Weitzman Museum exhibit highlights Jewish contributions to the Revolutionary Era

To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (The Weitzman) will open a landmark semiquincentennial exhibition, and reveal its new special exhibition gallery, in April 2026.

The First Salute is an untold, high-stakes, true story sparked by two key moments on the high seas that tipped the scales of the American Revolution and its founding principles. Set against the backdrop of the tiny Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, this riveting tale explores how religious liberty, Jewish trade merchants, and the cruelty toward the Jewish community by a debt-ridden British admiral converged at a pivotal time in world history, and impacted the trajectory of the Revolutionary War.

Think Hamilton meets Pirates of the Caribbean. From Jewish expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, to secret shipments of gunpowder disguised as tea by a network of Jewish merchants in the Caribbean in the 18th century, this tale of resilience, ingenuity, survival, and the promise of freedom still resonates today.

This semiquincentennial exhibition will feature original films, rarely seen artifacts, storytelling, and an immersive video experience that situates visitors within three of the four original walls of St. Eustatius’s synagogue and Jewish cemetery that still stand today.

This exhibition expands the understanding of the American Revolution by including the greater Atlantic World, and illustrating the connections between North American and Caribbean Jewish communities, offering new insights into people and events that helped secure America’s independence.

“The First Salute reminds us that America’s strength lies in its enduring commitment to religious liberty,” said Dan Tadmor, President and CEO of The Weitzman. “Two hundred and fifty years after America’s founding, this exhibition connects historical events to present-day challenges. We hope that visitors walk away considering the roles of faith, community, and discrimination — in both historical and contemporary contexts.”

The Island Where It Happened

On November 16, 1776, St. Eustatius — a Caribbean island with a proportionally large population of Jewish merchants (25-30% of the island’s European population of about 1,000 people), drawn there by a culture of religious tolerance and economic freedom — became the first international entity to recognize the United States. This historical moment happened when the American brigantine Andrew Doria sailed (from Gloucester, N.J., just outside of Philadelphia) into the island’s busy harbor carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence and flying the Grand Union Flag. As was naval tradition, the ship fired its cannons as an announcement — 13 times for 13 new states.

The island’s Dutch governor, knowing full well his next action could spark a diplomatic crisis with Britain, responded with his own 11-time cannon salute, two fewer than he had received, in the traditional communication of welcome. 

This “first salute” was the first international recognition of the United States of America.

The Antisemitic Blunder that Cost the British the War

St. Eustatius was a crucial trading hub, where many Jewish merchants supplied American forces with gunpowder, often disguised as tea and rice. England sent Admiral George Brydges Rodney on a mission to halt trading; he called the island “more harmful to England than all the arms of its most potent enemies” and wrote that “had it not been for this infamous island, the American Revolution could not possibly have subsisted.”

But Rodney made a catastrophic blunder.

The debt-ridden admiral spent five months looting and plundering, with a cruel focus on the Jewish population – his forces literally stripped them of money and valuables and took 30 men from their families with no notice to be deported, jailed, or sent back to England to be charged with treason.

But, while in St. Eustatius Rodney missed the Battle of Fort Royal (1781), allowing the French fleet to sail north and blockade Yorktown, sealing Britain’s defeat. The rest is history.

It raises a striking question — did one man’s antisemitism and avarice help turn the tide of the American Revolution?

Read more here.