Isaiah Moses

Born near Bremerhaven in the Kingdom of Hanover, Isaiah Moses moved first to England where he married and had four sons, and, upon his wife’s death, to Charleston, arriving sometime before 1800. He came with his brother Levi and soon sent for his sons. Over the course of his first decade in America, he moved from grocer to shopkeeper to planter, acquiring a 794-acre plantation—the Oaks—in Goose Creek, South Carolina.

In 1807 Moses, thirty-five, married Rebecca Phillips, aged fifteen. The couple had twelve children.

Moses was very active with congregation Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, where he proved very resistant to attempts at reform. Moses, an Ashkenazi, bitterly fought against attempts to move away from the Sephardi liturgy. When Moses and the other traditionalists lost the struggle, they broke away and formed a new synagogue, Shearit Israel.

In 1840 a fire burned the main house at the Oaks. Having borrowed money from Beth Elohim a few years prior, this added setback forced Moses to sell the plantation.

Isaiah Moses

c. 1835