author
M. M. (Mordecai Manuel) Noah
1785–1851
A restless early American public figure, he moved between journalism, diplomacy, politics, and the stage while becoming one of the best-known Jewish voices in the United States. He is especially remembered for the bold 1825 Ararat project, an attempt to create a refuge for Jews on Grand Island in New York.
1 Audiobook
She Would Be a Soldier; Or, The Plains of Chippewa
by M. M. (Mordecai Manuel) Noah
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1785, Mordecai Manuel Noah built an unusually varied career as a journalist, playwright, diplomat, and political figure. He became one of the first American-born Jews to reach national prominence, writing for newspapers, serving in public office, and taking an active role in civic life in New York.
Noah's life was marked by ambition and dramatic turns. He served as U.S. consul to Tunis, though that appointment ended in controversy, and he later became well known as a newspaper editor and commentator. He also wrote plays and other works, showing how comfortably he moved between politics and literary culture.
Today he is often remembered for his vision of Ararat, a proposed Jewish refuge he announced in 1825 on Grand Island near Buffalo. The settlement did not succeed, but the idea made Noah a striking and memorable figure in American Jewish history. He died in New York City in 1851.