Hays, Moses Michael (1739-1805). Autograph Letter Signed written to Myer Polock on behalf of Michael Gratz.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

18th December

New York

1770

Strongly worded letter in which Hays urges Polock to comply with a promise to Michael Gratz and offers a carrot to temper the stick. Hays says he will assist him in “any matter Honorable & Just” if he does.

Moses Michael Hays, a friend of Paul Revere, was a prominent 18th century American Jew and Bostonian. While living in Newport, RI in 1776, Hays, though a patriot, refused to sign a declaration of loyalty to the cause of the American Revolution because he felt he had been singled out as for questionable loyalty simply for being a Jew. Persuasively pointing out ways in which he had been discriminated against in matters of voting, he prevailed in his argument and was not forced to sign. Myer Polock (d. 1779) was Hays’ former business partner. Polock was in fact a Tory. He declined to sign the aforementioned loyalty oath on religious grounds, but in the end was forced to. Michael Gratz (1740-1811) of Philadelphia an eminent American patriot, was among the widely-known Colonial American Jews. On the loyalty oath in Newport, see Oscar Reiss, The Jews in Colonial America (2003) pp. 53-4.