“Abraham Mordecai-who, believing that the Indians were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. threw off the “yoke” of Jewish law, went native, and married an Indian girl- was actually the founding father of Montgomery, Alabama, cradle city of the Southern Confederacy.”

from Why are Jews Liberals by Norman Podhoretz

“Abraham (Abram Mordecai) settled in central Alabama by 1785 and established the state’s first cotton gin near Montgomery”. Jewish Virtual Library

“With the purging of Alabama’s native groups, more and more white settlers were struck with “Alabama Fever” and moved to Montgomery to take advantage of its strategic location on the Alabama River. By 1846, it was a thriving community and Mordecai’s original trading post became Alabama’s state capitol.”

“In 1847, Albert James Pickett a journalist from Montgomery, discovered Mordecai in a remote mountain cabin near Dudleyville. Mordecai in his old age had become increasingly eccentric, having built his own coffin on the floor next to his bed. Relishing the company of another human being, he told Pickett all about his life as a trader living among the strange, lost tribe of Israel. After that final interview, Mordecai died three years later at 99 years-old.He was buried in the coffin he built himself. The Montgomery Evening News proposed the construction of a monument to the Little Chief, who they deemed “the cradle rocker of Montgomery’s infancy.” The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a small plaque in Dudleyville that stands to this day.”

From The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

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