Judah Monis

Judah Monis (February 4, 1683 – April 25, 1764) was North America's first college instructor of the Hebrew language, teaching at Harvard College from 1722 to 1760, and authored the first Hebrew textbook published in North America. Monis was also the first Jew to receive a college degree in the American colonies. His conversion to Christianity made him a figure of some controversy to both Jews and Christians.

Early life Monis was born into a family of former Portuguese conversos in Italy or the Barbary States, and was educated at Jewish academies in Livorno, Italy and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, in the year 1707, he married Hana, daughter of Isaac Baruch-Rosa, and they had a baby boy, Isaac, who died after a few months. Approximately a year after that, his wife Hana died and Judah was now alone. During the year 1715, he left for New York, USA. Records show that Monis read for Jewish congregations in Jamaica and New York,

At Harvard At Harvard College, Monis received his Master of Arts in 1720, marking the first time a Jew had received a college degree in the American colonies and to receive an Honorary degree. As part of his graduation, Monis wrote a Hebrew grammar, entitled A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue, and in 1720 submitted a handwritten copy to the Harvard Corporation for its "judicious perusal."

According to the general assumption that a scholar should be able to study the Bible in its original languages, all upperclassmen at Harvard were required to study Hebrew. A similar policy was to be instituted at Yale by Ezra Stiles later in the century. This was regarded as a difficult and unpleasant course, one reason for this being that there was no textbook available. On April 30, 1722, the corporation voted "That Mr. Judah Monis be approved instructor of the Hebrew Language," the first such position in America. He was also granted a salary of 50 pounds a year for two years.

A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue published in 1735. (Library of Congress) Monis continued to use his handwritten grammar manual, but the unavailability of any Hebrew type for printing presses required that each student copy the entire text by hand, an unpopular job which took up to a month. Monis finally persuaded Harvard to import Hebrew type from London, and in 1735, with a loan from Harvard, Bostonian Jonas Green published a thousand copies of the textbook,

Late life Monis' duties at Harvard continued to diminish, until by 1760 he was teaching only one class per week, at which point he retired, citing his declining health. His wife Abigail had also died that same year before his retirement. He died four years later in Cambridge and is buried in a churchyard in Northborough, Massachusetts, under a tombstone bearing the image of a grafted tree to symbolize his conversion, with an inscription reading in part:

"A native branch of Jacob see. Which once from off its olive brook Regrafted, from the living tree."