“MEN OF HONOUR AND HONESTY”: CONNECTIONS BETWEEN JEWS AND FREEMASONS IN EARLY AMERICA

This paper is an exploration of the intersections between the Jewish community and Freemasons in early American history, largely during the eighteenth century. Most people don’t even realize that there were Jews in America at this point, let alone that many of them were important enough in their community to merit membership in an elite organization like the Freemasons. This paper tries to understand the overlap between these two groups by using an increasingly narrow examination of the Masonic organization. Ultimately, my findings can be summarized by this line from my paper: “although it sounds surprising that many of the early Jews in America were Masons, upon further investigation, it would be more surprising if they weren't.