Judah Monis
Judah Monis (February 4, 1683 – April 25, 1764) was North America's first college instructor of the Hebrew language, teaching at Harvard College from 1722 to 1760, and authored the first Hebrew textbook published in North America. Monis was also the first Jew to receive a college degree in the American colonies.[1] His conversion to Christianity made him a figure of some controversy to both Jews and Christians.
Early life[edit]
Monis was born into a family of former Portuguese conversos[2] in Italy or the Barbary States, and was educated at Jewish academies in Livorno, Italy and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, in the year 1707, he married Hana, daughter of Isaac Baruch-Rosa,[3] and they had a baby boy, Isaac, who died after a few months.[4] Approximately a year after that, his wife Hana died[5] and Judah was now alone. During the year 1715, he left for New York, USA.[6] Records show that Monis read for Jewish congregations in Jamaica[7] and New York,[1] and in roughly 1715, opened a small store in New York City, where he also began a second career teaching Hebrew to Jews and Christians, as well as a pastime of conducting discussions of theological topics, such as Kabbalah and the Holy Trinity, with leading Christian authorities. On February 28 of the following year, Monis was declared a freeman of the city.[1] Around 1720, he left the established Jewish community of New York and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where very few Jews lived at the time. At Harvard, he owned two slaves, a man named Cuffy and a woman named Cicely.[8]