Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs, Jane Symmons Isaacs and children

Twenty years separated Samuel Myer Isaacs and Jane Symmons, and when they married and departed England for the United States, in 1839, Jane was still only fifteen. But they would make a home for themselves in New York, and their family would flourish there.

The son of Rebecca Samuels Isaacs and Myer Isaacs, Samuel Isaacs was born in Leewarden. His family fled Holland for London during the Napoleonic wars. Samuel was joined by three of his brothers in entering the rabbinate, working at congregations in England, the United States and Australia. Samuel became the principal of the Neveh Zedek orphanage as a young man, and though he was never officially ordained, B’nai Jeshurun in New York offered him a post as communal leader and hazzan. Only a few years after his arrival, a split occurred within the congregation, and Samuel left with the faction who founded Shaaray Tefila, and served as the congregation’s rabbi until his death in 1878. Along with Isaac Leeser, Samuel became one of the first rabbis in the United States to regularly give his sermons in English. He was one of the founders of the Jews’ Hospital in 1852 and of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites in 1859. He helped establish the first Jewish seminary, Maimonides College. Samuel also came to play an important role in the formulation of American Orthodoxy. In response to the growth of Reform Judaism in the 1850s, Samuel founded the Jewish Messenger in 1857, a nationally circulated newspaper committed to preserving a traditional understanding of law and custom.

Samuel and Jane had at least eight children. The oldest, Myer Samuel, is the son here identified as Samuel, Jr. Their second child, Jacob is also depicted here. It is not clear who the girl identified as Jane is, though she may be a niece or more distant relative.

Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs, Jane Symmons Isaacs and children

1845