British officers were stunned to find the Declaration of Independence together with an unintelligible document – a Yiddish translation.

Just as the Torah is intended to be read aloud, a practice that continues in synagogues to this day, the Continental Congress ordered that copies of the Declaration be sent “to the several Assemblies, Conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several Commanding officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the Army.”   To facilitate these public readings, 200 broadsheet copies of the Declaration of Independence were printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on Thursday, July 4, By the next morning, copies were on their way to all 13 states by horseback.

Although the Jewish population of the British Empire was very small in 1776, one ardent patriot in Philadelphia, we do not know who, translated the document into Yiddish and handwrote his own broadside to explain to his family and Jewish community in Europe the dramatic events that were taking place in America. He sent his translation, along with a copy of Dunlap’s broadside, by packet mail (on a ship).  Unfortunately, the ship was seized by the British Navy. The intercepted envelopes were opened; British officers were perplexed by this unintelligible document packaged with the treasonous Declaration of Independence. Convinced that the rebelling colonists had devised an ingenious wartime code, they sent the Yiddish missive to the attention of code breakers at British military intelligence – where apparently it was never deciphered.

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The Regimental Brewmeister is preparing talks on the Jews of the American Revolution and looking for community groups who are interested in learning these stories. If you are interested in hosting this or one of my other talks, please let me know.

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