Ketubbah (marriage contract) between Abraham Alexander and Ann Sara Huguenin, 1785

A Charleston Love Story

An early member of the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina, Abraham Alexander (1743-1816) was a reader in the synagogue from 1764-1784. Just after this time, he married his second wife, Ann Sara Huguenin, a Huguenot (French Protestant), and later a convert to Judaism, likely before their wedding. Alexander also had an active life outside of the Jewish community. In addition to serving the synagogue, he served in the Revolutionary War, worked as a scribe, and worked for the government. He was also a founder of Scottish Rite Masonry, one of four Jews and nine men involved in its founding. This ketubbah (marriage contract) is signed in Hebrew by the groom (first line at the bottom) and two witnesses, and in English by two witnesses, Salomon Hanby and Israel Myers. Before the signatures, the last line of the Hebrew states that the entire document is "valid and binding." While this document shows that Alexander married another Jew, it was not quite as clear when his wife died (some time after her husband): her will requested burial in the Jewish cemetery, but due to some ceremonial omission in her conversion, her request was not carried out.