Kivrei Tzadikim In China Town {Exclusive Footage} - The Kever of Reverand Gershom Mendes Seixas

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com for quite some time we've been contemplating visiting the oldest jewish cemetery here in new york the first share of israel cemetery we're here at 55 57 st james street place in new york new york and as you could see we can't get in the information given is open 24 hours a day but it's actually gated and locked 24 hours a day but our friend who we met here one of the prominent tour guides of new york has agreed to get in for us and take some inspiring footage of the kevin of gershom mendes who lived from 1745 to 1816. jewish life began more than a hundred years before the revolutionary war in 1776 2500 jews dotted the countryside new york pennsylvania south carolina georgia and the leading jewish figure of the time was gershom mendes sayas he was the khasin in kahal shairith israel his father isaac mendeses was a murano from lisbon from lisbon in portugal his father married raja levy an american-born daughter of moses levy but at the time no permanent rabbi served colonial america and the thousan at first in shaykh israel was joseph joshua pinto from amsterdam who took the job in 1758 at the age of 29 and he made important contributions to the community he made the first halachic jewish calendar for new york and in 1766 he left for europe for personal reasons 1768 garisham sayas a student of joseph joshua and pinto at 23 years old applied and got the job and now this rabbi reverend garasham sayos was a cousin as we'll see a mayal but he was not a muslim 1775 he married alcala they had four children 10 years later alcohol died and he married hannah manuel and he had with her nine more children so some of his important contributions in 1802 a jewish stranger died in potter's field and he did not have a proper kivura so he organized the hebrew hessadva ms the first clever kadisha in 1798 he founded a tsudaka called kaufe he had exemplary dedication for the midst of mila in 1811 at 66 he left new york to perform mila in montreal it was a many week travel many weeks he traveled then he traveled up to three rivers canada circumcising another two more babies and a fourth in birthy veil he spent 34 days traveling for the circumcision of four children with hazardous roads hostile indians surrounding him wild animals and he hardly made any money he was compensated 24 shillings and 22 of them went for his travel expenses but he was the primary religious authority in new york at the time and some of the questions he dealt with were musten be called for the first aliyah and he responded in the affirmative and he wanted he was asked whether you can remove the bodies in a cemetery that was going to be flooded these were some of these sheilas that he dealt with he became ill in 1813 and passed away july 2nd 1816. what a hash it is that today the day of the pater of masha'abenu when the kadisha fast we're visiting the grave of the one who instituted the first chevra kadisha in the united states of america lenovo alcohol israel you've just experienced another torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com