Levy Solomon (1748-1827)
MSA SC 3520-15267
Biography:
Born 1748 in America, possibly Pennsylvania. Son of Belah and Joseph Solomon (d. 1780), a London-based merchant who moved to America in the 1740s. Three siblings, Meyer (1740-1800); Isaac (1742-1798); and Shinah (1745-1822), the mother of Solomon Etting. Unmarried; no children. Died in Baltimore, Maryland, 1827.
Levy Solomon lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania until the 1780s. He moved to Baltimore between 1783 and 1786 and went into business with his brother Isaac. They were prominent and successful merchants in Baltimore, with a store located at Baltimore (Market) and Calvert streets. Politically, Solomon was a Federalist, at least during the 1790s. He contributed financially to the defense of Baltimore when the city was attacked by the British during the War of 1812. Solomon was also an important figure in Baltimore's early Jewish community. He and his nephew Solomon Etting purchased the land in Baltimore long used as the Jewish cemetery on behalf of the city's congregation in 1801. In the 1820's, Solomon was one of the prominent Jewish merchants who lobbied for the passage of the "Jew Bill," legislation to allow Jews to hold political office in Maryland. Solomon, Etting, and Jacob I. Cohen submitted a petition to the House of Delegates in January 1824 urging the legislature to remove the requirement that all elected officials in Maryland swear to "a belief in the Christian religion." Debate over the Jew Bill lasted for more than a decade, and the lobbying efforts of prominent businessmen from Baltimore's Jewish community made a significant contribution to its passing in 1826.
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