Judah Monis
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Judah Monis (born in Italy, 1683, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1764), North America's first college instructor of Hebrew language, taught at Harvard College from 1722 to 1760, and authored the first Hebrew textbook published in North America. His conversion to Christianity made him a figure of some controversy to both Jews and Christians.
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[edit] Early life
Monis was born into a family of former Portuguese conversos in Italy, and he was educated at Jewish academies in Italy and the Netherlands. Around 1715, he opened a small store in New York City, where he also began a second career teaching Hebrew to Jews and Christians, as well as a pastime of conducting discussions of theological topics, such as Kaballah and the Holy Trinity with leading Christian authorities. Around 1720, he left the established Jewish community of New York and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where very few Jews lived at the time.
[edit] At Harvard
At Harvard University in Cambridge, in accord with the general assumption that a scholar should be able to study the Bible in its original languages, all upperclassmen were required to study Hebrew. A similar policy was to be instituted at Yale by Ezra Stiles a few years later. This was regarded as a difficult and unpleasant course, one reason for this being that there was no textbook available. Monis wrote a Hebrew grammar, entitled "A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue", and in 1720 submitted a handwritten copy to the Harvard Corporation for its "judicious perusal." In 1722, the corporation voted "That Mr. Judah Monis be approved instructor of the Hebrew Language," the first such in America. However, at that time, Harvard required all faculty to be professing Christians, and so Monis, the descendant of conversos, converted to Christianity a month before beginning his Harvard career.
[edit] Career and controversies
This conversion was widely criticized by both the Jewish and Christian communities; Jews expressed anger and sorrow, while Christians questioned Monis' sincerity. Monis wrote three books defending the religious reasons behind his conversion, but Cambridge First Church records speculate disapprovingly on his secret observance of the Jewish Sabbath on Saturdays. Both Church and Harvard records frequently refer to Monis as "the converted Jew", "the converted rabbi", and "the Christianized Jew".
In 1723, Harvard stated that it was "greatly pleased with [Monis'] assiduity and faithfulness to his instruction", but, in 1724, transferred the responsibility for undergraduate Hebrew teaching to other tutors, with Monis responsible only for teaching graduate students and the tutors.
Monis continued to use his handwritten grammar manual, but the unavailability of any Hebrew type for printing presses required that each student copy the entire text by hand, an unpopular job which took up to a month. Monis finally persuaded Harvard to import Hebrew type from London and, in 1735, publish a thousand copies of the textbook, the first Hebrew textbook printed in North America. The American Jewish Historical Society possesses two copies of the printed books, as well as one of the handwritten copies.
[edit] Late life
Monis' duties at Harvard continued to diminish, until by 1760 he was teaching only one class per week, at which point he retired, citing his declining health. He died four years later and is buried in a churchyard in Northborough, Massachusetts, under a tombstone bearing the image of a grafted tree to symbolize his conversion, with an inscription reading in part:
- "A native branch of Jacob see.
- Which once from off its olive brook
- Regrafted, from the living tree."
