Israel Baer Kursheedt

Israel Baer was born in Singhafen, a town onthe Rhine, during Passover 5526. After his father’s death, when hewas still very young, his mother moved the family to the village ofKursheidt, near Koenigswinter. When German civil authorities requiredthat Jews take proper surnames, Kursheedt took the name of thevillage in addition to the patronymic Baer. Kursheedt’s precociousaptitude for learning drew the attention of family friends, and hewas soon sent to Franfurt-am-Main to study in the yeshiva of thefamed cabalist and Talmudist Rabbi Nathan Ben Simeon Adler referredto Kursheedt as chakham(wise man), and indeed his American contemporaries knew Kursheedt asthe most Talmudically adept scholar in the United States of his day.He was certainly the first Jew in North America with such animpressive mastery of Jewish religious texts.

Kursheedt’s studies in Frankfurt wereinterrupted when war broke out with France, and he was forced intocommerce instead. He had some success as a supplier of provisions tothe Prussian Army, but when peace was declared his career as an armycontractor ended, and he resolved to seek his fortune elsewhere. InHamburg, his attention was drawn to a boat bound for a return trip toBoston. He quickly secured letters of introduction to Moses MichaelHays at Boston and Isaac Moses at New York, and arrived in the UnitedStates in 1796 after a two and a half month passage.

InNew York, Kursheedt resumed his commercial activity with theassistance of Isaac Moses,then parnas of Shearith Israel. He soonbecame acquainted with Gershom MendesSeixas, Shearith Israel’s hazan.There can be no doubt that Seixaswas enthralled by Kursheedt’s erudition, and Kursheedt foundhimself welcomed in the Seixas home.In 1804, at age 38, he wouldmarry Sarah Abigail,then 26, the eldest of Seixas’ children by his beloved first wife,Elkaleh Myers-Cohen.

Eight years later, Isaac moved the family, nowcomprising two daughters and two sons, to Richmond, where he had beenoffered a post as hazan to Congregation Beth Shalome.The Kursheedts would live in Richmond for another decade,accumulating five more children – two sonsand three daughters – along the way. Among their children werefuture leaders of American Jewry, Asherand Gershom.During their sojourn, Sarah wrote frequently to her father, with whomshe remained close. Meanwhile, Isaac himself developed something of afriendship with Thomas Jefferson, and was invited to visit him atMonticello.

In both New York and Richmond, Kursheedt becameinvolved in Jewish communal institutions, assisting in the upkeep ofthe local cemetery and playing an important role in Jewish education.Despite his own traditional education, Kursheedt was reform minded.He quickly found himself at odds with a number of influential membersof Shearith Israel. Though widely respected for his learning, heoften lost the battles he chose to fight. In 1809, for example,Kursheedt and other congregants attempted, without success, to limitthe number of prayers in honor of a donor to three per person, asthese prayers had become linked to elaborate public displays ofwealth.

After his return to New York in 1824, Kursheedtwas caught in the middle of the interethnic tensions within NewYork’s Jewish community, which came to the fore with the increasingarrival of German Jews. He soon helped to establish anAshkenazi minyan, or prayer group. When the Sephardi board ofelders tried to prevent the Ashkenazim from meeting for prayer,Kursheedt and fifteen other members of Shearith Israel formed a newAshkenazi congregation, named B’nai Jeshurun. This becameNew York’s second synagogue. Kursheedt devoted himself to thedevelopment of the new institution. His last major communal effortcame about during the Damascus Affair in 1840, when he organized andpresided at a public meeting to express sympathy for the sufferingsof the Jews of Syria – an act that was copied by other AmericanJewish communities. He died twelve years later at New York,surrounded by friends and family, at age 86.

Israel Baer Kursheedt

early 19th century