- Paul Revere, George Washington,
Alexander Hamilton, Haym Salomon?
Chances are you've heard of those first three names.
They're the heroes of the American Revolution.
But few people have heard of that last guy
with the Jewish sounding last name.
Both without Haym Salomon,
the Rebels might not have won the American Revolution.
So until he gets a Hamilton style musical of his own
I'm here to shine a light on the man
who outwitted the British, escaped a death sentence,
and dedicated everything to the revolutionary cause.
So how did this Jewish immigrant
change the course of American history?
18th century Poland wasn't the friendliest place for a Jew
but Haym Salomon's family was no stranger to persecution.
His ancestors had been expelled from Portugal
in the late 15th century.
Nearly 300 years later, they kept their traditions alive,
a tiny pocket of Sephardic culture
amid an Ashkenazi community.
But the little town of Leszno
wasn't big enough for Haym Salomon's aspirations.
And by the age of 20, he was traveling western Europe,
picking up the language and business skills
that would eventually save his life.
We don't know why Salomon came to the United States
or even exactly when he arrived,
but we do know that when he disembarked
in New York City sometime in the 1770s,
he was walking straight into a revolution.
The 13 British colonies of the so-called New World
were seething and their colonists were over
being treated like Britain's cash cows.
Colonists and British soldiers
had been sniping at each other since 1770.
And by '75, the colonies seemed about to explode.
The 2,500 Jews living in the British colonies
watched tension spiral with both interest and alarm.
War tends to be rough on stateless minorities
and the Jews were nothing if not a minority
among the two and a half million other colonists.
But the winds of change were blowing.
And even though the British had been more or less tolerant
the rebels fermenting a revolution were offering
something much more interesting than mere tolerance.
They were offering liberty.
This was huge.
Remember, until that moment, most of the world,
including of course, the Jews,
lived under an all powerful ruler,
a king who could protect you one day
and turn on you the next.
- It's good to be the king.
- No matter how well connected,
a Jew was always at risk
with a limited number of plays
when dealing with persecution, convert, run, or die.
But there was a spark in the air,
the furious energy of rebels who were tired
of living under the thumb of an absolute ruler
and who would do whatever it took to shake him off.
The Jewish community was no longer caught
between the no win choices of convert, flee, or die.
The rebels offered another option, liberty or death.
(guns firing)
(explosion booms)
It was a thrilling, tempting, new paradigm.
So, while some Jews sided with the British
during the Revolutionary War,
Haym Salomon wasn't one of them.
Almost as soon as he landed in the colonies
Salomon threw his lot in with the rebels.
King George represented an old world legacy
of authority and persecution.
Meanwhile, the rebels fought for freedom and natural rights.
A highly appealing concept to a man
who spent his life as a second class citizen.
The colonies were a clean slate.
Who knew?
Maybe these rebels would succeed
in building a new world where anyone, even a Jew,
could pursue life and liberty without fear.
But on the eve of war in 1776
things weren't looking good for the rebels.
The under equipped rebel army
and the world's most powerful empire
were gearing up for a showdown.
No one could have predicted how this was going to end
but Salomon didn't care.
He was all in on the revolution.
And while he had started his career
in the Americas as a liquor distiller,
he soon switched over to supplying the rebel army
with all sorts of necessary goods
which would've been a perfectly decent way to make money
except for two things.
One, the Patriot army had no money,
a fact we'll return to later.
More pressingly, The British authorities
really didn't appreciate Salomon's attachment
to the revolutionary army
which is how Salomon found himself under arrest,
confined to a military prison in New York
on charges of being a spy.
Yikes.
But like the biblical Joseph,
another Hebrew who turned prison into an opportunity,
Salomon was clever.
With his fluid command of seven languages,
he made an excellent interpreter.
So rather than kill him or let him rot in prison
the British instead hired Salomon to work for them.
See, the Brits had hired 30,000 German mercenaries
to fight against the colonists,
which sounds good in theory
except for the fact that the two didn't share a language.
But Salomon did.
With his fluency in German, not to mention
English, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Russian,
he acted as an intermediary
between the Germans and the Brits.
But behind the scenes
he was still quietly serving the revolutionary cause
helping capture rebels escape British custody
and even converting some German mercenaries
to the Patriots side.
Salomon's language skills had saved him once
but his luck ran out in 1778
when the Brits arrested him a second time,
again on charges of espionage.
This time they were a lot less lenient.
His sentence, death.
No one's 100% sure how he escaped, but escape he did.
Fleeing under the cover of darkness to Philadelphia,
leaving behind his business,
his family, his entire net worth.
Now he had to start over.
He appealed to the Continental Congress for a loan.
They ignored him.
So Salomon was forced to do what he did best, persevere,
make something out of nothing, succeed against all odds.
Within three years of his arrival in Philadelphia
he'd launched a successful brokerage business.
And though the Continental Congress
had ignored him once before,
he nonetheless offered his services
to the newly minted superintendent of finance.
But there were plenty of brokers in Philadelphia.
What made Salomon different?
Well, a few things.
First of all, his language skills came in handy yet again
as he negotiated deals with European parties
including the French army troops
who had massed in Philadelphia
to resist the British.
But more importantly, without Salomon's contribution,
the Continental Congress would have been flat broke.
They desperately needed the money
from the deals he brokered for them.
Turns out you need more than high-minded ideals
to take on the world's most powerful empire.
A revolution runs on cold hard cash.
- Show me the money.
- So the Continental Congress made the understandable,
but very financially unwise decision,
to simply print more money.
- Show me the money.
- Bad move,
because as any armchair economist will tell you
printing more money just results in inflation.
The rebel government had basically
just printed Monopoly money.
- Thanks for the free parking.
- Few vendors accepted this nearly worthless paper money.
- Activist.
Yes.
- Unfortunately, for the patriots, war is expensive.
Soldiers needed food, training, a place to camp,
uniforms, salaries so their families could eat.
And the longer that the rebel army
went without those things,
the angrier and more unruly they became.
Rebel forces were on the brink of mutiny
when their commander, some guy named George Washington,
instructed his superintendent of finance
to send for Haym Salomon.
He knew Salomon was the only man in the colonies
who could come up with the $20,000 he needed
to win the decisive final battle of the American Revolution.
- The battle of Yorktown.
- Salomon came through and some reports say
that he even used some of his personal wealth
to fund the revolutionary cause.
With that $20,000, Washington and his army
were able to move on Yorktown,
and then the world turned upside down.
That was the song on everyone's lips
as the rebel army defeated the British once and for all.
They were no longer rebels, they were Americans.
But the new nation was a hot mess.
America simply had no money
and Salomon wasn't gonna let that stand.
He was willing to sacrifice everything
to turn America into the haven
that the original Patriots had promised.
As the official broker of the Office of Finance
he saw firsthand how close the nation
had come to total collapse.
He worked tirelessly to finance the government
even contributing from his own pocket,
all while pursuing another cause dear to his heart,
the advancement of the Jewish community.
His contributions went beyond the financial, true.
He helped fund a new synagogue in Philadelphia
which still stands today, but he also campaigned
for the religious freedom that he had been promised.
You see, only Christians were allowed
in the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
Salomon was having none of that.
- Oh no, he didn't.
- With other members of the Jewish community,
he petitioned Pennsylvania's Board of Censors
reminding them of the massive role
he and other Jews had played in securing American freedom.
And the campaign worked.
The censors removed the religious clause
from the State Constitution
guaranteeing Pennsylvania's religious liberties.
Sadly, Salomon didn't live long enough
to fully enjoy the religious liberty he'd fought for.
He died of tuberculosis at the age of 44,
leaving behind a wife, four children, and significant debt.
- What happened to all that money?
- Salomon had been so confident
in his newborn country's ability to sustain itself
that he invested most of his fortune
in government securities, securities worth very little.
(explosion booms)
It was a bitter ending to a life
spent in service to the revolutionary ideal.
And to add insult to injury,
few people even know Salomon's name today.
Until now, right?
Here's the craziest part though.
For all his talents and contributions to the American cause,
Salomon wasn't unique.
He was one of a number of Jews
who dedicated themselves fully
to their newly formed homeland.
Others like Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas
used their position in the Jewish community
to spread awareness and support for the revolution.
And others like Haym Salomon or Jonas Phillips
poured their fortunes into the American cause.
Despite their tiny numbers, the Jews of Colonial America
were well equipped to help their new nation.
They were immigrants or refugees
or the children of refugees,
and that's what enabled them
to dedicate themselves to the revolution.
They wanted to believe in freedom and liberty
but they also carried the legacy of a people
kicked out of their homes at a moment's notice.
So they prioritized the kind of wealth
that no one could take away, education, languages,
connections to other Jewish communities across the world.
That is the Jewish legacy in America and elsewhere.
And it's a legacy that helped create this country
against all odds.