Asher Kursheedt

Asher, born in New York, was the third child and eldest son of IsraelBaer Kursheedt and Sarah Abigail Seixas.The family moved to Richmond when he was four, and he spent much ofhis youth there. The Kursheedts returned to New York for good in1824, when he was 16. At age 31, he married his maternal secondcousin, 23 year old Abigail Judah, daughter of Manuel Judah and GraceSeixas, in 1839. They would have twelve children, whom they raised inNew York, over the course of the next two decades.

Asher followed the example set by his father and youngest brotherGershom, and played a prominent role inthe Jewish community of New York. He was a founder of the Board ofDelegates of American Israelites, an organization dedicated toadvocacy for Jews in the United States and abroad. In 1859, hechaired the building committee for Congregation Shearith Israel,overseeing the construction of the congregation’s new synagoguebuilding on 19th Street, for which he laid the firstcornerstone. He also served as an officer of the Hebrew ReliefSociety, a Jewish charitable organization founded in 1828 to supportthe education of Jewish children and the relief of indigent Jews. Hedied in New York at age 85, after a long and useful life, and wassurvived by his wife and eleven of his children.

Asher Kursheedt

mid–19th century