1745 - 1816 GERSHON MENDES SEIXAS (New York, USA)
Son of a Portuguese immigrant, he was the first native Jew to become a rabbi. At first he was a rabbi in New York and then he founded Mikve Israel congregation in Philadelphia. Seixas was a renowned patriot who left New York as the British approached rather than be under British rule. He participated in George Washington's inauguration.
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