The New Land / Stories of Jews Who Had a Part in the Making of Our Country

ELMA EHRLICH LEVINGER

"A new world, with great portals far outflung,
Holding a hope more sweet than time had sung,
To which the Jew, of life's high quest a part,
A pilgrim came, the Torah in his heart.
A land of promise, and fulfillment too;
Where on a sudden olden dreams came true....
Here grew we part of an ennobled state,
Gave and won honor, sat among the great,
And saw unfolding to our 'raptured view
The day long prayed for by the patient Jew."

From "The Jew in America," by Felix N. Gerson

NEW YORK
BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY

"THE JEWISH BOOK CONCERN"

1920

Copyright, 1920, by
BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY

TO
Grandmother and Grandfather Levinger
THESE "STORIES THAT REALLY HAPPENED"
ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

A LETTER TO MY READERS.

Dear Boys and Girls:

When your grandfather tells you a story, do you ever interrupt him to ask: "But is it all true?" And doesn't he often answer: "I don't know," or "I don't know when it's really true, and when it begins to be like a story book." And so, when you read through my little book—if you do read right through it to the very last page—you may wonder whether all my history stories really happened.

Yes—and no! I do know that cross old Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam hated our people, but I never found any record of the Jewish boy who wanted to play with the governor's niece, pretty Katrina. The histories tell us how gallant young Franks became the friend of George Washington, but none of them mention that the Jewish soldier saved a Tory from the angry mob.

You understand now, don't you? So I'm going to turn the page right away that you may read for yourselves of the three Jews who whispered together on the deck of the "Santa Maria," as Columbus and his crew crossed the Sea of Darkness in search of a New Land.

E.E.L.

Note: The author expresses her thanks to the editors of The Hebrew Standard and The Jewish Child in which the stories, "In the Night Watches" and "A Place of Refuge," originally appeared.

CONTENTS.

	PAGE
IN THE NIGHT WATCHES	9
The Three who came with Columbus.
WHEN KATRINA LOST HER WAY	14
A tale of the First Jewish Settlers of New Amsterdam.
A PLACE OF REFUGE	33
How the Wanderer came to Rhode Island.
"DOWN WITH KING GEORGE"	39
How Isaac Franks, of the American army, first heard the Declaration of Independence.
THE LAST SERVICE	52
The story of a Rabbi who lived in New York when it was captured by the British in 1776.
THE GENEROUS GIVER	68
The story of a Jewish money-lender of the Revolution.
ACROSS THE WATERS	88
A story of the City of Refuge planned by Mordecai Noah.
THREE AT GRACE	105
The story of the first Jewish settler in Alabama.
THE LUCKY STONE	122
The adventures of Uriah P. Levy, the first naval officer of his day.
THE PRINCESS OF PHILADELPHIA	140
The story of Rebecca Gratz and Washington Irving.
A PRESENT FOR MR. LINCOLN	160
How President Lincoln set out for Washington and how he returned.
THE LAND COLUMBUS FOUND	173
The story of the tablet placed upon the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

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NEW YORK BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY