Emanuel Nunes Carvalho (1771,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

- 1817,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

) was an American Jewish religious leader and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

Career

Emanuel Nunes Carvalho was born in London, England in 1771. In 1799, Carvalho, whose merchant father had emigrated from Portugal to Amsterdam to Britain, was hired as

hazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' ( he, חַזָּן , plural ; Yiddish ''khazn''; Ladino ''Hasan'') is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this pr ...

for the Jewish community in Bridgetown, Barbados. However, he and his wife, the former Sarah Moreira, found the climate bad for their health, so they sailed to New York in 1806, where he tried to support them by teaching oriental languages. Soon he and one of his merchant brothers, David Nunes Carvalho, immigrated to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. In 1811, Emanuel Nunes Carvalho became the hazzan of Charleston's Jewish community, as well as ran a Jewish school there and taught Christian clergymen

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. In 1813, he became a naturalized American citizen in Charleston. In 1814, Nunes Carvalho was selected as the hazzan of Philadelphia's

Congregation Mikveh Israel Congregation Mikveh Israel ( he, קהל קדוש מקוה ישראל), "Holy Community Hope of Israel", is a synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that traces its history to 1740. Mikveh Israel is a Spanish and Portuguese synagogue that follows ...

, where he served for three years until his death. While in Charleston, he may have owned a slave, but had none in the 1810 census, nor by his death in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, Rabbi Nunes Carvalho published ''A Key to the Hebrew Tongue'' (Philadelphia, 1815). His ''A Sermon, preached on Sunday, July 7, 1816, on Occasion of the Death of the Rev. Mr.

Gershom Mendes Seixas Gershom Mendes Seixas (January 15, 1745 – July 2, 1816) was the first native-born Jewish religious leader in the United States. An American Patriot, he served as the hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel, New York City's first Spanish and Por ...

'' (Philadelphia, 1816) was the first Jewish sermon printed in the United States.

Family

Carvalho's brother David Nunes Carvalho helped found the first reformed congregation in the United States, the Reformed Society of Israelites, in Charleston in 1825. His nephew,

Solomon Nunes Carvalho Solomon Nunes Carvalho (April 27, 1815 - May 27, 1897) was an American painter, photographer, author and inventor. He may be best known as an explorer who traveled through the territory of Kansas, Colorado and Utah with John C. Frémont on his ...

, was a famous artist, photographer, explorer and inventor. His great-nephew David Nunez Carvalho was an ink, paper and handwriting expert who helped prove the innocence of

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...

Death

Carvalho died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1817 and was buried in his congregation's cemetery.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunes Carvalho, Emanuel 1771 births 1817 deaths American Orthodox rabbis American educators American lexicographers People from London British Jews People from Philadelphia American people of British-Jewish descent American Sephardic Jews Hazzans 19th-century American rabbis American people of Portuguese descent