Naphtali Phillips

One of the twenty-one children born to Jonas and Rebecca Machado Phillips—a brood that included Rachel, Manuel, Aaron and Zalegman—Naphtali was born in New York. As an infant, with the Revolution looming on the horizon, he was brought to Philadelphia. Here he would remain throughout his youth.

In 1797 he married Rachel Mendes Seixas of Newport, daughter of Moses Seixas and niece of Gershom Mendes Seixas. The couple initially made Philadelphia their home.

Throughout his life, Phillips would remain deeply engaged with Jewish communal life. At twenty-six he was elected parnas of Mikveh Israel, the Philadelphia synagogue that his father had helped found. He was the first American-born man to hold that post and authored the congregation’s constitution. When he moved to New York in 1801, his brother Zalegman would be elected to the post.

In New York Phillips established himself in the newspaper business, opening and editing the National Advocate, a Democratic journal. Meanwhile, he closely associated himself with congregation Shearith Israel, where too he would eventually serve as parnas.

In the early 1820s Phillips suffered several losses. The first, and more tragic, was the 1822 death of his wife with whom he’d had eleven children. Following quickly on the heels of that tragedy, he lost his newspaper in 1824.

He remarried to Rachel’s cousin, Esther B. Seixas, with whom he would have three more children. Meanwhile, Phillips, who was closely connected to Tammany politics, decided to pursue a new career. He secured an appointment at the New York Customs Office, where he served until his retirement in 1853. At the time of his death at the age of ninety-eight, it was said that he’d had the longest continual service of any Tammeny sachem.

Naphtali Phillips

c. 1792