Rebecca Gratz

Rebecca Gratz (March 4, 1781 – August 27, 1869) was a Jewish American educator and philanthropist in 19th-century America. She was a member of the Gratz family, who settled in the United States before the Revolutionary War.

Early life Rebecca Gratz was born on March 4, 1781, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was the seventh of twelve children born to Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz. Her mother was the daughter of Joseph Simon, a preeminent Jewish merchant of Lancaster, while her father, whose surname originally was Grätz, immigrated to America in 1752 from Wielowieś, in German-speaking Silesia. Michael, who was descended from a long line of respected rabbis, and Miriam were observant Jews and active members of Philadelphia's first synagogue, Mikveh Israel.

Philanthropy In 1801, at the age of 20, Rebecca Gratz helped establish the Female Association for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, which helped women whose families were suffering after the American Revolutionary War. In 1815, after seeing the need for an institution for orphans in Philadelphia, she was among those instrumental in founding the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum.

In 1850, she advocated in The Occident, over the signature A Daughter of Israel, the foundation of a Jewish foster home. Her advocacy was largely instrumental in the establishment of such a home in 1855. The claim has been disputed, but it has also been well sustained in an article entitled "The Original of Rebecca in Ivanhoe", which appeared in The Century Magazine, 1882, pp. 679–682.

Gratz never married. Among the marriage offers she received was one from a Gentile whom she loved but ultimately chose not to marry on account of her faith.

Her portrait was painted twice by the noted American artist Thomas Sully. One of those portraits (both are owned by the Rosenbach Museum) is on display at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Death Gratz died on August 27, 1869, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried at Mikveh Israel Cemetery. Shortly after her death, her brother Hyman founded and financed Gratz College, a teachers’ college in Philadelphia, in her memory.

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