Rebecca Gratz

• Born: March 4, 1781
• Birthplace: Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Died: August 27, 1869
• Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philanthropist

Gratz aided Philadelphia’s Jewish community by establishing and leading innovative organizations to provide educational and social services, improving people’s well-being and reinforcing their comprehension of Jewish religious practices.

Early Life

Rebecca Gratz (grats) was born on March 4, 1781, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Michael, a Silesian immigrant from Langendorf, and Miriam Simon. Gratz’s father and his brother accrued income from trade and investments, becoming significant members of Philadelphia’s eighteenth century Jewish community. Gratz’s maternal grandfather acquired wealth selling supplies to colonists and the British army. Gratz’s family, devout Sephardic Jews, attended services at Congregation Mikveh Israel and participated in that synagogue’s activities. They rarely encountered anti-Semitism, possibly because of their affluence and their social status.

Gratz studied at a local academy for girls. She supplemented her education by consulting books in her family’s library. Because Gratz could not read Hebrew, she secured English translations of theological books examining Judaism, often asking authors, including Isaac Leeser, whose sermons impressed Gratz, for their manuscripts. Because of their family’s prominence, Gratz and her siblings participated in elite social events. Several contemporary artists painted portraits of Gratz. She chose not to marry. Her younger brother, Joseph, accompanied Gratz on trips to the New Jersey coast and to popular New England sites. She befriended Washington Irving and other notable literary figures, writing letters to authors, including Maria Edgeworth, whose novel Harrington (1817) she criticized because the plot depicted a Jewish woman marrying a Christian. Many contemporaries believed Gratz inspired Sir Walter Scott’s fictional Rebecca, a Jew who rejected matrimony with a Christian in Ivanhoe (1819).

Life’s Work

Gratz often accepted nurturing roles caring for relatives. In 1801, she assisted Jewish and Christian women in Philadelphia in creating the Female Association for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances and served as its secretary. At that time, approximately two hundred Jews resided in Philadelphia, which had a population of forty-one thousand people. By 1815, Gratz helped establish the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum. For forty years, she represented that institution as its secretary and advised women developing orphanages elsewhere in the United States.

While Gratz interacted with Christian women performing charity work, their attempts to convert impoverished people upset her. Gratz voiced her interpretations of biblical scriptures, defending Judaism to Christians she knew and demanding they honor her beliefs and constitutional rights protecting religious freedom. She decided to counter evangelical activity by creating a charity specifically for Jews. In 1819, Gratz and friends in her synagogue established the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society (FHBS) for Jewish women and children.

At her home, Gratz started a school that her nieces and nephews attended because local synagogues did not provide sufficient religious instruction for Jewish youth. Gratz contemplated how Christian groups, specifically the Protestant American Sunday School Union, offered children training regarding religion and discussed ideas with ministers she knew. By 1838, Gratz incorporated educational techniques and structures she considered useful to create the Hebrew Sunday School (HSS) to instruct Jewish girls and boys. She especially liked Jewish educator Grace Aguilar’s concepts. Gratz realized the importance of Jews comprehending their religion and retaining its integrity while assimilating into American communities. As HSS superintendent, Gratz hired HSS alumni who had prepared to teach that school’s pupils. The HSS enabled Jewish women unprecedented opportunity to shape religious education for Jewish students, molding curricula to the needs of Jews in Philadelphia and other American locations where HSS standards were adopted.

Gratz became aware of problems associated with immigration, specifically issues affecting Jewish children. She established the Jewish Foster Home (JFH) in 1855. Gratz assisted several women to manage the JFH. Her affiliation as JFH’s vice president aided public acceptance of that home, which eventually became part of the Association for Jewish Children in Philadelphia. By 1860, Philadelphia’s Jewish population reached 8,000, among the city’s 670,000 residents, many of whom were impacted by Gratz’s work. After Gratz’s death in Philadelphia on August 27, 1869, she was buried in Mikveh Israel’s cemetery.

Significance

Gratz developed and implemented unique social programs, designed for American situations, which provided Jews representing diverse backgrounds and theological identifications with centralized charities and public services to help them and their families achieve better lives. Her pioneering ventures empowered both women and Jews. Gratz’s work altered how Jewish communities in the United States perceived females and the decisions they made. Her ideas changed how Jewish children were educated. The HSS’s existence through the late twentieth century emphasized the enduring value of Gratz’s contributions. Her other social works also continued to assist Jews or to provide a foundation for similar charities decades after she died.

Bibliography

Ashton, Dianne. Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997. Comprehensive biography examines Gratz’s activities in context of the changes occurring in Judaism in nineteenth century America. Chapters focus on specific projects. Illustrations, bibliography, genealogical charts.

Chametzky, Jules, et al., eds. Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. Excerpts from Gratz’s correspondence include seven letters accompanied by scholarly annotations and a biographical profile discussing how she perceived her identity as a Jew in America.

Diner, Hasia R., and Beryl Lieff Benderly. Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Describes Gratz’s responses to challenges presented by nineteenth century gender and religious issues and contemporary Jewish and Christian educational procedures that influenced how she taught American children Judaism.

Lewin, Judith. “Legends of Rebecca: Ivanhoe, Dynamic Identification, and the Portraits of Rebecca Gratz.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues 10 (Fall, 2005): 178-212. Literary criticism and historical analysis exploring Gratz’s interactions with her peers. Interprets how artistic images of Gratz represent aspects of nineteenth century Jewish culture.