Born in Portsmouth, England, in 1810, Rebecca Esther Jackson was only three or four when she moved with her parents—Daniel and Mary—and two brothers, John and Jacob, to New York. One final sibling, Abraham, was born after the move. Rebecca’s father was involved in the life of New York’s Jewish community and American politics. He was a merchant and president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.

Rebecca would marry, Mordecai Manuel Noah, a member of the Hebrew Benevolent Society and one of the most colorful characters in early American Jewish life. In 1822, Mordecai had written “I intend to get married when I have leisure,” in the National Advocate. Playwright, journalist, writer, politician, lawyer, judge, and nationally recognized spokesman for American Jews at various points throughout his life, it is no wonder that Moredecai only found the leisure to marry five years later, at forty-two. It was seventeen year-old Rebecca Esther Jackson for whom Noah found the time. Rebecca’s uncle, David Aaron Phillips, approving of the union, characterized Noah as, “a man of good sense and understanding and in every respect a gentleman,” while his gloss on the age discrepancy between husband and wife was: “better to be the old man’s darling than the young one’s drugg [drudge].”

Rebecca and Mordecai were married on November 26, 1827 in New York. They were blessed with seven children: Jacob, Manuel, Robert, Zipporah, Daniel, Henry, and Lionel.