Mordecai, Jacob (1762-1838). Autograph (untitled) Manuscript, written in English (with some Hebrew): Analysis and refutation of Christian readings of the Hebrew Bible. 38 pages. Incomplete at end.

Jacob Mordecai was a pioneer in women’s education in America, founding the Warrenton Female Academy in Warrenton, North Carolina. “Strange as it may seem, hundreds of Southern girls received their education during the early part of the last century, at a non-sectarian seminary conducted by a Jewish family,” writes Herbert T. Ezekiel and Gaston Lichtenstein, still scarcely able to believe it “The History of the Jews of Richmond from 1769 to 1917, (Richmond, 1917, p. 23). Mordecai had another life, besides that of good Southern citizen and educator: He and his family were religious Jews, observant even when they were the only Jews in town. After Mordecai’s academy closed, he moved to Richmond, VA, which had a small but thriving Jewish community. A young friend of his in Richmond, Jacob Ezekiel, gives us a look at the good standing which he enjoyed in that community: “Mr. Mordecai was always much admired on account of his brilliant intellect, being well versed in Biblical research, the Hebrew language, and its literature; in fact, he was considered authority on many questions pertaining to Judaism and Biblical interpretations. I always found him very genial in his deportment, and we became so much attached to each other that I felt it a pleasure to visit his home on Church Hill on Sabbath afternoons, and this became one of my weekly resorts.” (Jacob Ezekiel, “Pleasing Incidents in Jacob Mordecai's Life,” The Jewish South, April 8, 1898, p. 4). This manuscript is an example of the scholarship Ezekiel was talking about. Indeed from here we have a fascinating window into the private intellectual life of an early American Jew and his courageous defense of Judaism.