Very significant Judaica report...
Item # 712386GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES, New York, June 19, 1790 This is the first known address of a Jewish community to the President following his election. This very significant pair of letters appears in their entirety on page 2.
Levi Sheftal, on behalf of the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, congratulates President Washington on his election, portions of the letter including: “We have long been anxious of congratulating you on your appointment by unanimous approbation to the Presidential dignity of this country, and of testifying our unbounded confidence in your integrity and unblemished virtue…Your unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition, which has long as a veil shaded religion…”.
The President responds: "To the Hebrew Congregation of the City of Savannah" with portions including: "I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow-citizens, and especially the expressions you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me by your congregations... I rejoice that...your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion...gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow-creatures. May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land -- whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation -- still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah."
This response is signed in type: G. Washington.
Four pages, some very minor foxing spots, very nice condition.
Note: Auction prices vary significantly, but this same exact issue (title and date) sold at Sotheby's in 2021 for $18,900.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's














