Abstract
The life of Mordecai Noah is part of a larger story, one which might be titled "The Making of the American Jew." American Jews have become a unique community-different from other Americans, different from other Jews. The forces that shaped these American Jews were many of the same forces that shaped Mordecai Noah. To understand Noah is to begin to understand the process which transformed radically dissimilar Jews, from very different backgrounds, into the vibrant and creative American Jewish community it is today.