By Mark Wagman, Member of the Jewish Living Delaware Advisory Committee
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An impressive exhibition entitled “The First Salute: An Untold Story of the American Revolution” opened on April 23 at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. I was privileged to view the exhibit only three days after its opening.
The introductory panel of the exhibition notes that “it took eight years . . . for American Patriots to overthrow Great Britain. These Patriots included Jews . . . living in the tiny, lush Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. There, Jewish merchants supplied countless tons of munitions to American revolutionaries. There, the United States received its first international recognition. There, a British admiral’s persecution of Jews led to a strategic error that helped determine the Revolution’s outcome.”
The exhibit is anchored by three short videos. The first one dramatically retells what is meant by the “First Salute.” On November 16, 1776, an American brig sailed into the island’s harbor with a copy of the Declaration of Independence and flying a precursor of the Stars and Stripes. A 13-gun salute by the brig was followed by a return volley from the Dutch governor. Termed “the First Salute,” this exchange is generally regarded as the first formal recognition of the United States by a foreign nation.
The core of the exhibit touches on the multi-faceted story of Sephardic Jews in the New World, many of whom were trying to outrun the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition that followed them. They found haven especially in Dutch and British-controlled islands, including Suriname, Curacao, Barbados, Jamaica, and St. Eustatius, and parts of the Thirteen Colonies. The exhibit includes several stations where (AI-generated) characters of the times describe their lives.
By the time of the revolution, St. Eustatius was a busy Atlantic port. Several hundred Jewish merchants there were prominent in trans-Atlantic trade of goods. The island became a natural route for the risky business of smuggling arms and gunpowder to the revolutionary army, and Jewish merchants were heavily involved. The Dutch, although officially neutral, did not attempt to interrupt this traffic.
Robert Morris, a Founding Father in Philadelphia, organized a covert network smuggling gunpowder and other supplies through the Caribbean to America. In a letter displayed in the exhibit, Morris asserts that “the supplies of powder and other articles from St. Eustatius are of the utmost importance” and delay would be “extremely injurious to the service of the United States.”
The exhibit does not shy away from noting that enslaved Africans were “a significant part of the island’s population and economy” and that several of the Jewish residents of St. Eustatius were slave owners. A 1781 census recorded that Jews on the island owned 86 people. In this respect, Jews throughout the Western Hemisphere at the time were no different than other white Europeans.
The exhibit brings together an extensive collection of artifacts to tell its story. These include a cannon, Hanukkah lamp, and pottery from pre-revolutionary war St. Eustatius, as well as numerous key letters and other documents.
Eventually, the British sought to bring an end to the smuggling. The second short video tells this part of the story. In 1781, 3,000 British troops under Admiral George Rodney seized St. Eustatius. Rodney plundered the island, with Jews as a special target. Jewish men were imprisoned or exiled, and their belongings were looted. The Jewish community there never recovered.
Because of his obsession with looting the island, Rodney missed an opportunity to intercept a fleet of French ships that headed up north to blockade the Chesapeake Bay, trapping the British army at Yorktown. Rodney’s error contributed to Washington’s victory and the end of the war.
The third video, at the exhibit’s end, features the remains of the synagogue building in St. Eustatius. The community founded the congregation, Honen Dalim (Gracious to the Poor), in 1739.
Make this exhibit and its remarkable story part of your celebrating and commemorating of America’s semiquincentennial. The exhibit will be on view at the museum through April 2027.
THE FIRST SALUTE:
An Untold Story of the American Revolution
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History Corner of 5th and Market Sts., Philadelphia, PA 19106
Now through April 2027
Details at TheWeitzman.org/FirstSalute
Photo Credits: Mark Wagman
