Monis, Judah

Monis, Judah

(1683–1764) scholar; born in Algiers or Italy. Educated in Jewish schools in Europe, he became a free citizen in New York in 1715 or 1716. The first Jew to earn a degree from Harvard College, he was granted an M.A. there in 1720 on the basis of his draft of a Hebrew grammar, the first to be published in America (1735). He became a Christian convert in 1722 and afterward taught Hebrew at Harvard until 1760.