Rebecca Gratz (March 4, 1781 – August 27, 1869) was a member of th
Gratzfamily, who settled in the United States before the
Revolutionary War. She was a
Jewish American
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
educator and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
in
19th-century America.
Early life
Rebecca Gratz was born on March 4, 1781, in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...
. She was the seventh of twelve children born to Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz. Her mother was the daughter of
Joseph Simon, a preeminent Jewish merchant of Lancaster, while her father, whose surname originally was Grätz, immigrated to America in 1752 from
Langendorf, in German-speaking
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
.
Michael, who was descended from a long line of respected rabbis, and Miriam were observant Jews and active members of Philadelphia's first synagogue,
Mikveh Israel
Mikveh Israel ( he, מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, 'Hope of Israel') is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel ...
.
Philanthropy
In 1801, at the age of 20, Rebecca Gratz helped establish the Female Association for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, which helped women whose families were suffering after the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
[Burlingame, Dwight F. (ed.) (2004). ''Philanthropy in America: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia'', Vol. 1, pp. 215-16. ABC-CLIO, Inc. .] In 1815, after seeing the need for an institution for orphans in Philadelphia, she was among those instrumental in founding the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum.
Four years later, she was elected secretary of its board. She continued to hold this office for forty years. Under Gratz' auspices, a Hebrew Sunday School, the first of its kind in America, was started in 1838. Gratz became both its superintendent and president and assisted in developing its
curriculum
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
,
[ resigning in 1864.
Gratz was also one of the founding members of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1819. The social services organization was created by a group of women from ]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 ...
to support Philadelphia's Jewish women who found themselves unexpectedly without a husband (whether by illness, death or greener pastures). Gratz held the secretary position in the group for close to 40 years.
In 1850, she advocated in ''The Occident'', over the signature ''A Daughter of Israel'', the foundation of a Jewish foster home. Her advocacy was largely instrumental in the establishment of such a home in 1855. Other organizations that came about due to her efforts were the Fuel Society and the Sewing Society.
Gratz is said to have been the model of Rebecca, the daughter of the Jewish merchant Isaac of York, who is the heroine in the novel ''Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
'' by Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
. Scott's attention had been drawn to Gratz's character by Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
, who was a close friend of the Gratz family. The claim has been disputed, but it has also been well sustained in an article entitled "The Original of Rebecca in Ivanhoe", which appeared in ''The Century Magazine'', 1882, pp. 679–682.
Gratz never married. Among the marriage offers she received was one from a Gentile whom she loved but ultimately chose not to marry on account of her faith.
Her portrait was painted twice by the noted American artist Thomas Sully. One of those portraits (both are owned by the Rosenbach Museum) is on display at the National Museum of American Jewish History
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (The Weitzman) is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum at 101 South Independence Mall East (S. 5th Street) at Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. It was founded in 1976.
History
With ...
.“Portrait of Rebecca Gratz”
by Thomas Sully (1831), Rosenbach Museum.
Death
Gratz died on August 27, 1869, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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 ...
and was buried at
Mikveh Israel Cemetery
Mikveh Israel Cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, giving evidence of a settled community as early as 1740. A number of outstanding patriots, pioneers, and other notables of the Jewish faith who made important con ...
. Shortly after her death, her brother Hyman founded and financed
Gratz College, a teachers’ college in Philadelphia, in her memory.
Reference Notes
External links
“Rebecca Gratz”by Dianne Ashton. ''The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women'', Jewish Women's Archive.
by Yitzchok Levine. “Glimpses Into American Jewish History,” ''The Jewish Press'', November 30, 2006.
*''Jewish Encyclopedia''
“Rebecca Gratz”of the family “Gratz,” by Joseph Jacobs, Elvira Solis, Cyrus Adler & Frank Vizetelly (1906).
''Letters of Rebecca Gratz'' edited by David Philipson. Jewish Publication Society of America, 1929.
*
Eternal Light radio dramatization of Gratz's life (.mp3 audio file)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gratz, Rebecca
1781 births
1869 deaths
American people of English-Jewish descent
American people of German-Jewish descent
Jewish American philanthropists
Franklin & Marshall College alumni
Educators from Philadelphia
People from Philadelphia
19th-century American women educators
Jewish women writers
19th-century women writers
19th-century American philanthropists
Jewish women philanthropists
American women philanthropists
19th-century American educators
19th-century women philanthropists