John Moss (Philadelphia)

Portrait of John Moss taken from Philadelphia and Her Merchants

John Moss (1771 in London, England[1] – 5 April 1847[1] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Jewish merchant, shipping magnate, and civic leader. He emigrated to the United States as a glass engraver from London.[2]: 184, 236 [3][4][5] Moss soon turned to other ventures after glass engraving proved insufficient to sustain a decent wage.[2]: 186  He opened a dry goods store in 1807 and soon became a major importer, eventually owning a small merchant fleet.[2]: 186  In 1823, he turned control of the business to his brothers and turned his attention to various civic enterprises. He was a founding member of the Musical Fund Society. He served as a steward of the Society of Sons of St. George a mutual-aid society for former Englishmen like himself and was a benefactor of the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum.[4] In 1825, he acted as judge of engraved glass during the Franklin Institute's second exposition of American craftsmanship.[2]: 349, 489  .In 1828 he entered into politics by being elected to the Philadelphia City Council's lower house, the Common Council, on the Jacksonian Democratic Party ticket. It was in this capacity that he played a role in the establishment of the Wills Eye Hospital.[2]: 328  Later in life he became a supporter of Isaac Leeser's American Jewish Publication Society. In 1840, in the wake of the Damascus Affair Moss led a protest committee from the city of Philadelphia.[4]

  1. ^ a b Moss, Lucien (1894). "Memoir of John Moss". Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. 4 (2): 171–174. JSTOR 43057422.
  2. ^ a b c d e Whiteman, Maxwell; Wolf, Edwin. II (1975). The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson. The Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 0-8276-0075-5.
  3. ^ Ritter, Abraham (1860). Philadelphia and Her Merchants. Philadelphia: Abraham Ritter. p. 162.
  4. ^ a b c Berenbaum, Michael (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit, USA: MacMillan Reference. p. 565.
  5. ^ Two sources cited, Merchants and Encyclopaedia Judaica list conflicting dates, 1793 and 1796 for Moss' arrival into America.