POWER OF ATTORNEY OF HANANEL PEREYRA * Together with notarized French translation

(AMERICAN-FRANCO JUDAICA).

Philadelphia

1816

Signatures Of Hananel Pereyra; Aaron B. and Benjamin Nones, Witnesses; and after French codicil, signatures of Micaelle and Gabriela Rachel Pereyra

Wolf and Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia (1957), p. 492, n. 133 (Pereyra); Malcolm H. Stern, Americans of Jewish Descent 1960), p. 168 (Nones)

DOCUMENT OF AMERICAN PATRIOT IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR “I, Hananel Pereyra of the city of Philadelphia, son of Jacob Rodriguez Pereyra…appoint Misses Micaëlle & Gabrielle Pereyra, my aunts, residing in Bordeaux…true and lawful Attorneys for me. To represent me…to the effect of receiving and recovering…sums of money from the Bank of England…” Both the Nones and Pereyra Families of Philadelphia originated in Bordeaux, France, where there existed an important community of Spanish-Portuguese Jews. Benjamin Nones (1757-1826), who witnessed the present document, emigrated from Bordeaux to Philadelphia in the 1770s, and at once took up arms on behalf of the colonies. He served in the Revolutionary Army with bravery. During the siege of Savannah he distinguished himself on the field of battle, receiving on December 15th, 1779 a citation for gallant conduct. After the war, Nones entered into a business partnership with Haym Solomon. For many years Benjamin Nones served as parnas or president of Philadelphia’s Spanish-Portuguese Congregation Mikveh Israel. (See EJ, Vol XII., cols. 1210-11; JE, Vol. IX, p. 330; Wolf and Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia (1957), p. 97). Jacob Rodrigues Pereira (1715-1780), deceased father of Hananel, was born to a Marrano family in Berlanga, Spain. He was taken by his widowed mother to France, where they returned to trational Judaism. In France, Pereira achieved renown as a progressive educator, becoming a pioneer in the field of educating congenital deaf-mutes. See EJ, Vol. XIII, col. 273