Home > My Ancestors > Jewish > Timeline: 1630-1749

• 1636: Harvard College is founded. The study of Hebrew is part of the curriculum.
• 1649: Arrival of Solomon Franco, a scholar and agent for Dutch merchant Immanuel Perada with supplies for militia Major-General Edward Gibbons. After a dispute over who owed Franco his pay, the Massachusetts General Court ruled that Perada was responsible for payment and since Franco had no money, it further warned Franco to leave the colony.
• 1674: Portuguese Jew Rowland Gideon establishes a merchant business with Daniel Barrow.

• 1716: Isaac Lopez establishes himself as a merchant in Boston.
• 1720: June 14, An Italian Jew, Judah Monis, receives an Master of Arts from Harvard in recognition of his Hebrew grammar, Dickdook Leshon Gnebreet: A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue, finally published in Boston in 1735. Following his conversion to Christianity in 1722, he became a Hebrew instructor at Harvard.
• 1734: Merchants Isaac Solomon and Michael Asher operate a snuff mill and designate part of their land on Chambers Street to be a Jewish cemetery.