the base: Robert Morris . George Washington . Haym Salomon / The government of the United States / which gives to bigotry no sanction to the persecution / no assistance requires only that they who live under/its protection should demean themselves as good citizens / in giving it on all occasions their effectual support / President George Washington 1790.

The use of Washington's phrase "gives to bigotry no sanction," ties this monument in with the contemporary efforts to make the Touro Synagogue in Newport a National Shrine to religious tolerance, a project of the Roosevelt administration, and one that takes on new life this summer (2009) with the pending opening of the new visitor's center at Touro that is explicitly devoted to presenting this theme (see my earlier post).

To my knowledge there is no monument or marker to Haym Solomon in Poland. Now that democracy and liberty have taken hold there, perhaps this is the time to remember Solomon's contribution to liberty on his home soil. I think Polish and American national hero General Kosciuszko would agree. It would also foster in Poland the idea of "to bigotry no sanction."

To read more about the contested history of Haym Saloman, especially among American Jews themselves, see chapter 5 of Beth S. Wenger's History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2010), "Sculpting an American Jewish Hero: The Myths and Monuments of Haym Salomon,", pp 179-209.