LEVY, MOSES

LEVY, MOSES (c. 1665–1728), New York merchant and landowner. Levy arrived from England sometime before 1695. In that year he was made a freeman of the city, enabling him to embark on a noteworthy mercantile career and became probably the most prominent and wealthiest New York Jew of the early 18th century. He was elected constable in 1719, but paid a fine rather than serve. President of the Jewish congregation of New York shortly before his death, Levy contributed to the building of Shearith Israel on Mill Street, but did not live to see its completion. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.R. Rosenbloom, Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews (1960), 94. (Leo Hershkowitz) LEVY, MOSES LEVY, MOSES (1757–1826), U.S. judge. Born in Philadelphia, Levy was the son of Samuel Levy, a Philadelphia merchant. In 1778 he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar, the first Jew to qualify as a lawyer in the United States. Levy became one of the outstanding lawyers of Philadelphia and was one of the defense counsel in the trial of Bache, editor of the anti-federalist Aurora for "libeling the President and the Executive Government   in a manner tending to excite sedition and opposition to the laws." From 1802 to 1806 he was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature and subsequently was a judge of the district court of Philadelphia. Levy acquired a considerable reputation in the legal profession and at one time was considered for the post of attorney general of the United States. When he died the members of the Philadelphia bar wore a black armband for 30 days. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H.S. Morais, Jews of Philadelphia (1894), index. (Julius J. Marcke)