Naphtali Phillips | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 19, 1773 |
| Died | November 1, 1870 (aged 97) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupations | Newspaper publisher, customs inspector |
| Known for | Proprietor of the National Advocate; president of Congregation Shearith Israel |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 12 or more, including Isaac Phillips |
| Parent(s) | Jonas Phillips Rebecca Mendez Machado |
| Relatives | Moses Seixas (father-in-law) Uriah P. Levy (nephew) N. Taylor Phillips (grandson) |
Naphtali Phillips (October 19, 1773 – November 1, 1870) was an American newspaper publisher and Jewish communal leader. He was the proprietor of the National Advocate, a leading New York daily, and is regarded as the first of a line of Jewish newspaper publishers in the United States. He served fourteen terms as president of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, having earlier been president of Philadelphia's Congregation Mikveh Israel.
Phillips was born in 1773 on Whitehall Street in New York City, the son of the merchant Jonas Phillips and his wife Rebecca, daughter of David Mendez Machado, a former minister of Shearith Israel. During the Revolution the family left New York for Philadelphia, where his father served in the militia. He was one of twenty-one children; his sister Rachel was the mother of Commodore Uriah P. Levy.
In Philadelphia, Phillips worked for David C. Claypoole's newspaper, the American Daily Advertiser. In September 1796 he took the first copy of Washington's Farewell Address off the paper's press; in 1848 that copy was placed in the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. At the age of 25 he was elected president of Congregation Mikveh Israel.
On July 5, 1797, Phillips married Rachel Hannah Seixas, daughter of the Newport merchant and banker Moses Seixas. She died in 1822, and he later married her first cousin Esther Seixas, a daughter of Benjamin Mendes Seixas.
Phillips moved back to New York around 1801. For many years he was editor and proprietor of the National Advocate, and he later served as an inspector in the New York customhouse until about 1850. He was prominent in the city's Democratic Party, served on many political committees, and at his death was the oldest member of the Tammany Society. He was also an active Freemason.
Phillips was a mainstay of Congregation Shearith Israel for more than half a century, serving as trustee and clerk and, beginning by 1816, fourteen terms as president. He wrote a history of the congregation and kept extensive notes on early American Jewish history and genealogy, now held with his family's papers by the American Jewish Historical Society. In 1827 he corresponded with former president James Madison.
Phillips died in New York in 1870, at the age of 97.
His son Isaac Phillips was also president of Shearith Israel, and his grandson N. Taylor Phillips was a lawyer, state assemblyman and longtime clerk of the congregation.