Portrait of Abigaill Franks (1696–1756).
Born in London, as a young girl Abigaill Levy immigrated with her parents to New York City. In 1712, she married Jacob Franks, with whom she would have nine children. Despite his Ashkenazic family background, they were welcomed as honored members at New York’s Sephardic synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel. The thirty-five letters that survive from her correspondence with her son Naphtali in England, written between 1733 and 1748, are the earliest surviving letters of a Jewish woman from the New World, and one of the few autobiographical pieces written by a woman from this period.
Credits
© Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2005.8. Photography by Dwight Primiano.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
Circumcision for a Sephardic family in Amsterdam
The Present State of the Jews: On Circumcision
Vave ha-‘amudim (Hooks of the Columns)
Nursery Rhymes
These traditional Kurdish Jewish nursery rhymes are a window into the daily rituals and folk life of the community.
Silk Bag for Eruv Bread
Letter to Her Son
Related Guide
Early Modern Rabbis and Intellectuals on the Move
Carrying books and knowledge, itinerant rabbis and scholars traveled between communities, facilitating cultural exchange.
Related Guide
Early Modern Religious Practices
Early modern Jews both preserved tradition and innovated. Documents and legal texts reveal rich details about synagogue life, marriage, family relations, and death rituals.
You may also like
Circumcision for a Sephardic family in Amsterdam
The Present State of the Jews: On Circumcision
Vave ha-‘amudim (Hooks of the Columns)
Nursery Rhymes
These traditional Kurdish Jewish nursery rhymes are a window into the daily rituals and folk life of the community.
Silk Bag for Eruv Bread