November 23, 2017
Commodore Levy and Jefferson's Monticello
Jack Kemp
I
got a surprise mailing today from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation which
runs his home, Monticello, in Virginia. I once visited the museum in a
bus tour and must have given them my name and address. It was there
that I learned about the long time family owners of the property.
The
third owner of the Jefferson home, for over a generation, was Uriah
Phillips Levy, a Sephardic Jew who was the first Jewish Commodore of
the U.S. Navy. He is responsible for outlawing flogging (with a whip)
of sailors. From his family the property passed to the Jefferson
Foundation which runs it today. Commodore Levy's mother is buried on
the grounds of Monticello.
https://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/uriah-phillips-levy
I
got a surprise mailing today from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation which
runs his home, Monticello, in Virginia. I once visited the museum in a
bus tour and must have given them my name and address. It was there
that I learned about the long time family owners of the property.
The
third owner of the Jefferson home, for over a generation, was Uriah
Phillips Levy, a Sephardic Jew who was the first Jewish Commodore of
the U.S. Navy. He is responsible for outlawing flogging (with a whip)
of sailors. From his family the property passed to the Jefferson
Foundation which runs it today. Commodore Levy's mother is buried on
the grounds of Monticello.
https://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/uriah-phillips-levy
Uriah Phillips Levy
Uriah Phillips Levy(1792-1862), U.S. naval officer and third owner of Monticello after
Thomas Jefferson's death, is one of the great characters in American
Jewish history. He was pugnacious, determined, eccentric, confirmed in
the righteousness of his causes, an able businessman who was quite
wealthy, and an admirer of Thomas Jefferson. His admiration rested on
Mr. Jefferson's well-deserved reputation as a champion of religious
liberty—not toleration, but liberty. "I consider Thomas Jefferson to
be one of the greatest men in history," Levy declared, "the author of
the Declarationand an absolute democrat. He serves as an inspiration to millions of
Americans. He did much to mold our Republic in a form in which a man'sreligion does not make him ineligible for political or governmental life."1Levy's admiration for Jefferson first expressed itself in a unique gift
that the lieutenant made to the government and the people of the United
States. "There is no statue to Jefferson in the Capitol inWashington,"
he wrote,"As a small payment for his determined stand on the side of
religious liberty, I am preparing to commission a statue."2 And the statue, in its way, led to Monticello.
Read the rest here.
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Read the rest here.
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