Mordecai Manuel Noah (July 14, 1785, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – May 22, 1851, New York) was an American sheriff, playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian.

[1] He was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the early 19th century,[2] and the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence.

As the best-known American Jew of his time, Noah in 1840 delivered the principal address at a meeting at B’nai Jeshurun in New York protesting the Damascus Affair.

The lack of a response worried Noah, as he was concerned that his removal would set a precedent that would block Jews from holding publicly elected or officially granted offices within the United States in the future.

Noah protested and gained letters from John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison supporting church-state separation and tolerance for Jews.

[9] Prominent Jewish leader Isaac Harby, a forerunner of Reform Judaism, was moved to write, in a letter to Monroe, [Jews] are by no means to be considered as a religious sect, tolerated by the government.

[13] He had brought with him a cornerstone which read "Ararat, a City of Refuge for the Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the Month of Tizri, 5586 (Sept. 1825) & in the 50th Year of American Independence.

Noah led a large procession headed by Masons, a New York militia company, and municipal leaders to St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

[18] Here, there was a brief ceremony — including a singing of the psalms in Hebrew — the cornerstone was laid on the communion table, and the new proclamation establishing the refuge was read.