BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:53@jewishlifect.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210314T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210314T113000 DTSTAMP:20210228T150534Z URL:https://jewishlifect.org/events/gwcjl-speaker-series-prof-robert-watso n-alexander-hamilton-and-the-little-known-story-of-his-jewish-roots-and-li felong-work-on-behalf-of-the-jewish-community/ SUMMARY:GWCJL Speaker Series: Prof. Robert Watson\, "Alexander Hamilton and the Little-Known Story of his Jewish Roots and Lifelong Work on behalf of the Jewish Community" DESCRIPTION:The Coalition will be presenting Robert Watson\, Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University\, speaking on Alexander H amilton. \; Hamilton\, along with other founding members\, structured the early democratic government of the United States and left a legacy tha t has since shaped the world.\n\nBrainy\, ambitious and tireless he was a visionary whose life\, though flawed\, paralleled that of the nation he he lped forge. What is less widely known\, however\, is his connection to Jud aism. \; As a child growing up on the island of Nevis\, he was tutored by a Jewish schoolmistress and learned to recite the Ten Commandments in Hebrew... and more.\n\nDr Watson is a prolific author and frequent speaker . He is currently writing a book on the pandemic behind the 1793 evacuatio n of the Capital.\n\nJoin us for what is sure to be another exceptional Sp eaker Series event!\n\n \;\n\nWith gratitude to our generous Coalition supporters.\n\n[gravityform id="3" title="true" description="true"]\n\n&n bsp\;\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\nHamilton's birthplace on the isl and of Nevis had a large Jewish community\, constituting one quarter of Ch arlestown's white population by the 1720s.[1] \;He came into contact w ith Jews on a regular basis\; as a small boy\, he was tutored by a Jewish schoolmistress\, and had learned to recite the \;Ten Commandments  \;in the original \;Hebrew.[231]\n\nHamilton exhibited a degree of res pect for Jews that was described by Chernow as "a life-long reverence."[23 7] \;He believed that Jewish achievement was a result of \;divine providence:\nThe state and progress of the Jews\, from their earliest hist ory to the present time\, has been so entirely out of the ordinary course of human affairs\, is it not then a fair conclusion\, that the cause also is an \;extraordinary \;one—in other words\, that it is the effe ct of some great providential plan? The man who will draw this conclusion\ , will look for the solution in the Bible. He who will not draw it ought t o give us another fair solution.[238]\nBased on the phonetic similarity of "Lavien" to a common Jewish surname\, it has often been suggested that th e first husband of Hamilton's mother\, \;Rachel Faucette\, a German or Dane named \;Johann Michael Lavien\,[6] \;was Jewish or of Jewish descent.[239] \;On this foundation\, historian Andrew Porwancher\, a self-acknowledged "lone voice" whose "findings clash with much of the rece ived wisdom on Hamilton"\, has promoted a theory that Hamilton himself was Jewish.[240] \;Porwancher argues that Hamilton's mother (French \ ;Huguenot \;on her father's side[241]) must have converted to Judaism before marrying Lavien\, and that even after her separation and bitter div orce from Lavien\, she would still have raised her children by James Hamil ton as Jews.[240][242] \;Reflecting the consensus of modern historians \, historian Michael E. Newton wrote that "there is no evidence that Lavie n is a Jewish name\, no indication that John Lavien was Jewish\, and no re ason to believe that he was."[19] \;Newton traced the suggestions to a 1902 work of histori\n\n \;\n\nLearn about Hamilton’s difficult upb ringing in the West Indies\, his Jewish roots\, his meteoric rise to becom e George Washington’s chief aide during the Revolution and later Secreta ry of Treasury\, the intimate details of his scandalous downfall and duel\ , and the phenomenon that is the hit Broadway musical.\n\n \; END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20210314T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR