Mordecai Sheftall

Mordecai Sheftall was a merchant, landowner, and leading Jewish citizen of Savannah, Georgia. He was supporter of the American revolutionary cause, and was chairman of his parish committee, which seized British imports and records.

Mordecai inherited and enlarged his father’s mercantile enterprises and land holdings. He was active in Savannah’s Jewish community, and was a founding subscriber to Congregation Mickve Israel in Savannah and has provided the community with land for its first Jewish cemetery.

Sheftall joined the Continental army when the American War of Independence broke out and was appointed Commissary General of Purchases and Issues to the Georgia militia in 1777. He was responsible for supplying the colony's soldiers with food, clothing and materiel and often spent his own money to purchase supplies for the volunteers. In 1778 Mordecai and his son were captured by the British and were imprisoned until the spring of 1780. During imprisonment they refused to provide information about the American's sources of supplies and to renounce the patriot cause. In 1780 Mordecai headed for Philadelphia where he helped fund a new synagogue for Congregation Mikve Israel. After the war, in 1783, Mordecai returned with his wife and children to Savannah, where the state of Georgia granted him several hundred acres of land in recognition of his sacrifices on behalf of independence.