Jewish State in the Niagara River
Yes you read that right
Not that you need reminding, but we are living in strange times. The Iranian regime is apparently planning on bombing Israel into oblivion on Tisha B’av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, or Aug 13, 2024). This “saddest day on the Jewish calendar” is when Jews traditionally fast and mourn the destruction of both our ancient temples in Jerusalem.
As Iran therefore at least tacitly acknowledges our connection to our ancient and holy city, their usefully-idiotic cheerleaders on North American campuses are shouting that we have no connection to our ancient homeland, and that we should “go back to Poland.” The cognitive dissonance these days is just **chef’s kiss**
As tensions grow in a Middle East on the brink, you may be interested in knowing that it didn’t necessarily have to be like this. In fact, if Mordecai Manuel Noah had his way, the Jewish State would be right around the corner. Literally. 174km from Thornhill, or 1hr46min via the 407ETR and Queen Elizabeth Way, depending on how long it takes to cross the US border.
If that had happened, we would have had a Jewish State at peace with its neighbours: Canada and the United States. Granted, we would have had to give up minor “non-negotiables” like a sovereign state on our historical homeland where the Jewish people were born blah blah blah but I digress.
After you’ve had your coffee, caught up on the hopefully uneventful news from overseas, learned who Kamala’s VP pick is, and listened to Dan Senor’s excellent interview with Haviv Rettig Gur about where things stand with Israel and Iran, consider the below history if you are so inclined.
Mordecai Manuel Noah
Probably one of the most famous American Jews you have never heard of was Mordecai Manuel Noah. Born July 19, 1785 of Portuguese Jewish ancestry, Noah was the most influential Jew in the United States in the early 19th century.
Noah is known to have been, among other things, an editor, journalist, playwright, politician, US Consul to Tunis and the Barbary States, lawyer, court of appeals judge, a New York Port surveyor, a major in the New York military, a founder of New York University, and (most importantly) an ardent Zionist at least 70 years before that word was even coined. As many have written about him, his legacy lies at the intersections of race in early America and Jewish utopianism.
Ararat
In 1825, Noah helped purchase a piece of land on Grand Island in the Niagara River, just 174km from here.
At the time, Grand Island was largely undeveloped. Four men purchased the island in 1825 for $76,230. One of those men, Samuel Leggett, a friend of Noah’s, purchased 2,555 of those acres along the southern and eastern sides of the island for $16,985 (about $430,000 today).
During his time as a public figure, and in particular as consul overseas, Noah learned about the plight of the Jewish people. Familiarizing himself with the persecution of the Jews in Europe specifically, Noah soon believed that the United States, with its enlightenment and promise, and immediate availability (unlike the Land of Israel then under Ottoman control) would be an ideal location for a city of refuge for world Jewry. He thought Grand Island was the ideal location because the open land could reignite ancient agricultural practices of the Jewish people which, Noah believed, had been lost in the Diaspora. He had something in common with later Labour Zionists.
Noah convinced Leggett to purchase the land, and then acted quickly.
First, he came up with a name: The City for the Refuge for the Jewish Nation: Ararat. The name obviously comes from the name of the mountain in the Bible where Noah’s Ark landed after the Flood. One can’t help but think there must have been a bit of ego involved in the selection of this name, with a man named Noah selecting an island rising out of the waters, to serve as a refuge for the Jewish people (an ark?).
Next, he chose a date to declare his state into existence: September 2, 1825. He immediately got the word out by newspaper and other means. Remember, he was a newspaperman and a politician, and knew how to spread news. He wrote to rabbis in Europe about what he planned to do, urging them to prepare to migrate and settle in his new colony. Jews around the world soon learned about this proposed Jewish City of Refuge.
Inauguration
As inauguration day drew closer, he raised a flapole on the island to display his new flag of Israel. However, he soon realized he had a problem: there weren’t enough boats to take crowds to the island - yes, there were crowds. And so, with the help of the Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo, the ceremony was transferred to nearby, and much more accessible, Buffalo.
At dawn, the festivities opened with the firing of a salute by the local artillery company. At 11am, a parade moved down Main Street to St. Paul’s, with Noah himself in the middle, clad in robes of crimson silk trimmed with ermine and an embossed golden medal suspended from his neck (he had borrowed the outfit from a local theatre). Hebrew prayers were sung, loud music was played, and military troops, officers, clergymen, and fellow citizens made their way to the church.
In St. Pauls’ Church, Noah revealed the cornerstone for his new state:
With the Shma prayer on top, it reads, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, Founded by Mordecai Manual Noah, in the month of Tizrei 5586, Sept. 1825 and in the 50th year of American Independence.”
Noah then read a lengthy proclamation that he himself had drafted. He described himself as “Citizen of the United States of America, late consul of said states for the city and kingdom of Tunis, High Sheriff of New York, Counselor at Law, and, by the grace of God, Governor and judge of Israel.”
According to the official records of the event, he then, “declared the Jewish nation reestablished under the protection of the laws of the United States, he abolished polygamy among the Jews and he levied a tax of one Spanish dollar a year (the equivalent of three shekels apparently) on every Jew in the world to support the project.”
He then also, curiously, believing that Native Americans were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, said that it was his intention, “to make them sensible of their origin, to cultivate their minds, soften their condition, and finally reunite them with their brethren, the chosen people.” Talk about actual settler-colonialism, no?!?
Writers about Noah have all remarked on what was no doubt his racism of the time (he was a vocal opponent of Black emancipation, on top of his negative views of Native Americans), but it also situates him at a particular time and place in American history. His founding of Ararat, it has been noted, was an answer to the nationalism that had brought about the American Revolution just 50 years earlier. Seeing the persecution of the Jews worldwide, and understanding the opportunities that he himself, an openly Jewish man, had been given in the New World, there is really little question why someone with Noah’s abilities embarked on an ambitious project like this.
Noah saw the promise of America. Though true, he had been fired as Consul to Tunis by President Madison on account of his being Jewish, he still believed that America was a place where Jews could grow, and be comfortable, and contribute, and succeed. And he was right.
So what happened?
After all the pomp and ceremony, the custom cornerstone, the rented costumes, the latent racism, the self-declared-Judge-of-Israel-and-genuinely-accomplished-and-fascinating-Noah was…mocked. The press reportedly had a field day with his shenanigans, and he was ridiculed by the Jewish people worldwide. They declined to help him and actively opposed his plan.
There were not enough Jews in America to make this a realistic prospect. They were too scattered among the Diaspora to make it all the way to the chilly Niagara River. Some argued that they would never feel that persecuted so as to merit a trip all the way to the American border with Canada. Most still, had not even come close to turning their minds to the prospect of a sovereign Jewish State. They couldn’t imagine not being subjects of a foreign power. If anything, their state would be in Israel. Noah’s Zionism was a little too early.
His cornerstone never made it to Grand Island because it was too heavy and lacked adequate transportation. It now sits in the Buffalo History Museum.
All that remains today of Ararat on Grand Island is a lone plaque located next to a church, which reads, “Ararat: Proposed site of Mordecai M. Noah’s attempt to establish A City of Refuge for the Jews of the World on 2,555 acres of land in 1825.”
That’s it. Noah’s project elicited discussion, but nothing else.
He soon realized that the only viable solution for a Jewish State was likely the Land of Israel, and in the years following his inauguration of Ararat, he lectured and wrote at length on the need for such a homeland for the Jewish people. On October 28, 1844, he delivered to a large audience of Christians, “A Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews,” his greatest speech, in which he argued that it was the duty of Christians to help the Jews regain the land of their forefathers: Israel.
His ideas far preceded those of Leo Pinsker, writing in 1882, or Theodor Herzl, who published his Jewish State in 1896. By that time, Noah’s Ararat foundation stone had already been gathering moss in a field in Buffalo for 71 years.
Noah was active with and supported Jewish congregations in Philadelphia and New York. He died of a stroke at the age of 65 in 1851. When he died, he was America’s best-known Jew. An excellent book about him was written by Jonathan Sarna, titled "Jacksonian Jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah.”
Why now?
Yesterday I spoke with a shlichah (an emissary) from the Jewish Agency in Israel. She is here for the summer working at a camp, and in Canada for the first time. She told me that over the weekend she visited Niagara Falls, which she described as, “both wow and not so wow.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help but think that in a different world, in which Noah had been successful, an emissary from the Jewish State of Ararat may be visiting Jewish communities abroad, describing their landmarks as “both wow and not so wow.” Take that Big Ben or Sydney Opera House. That they would be gearing up to celebrate their 199th independence day on Sept 2, 2024. That they wouldn’t be marking wars with neighbours, memorial days, or staring up at the sky waiting for the next rocket launch. It just made me think about how different our history could have been if such ideas for a Jewish state outside Israel had taken root (there were in fact several proposed plans), or if even the early ideas for a Jewish State in Israel had borne fruit sooner.
But that’s where this daydreaming ends. We don’t need to imagine, when our reality gives us so much.
76 years ago, we were blessed to inaugurate a Jewish State on Jewish indigenous land, Eretz Yisrael. In those years, yes we have fought, but more importantly, we have thrived, we have succeeded, and we have become emboldened. We have made the world a better place, like it or not.
Today, the people of Israel are not fearful, as their country of refuge - their birthright and homeland - provides the security they need to exist as am chofshi be’artzenu - a free nation in our land.
We pray for peace, prepare for war, and dream of tomorrow.
This truly was fascinating. I have never heard about this story or person before. It is quite amazing to learn some new Jewish history.
Fascinating story, thank you for bringing it to light!