Home > My Ancestors > Jewish > Timeline: 1750-1849

• 1784: Moses Michael Hays (1739-1805), a Dutch Jew, opens the first marine insurance office in Boston. Housed at 68 State Street, Hays insures ship cargoes against shipwrecks and piracy. He also helps establish the first permanent, successful bank in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Bank (1784). He was the first Jewish benefactor of Harvard and the Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge from 1788-1792. His papers are located at the American Jewish Historical Society.
• 1796: Israel Baer Kursheedt arrives in Boston to find only one Jewish family in town and no synagogue.
• 1797: Moses Michael Hays founds the fire Fire Insurance Company in Boston along with Paul Revere and others.

• 1821: Jews are granted full rights of citizenship in Massachusetts.
• 1840: Less than 40 Jews live in Boston.
• 1843: Philanthropist Judah Touro (1775-1850), a nephew of Moses Michael Hays, is instrumental in erecting and financing the Bunker Hill Monument. He was also the first Jewish settler of New Orleans and fought with General Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. He leaves large sums of money to the Boston Female Society, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Asylum for Orphan Boys among other places. The Kahal Kadosh Ohabei Shalom (The Holy Community Lovers of Peace) Synagogue is established in the South End.
• 1844: October 5, The first Jewish cemetery is established in East Boston.
• 1848: Bavarian born Leopold Morse (1831-1892) arrives in Boston. He works his way from peddler to businessman to congressman.