Benjamin Sheftall | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1692 |
| Died | 1765 (aged 72–73) |
| Known for | Co-founder of Congregation Mickve Israel; the Sheftall Diaries; co-founder of the Union Society |
| Spouses |
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| Children | Mordecai Sheftall, Levi Sheftall |
| Relatives | Sheftall Sheftall (grandson) |
Benjamin Sheftall (1692–1765) was a Prussian-born Jewish colonist and one of the founders of the Jewish community of Savannah, Georgia. Arriving with the first Jewish settlers in 1733, he helped establish Congregation Mickve Israel, began the family record known as the Sheftall Diaries, an important source on the colony's early Jewish settlers, and in 1750 joined Christian colonists in founding the Union Society, Georgia's oldest charitable organization. He was the patriarch of the Sheftall family, which played a leading role in Savannah during the American Revolution.
Sheftall was born in 1692 in Frankfurt an der Oder. With his wife Perla he was among the 42 Jews who landed in Savannah aboard the William and Sarah on July 11, 1733, a few months after James Oglethorpe founded the colony. Most of the group were Sephardic Jews from Portugal, and the Sheftalls, together with the family of Abraham Minis, were among the few Ashkenazim; the two families became the leading Jewish families of colonial Georgia.
Sheftall and his sons were active in establishing Congregation Mickve Israel in July 1735, now the third-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He appears to have served the congregation as shammash (sexton) and shochet (ritual slaughterer). In 1748 he had tefillin brought from England for the bar mitzvah of one of his sons, which the historian Louis Schmier has called the first recorded observance of the rite in America.
Sheftall kept a record of the births, deaths and marriages of Savannah's Jewish community, which his son Levi continued after his death. Covering the years 1733 to 1808, the Sheftall Diaries also preserve the only known list of the Jewish passengers of the William and Sarah. The historian Malcolm Stern published them in 1965.
In 1750 Sheftall joined a group of Christian colonists in founding the St. George Society, later renamed the Union Society, to assist widows and orphans. It was Georgia's first philanthropic organization and is the oldest charitable society in the state.
Sheftall had two sons: Mordecai Sheftall (1735–1797), by his first wife Perla, and Levi Sheftall (1739–1809), by his second wife, Hannah Solomons. Both sons supported the Revolution; Mordecai became deputy commissary general for Continental troops in Georgia and South Carolina. Sheftall died in Savannah in 1765. That year Levi established a family cemetery, now owned by Congregation Mickve Israel.