Synagogue Seats

Barbados’s floundering economy and racial strife pushed many Jews north to the United States, including Isaac Lopez Brandon and his former enslaver’s son, Moses Lopez. Once a prosperous Bridgetown store owner, Moses Lopez struggled in the cold North, settling first in New York, where his children attended the synagogue’s school, before moving on to Newport and Philadelphia. He reinvented himself as a doctor and dentist, but without much success. Religiously, he also floundered. In Barbados, Moses Lopez had helped run the synagogue, but Philadelphia’s congregation repeatedly refused his requests to become a member. It wasn’t until his mother died and he could pay off his debts and donate a chair that the synagogue took him in. Isaac, on the other hand, had better luck. His father and family paved his way through charitable donations. While not free from racism, Philadelphia was a place that valued self-made men, and Isaac fit right in.