A Jewish Founding Father? Alexander Hamilton’s Hidden Life

Andrew Porwancher / University of Oklahoma

At the Thousands of miles from the Old World, on a sun-kissed island Thousands of miles from the Old World, on a sun-kissed island in the West Indies, a young boy named Alexander Hamilton began a most unlikely journey in the 1750s. His meteoric rise from Caribbean obscurity to American founder has long captivated historians and, more recently, Broadway audiences. Yet one crucial aspect of Hamilton’s life has remained submerged for centuries: the weight of the evidence suggests that he was in fact Jewish.