One of the first documented Jewish immigrants who came to New Orleans was Isaac Monsanto, a Sephardic Jew from the Netherlands, in 1758. He quickly established himself as a wealthy merchant by playing a critical role in the establishment of the New Orleans slave trade. However, he also engaged in various other business ventures, “including handkerchiefs, guns, canvas, lumber, cordage, indigo, sugar, limes, and skins…[and] at one time he served as official translator for the Supreme Court of Louisiana” (Friedman, 2000). Monsanto’s success and accumulation of wealth encouraged the immigration of other members of his family as well as other Jews from various cities throughout Europe. Nevertheless, there were few, if any, practicing Jews in colonial New Orleans (including the Monsanto family). Many of these early Jewish settlers intermarried and failed to ever build a temple or center of Jewish life in the city (Institute of Southern Jewish Life). So, although there were Jews in New Orleans during this time period, there was an absence of organized Judaism.
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