This is a sample chapter from Spies, Kings & Exiles: True Stories. Remarkable People. The Jewish History You Were Never Taught. — now available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook.
The Jewish American Spy
The year is 1778. New York is occupied territory. British soldiers patrol the streets. A man who has already been arrested once by the British-and once sentenced to death-walks back into the city anyway. His cover is a brokerage business. His real work is feeding military intelligence to George Washington’s spy network. His name is Chaim Salomon.
Most Americans have never heard of him. Most Jews haven’t either. When people say “Jewish American spy,” they think of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who sold nuclear secrets to the Soviets, or of Jonathan Pollard. But Haym Salomon spied for America-and what he did went far beyond intelligence work. By the end of his life, he had helped finance an entire revolution.
The Jews of New Amsterdam
The first Jews arrived in North America in 1654, landing in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam-later renamed New York.
By around 1730, the Jews had built their first permanent shul and constituted approximately 2% of the population. Despite that, they controlled approximately 10% of the overseas trade, which is not necessarily unusual or surprising. However, when we juxtapose that to the following statistic, perhaps it’s somewhat more of a surprise. By 1776, at which time the Jews were approximately 1% of the population of New York, they were responsible for less than 1% of the overseas trade.
By then, Jews had put down roots. Under British rule, they faced no ghetto, little overt antisemitism, and access to most trades and professions. They had traded European precariousness for American possibility. Whatever their politics, nearly all of them were pro-New World-because the Old World had made its hostility plain enough.
Enter at this moment our hero, Chaim Salomon.
Sons of Liberty
Born in Poland in 1740, he was a descendant of Spanish and Portuguese refugees, as were numerous Jews in southern Poland. In his early years in Europe he traveled a lot, picking up several languages and an acute understanding of finance.
He made his way to America via London and arrived in New York around 1772 where he opened a brokerage firm. He housed this business on Broad Street for two years.
Although New York was the heart of British colonial occupation, Salomon cast his lot with the Sons of Liberty, the underground colonial patriots.
The Spy Network
On the fourth of July 1776, the 13 colonies declared their independence. With an army perpetually undermanned, undertrained and undersupplied, George Washington relied increasingly on his unseen weapon: a secret intelligence network. Throughout the war, Washington’s spies helped him make bold decisions that turned the tide of the conflict-and in some instances, even saved his life.
Washington’s spy network-the Culper Ring-was one of history’s great intelligence operations. Its members were merchants, tailors, and farmers, all operating under assumed names. Washington himself ran as Agent 711. The head of intelligence, Benjamin Tallmadge, created the Culper Code Book assigning ciphers to 763 words: 219 for “gun,” 701 for “woman.” Members also wrote in invisible ink-acidic fluids like lime juice or vinegar embedded between the lines of ordinary letters, revealed only by heat. A female agent known only as Agent 355 was among the network’s most effective operatives. According to the CIA, no American general-in-chief was more deeply involved in intelligence operations until Eisenhower in World War II.
One of those recruited was Chaim Salomon.
Sentenced to Death
In September 1776, Salomon was arrested by the British. He wasn’t spying on behalf of one country for another, because America did not exist yet as an independent country (except in the eyes of the colonials), which meant he was spying against his own country. That made him a traitor-for which the penalty was death.
The British, however, realized that they could use his grasp of languages for their cause. To house American prisoners, the Brits used about a dozen no longer seaworthy vessels-aboard whom about 10,000 Americans would die in captivity. They offered to commute Salomon’s death sentence if he would serve as interpreter. His language skills were needed because German troops (Hessian troops) were often the jailers on those prison ships. The English parliament had paid large sums of money to certain states in Germany to hire as mercenaries. Just under 30,000 German troops were under British command in North America at the time.
Salomon agreed to serve as interpreter and they commuted his death sentence. However, if he were forced to help the British he wasn’t about to do it without trying to aid the American cause, at least secretly.
As he went about his business with the Hessian soldiers he convinced many of them to come over to the side of the Americans. The number is said to be 500, but there is no way to truly know how many. What is known for certain is that Chaim Salomon was recruiting them.
Imprisonment and Escape… Again
He spent 18 months as interpreter and was eventually released.
He was rearrested in 1778 and sentenced to death (again). This time he was incarcerated in New York rather than on one of the prison ships.
On the August 11, he escaped. We do not have the precise details, but it is said that he bribed one of the jailers.
He escaped to the revolutionary capital of the time which was Philadelphia. There he would make his greatest contribution to the revolutionary course. Having risked his life so far, what greater contribution could he possibly make?
Financing a Revolution
Philadelphia was a port with a great deal of foreign trade. When the French consul learned of Salomon he made him the Paymaster General of the French army (i.e. the person in charge of finances, making sure his soldiers got paid).
At the time, beyond the battles between the British and the rebels, the Spanish and French were laying claims to a piece of the American pie. Eventually they would all band together against the British.
After a couple of years helping the French, the Americans desired his services. In 1781, Salomon was hired by Robert Morris, who had just been appointed by George Washington as the Superintendent of Finances of the new republic. It was Morris’ job to collect payment from the 13 colonies to help finance the revolution. The problem was that they were paying in tobacco or agricultural products or in hides and Morris needed cold cash. As a consequence, he turned to brokers, especially Salomon. Morris turned to Salmon more than 25 times. He recorded in his handwritten diary why-“I sent for Haym Salomon because his integrity preceded him.”
Besides his day job, Salomon contributed to the American cause by floating loans, contributing to needy soldiers, equipping military units and advancing money to several delegates of the newly-established Congress whose states had fallen behind in paying them. Some delegates were literally broke. James Madison, who would become the fourth president of the United States of America, recorded that he had been a pensioner for some time who depended on Salomon. Other needy delegates to whom Salomon lent sums of money-interest-free-were Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, respectively the third and fifth presidents of the United States. Salomon never asked for repayment. If they could afford to repay, he took the repayment but never pressed them on it.
It is reckoned that between 1781 and 1785, through fundraising and personal contribution, he raised $650,000-which in today’s money is probably about $1 billion dollars.
The Final Battle
But his greatest contribution came at the war’s most critical moment.
In the fall of 1781, the Americans had the British army under General Cornwallis surrounded at Yorktown, Virginia. If Washington could press the siege, the war was won. But there was a problem. The Continental Army had run out of money. No funds for weapons. No funds for uniforms or food. The men were holding position, but barely.
Washington contacted Robert Morris, his Superintendent of Finance. “I need $20,000,” he said. Morris replied that he didn’t have it.
Whether those exact words were spoken or not, what followed is not disputed. Within days, Salomon had raised the full $20,000-tens of millions in today’s money-from his own network of lenders and from his own funds. The siege held. Cornwallis surrendered. The Revolutionary War was over.
Early Demise
In January of 1785, Haym Salomon died suddenly and was buried in Philadelphia. He was only 44 years old. He had contracted tuberculosis while in a British prison. Although it had gone into remission, it came back and he died.
His estate held about third of a million dollars of confederate stocks and bonds, which would seem a comfortable legacy to be leaving to one’s family. Unfortunately, due to the failure of the government and private individuals to pay for the loans Salomon had floated, this money was only worth 10 cents on the dollar. But all of it was used to repay the country’s debts.
In the end, Chaim Salomon died financially bankrupt, leaving his young wife Rachel Franks and their four children destitute. The only thing they had was the furniture from their house.
Even after the US government was firmly established in the 1780s, and bills were presented to Congress to repay his family, they never passed. No compensation or adjustment was ever made. It is a stain on America’s public record.
Centuries later Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York set aside a Haym Salomon Day. In World War Two, the US ship SS Haym Salomon was named in his honor. On March 25, 1975, two centuries after his contribution, the US issued a commemorative stamp in tribute to Salomon. On the back of the stamp it reads, “Financial hero, businessman and broker Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.”
Legend and Legacy
According to folklore, or perhaps fact, arguably Haym Salomon’s greatest gift on behalf of the American Jewish community is in the back pocket of most Americans on the one dollar bill. There in plain daylight is the seal that represents the 13 states arranged into a hexagram-more commonly known to us as a Magen David. It said that when Washington asked Haym Salomon what reward he wanted for his contribution to the cause, he replied that he did not want a reward for himself but for his people.
Whether Haym Salomon actually said that is not known. It’s not in any of the official histories of the US Mint. It’s not even known what influence George Washington may have had on the creation of the dollar bill that bears his face. Still, it makes a good story.
Myth or not, Haym Salomon’s contribution is a model of Jewish patriotism. His story proved that Jews played a major role in America’s founding. Therefore, the legacy, life and contributions of Haym Salomon live on beyond his tragic early death and the fact that people tend to have forgotten him.
Salomon was part of a remarkable network of unlikely spies. Hercules Mulligan, a tailor in British-occupied New York, used his shop as a listening post-twice dispatching urgent messages that saved Washington’s life when British soldiers unwittingly revealed their plans while being fitted for coats. James Armistead, an enslaved African-American man in Virginia, posed as a runaway slave to infiltrate a British outpost, then fed the generals the intelligence that enabled the decisive blockade at Yorktown. His espionage helped end the war-and won him his freedom.
In the annals of the Revolutionary War, there are two instances in which high-profile spies were captured-one from each side. One was John Andre, mentioned above. The other was Nathan Hale, a Yale-educated cavalryman. Early in the war, when Washington knew that the British were going to attempt to sack New York City, he called for a spy behind enemy lines. Benjamin Tallmadge chose Hale, who was in New York posing as a Dutch schoolteacher looking for work. When the British captured the city, his identity was discovered.
Hale, just 21, was hanged on September 22, 1776. His last words were, reportedly, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
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