URIAH PHILLIPS LEVY


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Uriah Phillips Levy

Think not, if you once enter on this career, that it can be limited to the Jew. What is my cast today, if you yield to this injustice, may tomorrow be that of the Roman Catholic or the Unitarian; the Presbyterian or the Methodist; the Episcopalian or the Baptist. There is but one safeguard; that is to be found in an honest, whole hearted, inflexible support of the wise, the just, the impartial guarantee of the Constitution.
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Levy was the first Jewish naval captain of the United States Navy. He was acknowledged by the Secretary of the Navy to be qualified for promotion to Commodore, but there was much anti-Semitic opposition among the other senior officers. Levy was finally promoted to Commodore. He was so grateful for the freedom of America that he had purchased Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello and maintained it as a shrine to the author of the Declaration of Independence. See George Bancroft

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Uriah Phillips Levy
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Uriah Phillips Levy
  • Born: April 22, 1792
  • Died: March 26, 1862
  • Nationality:
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Biography

Uriah Phillips Levy was a naval officer, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy. He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice of flogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against the antisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers.