Before there was a modern Israel (and before modern Zionism), there was … South Carolina. Two wealthy Sephardic families living in London—the DaCostas and the Salvadors—purchased 200,000 acres in what was then South Carolina’s frontier sometime in the 1730s or so. Their intent was for the land to become a refuge for poor Sephardic families then living in England. (The land was located in what is now the town of Ninety Six in Greenwood County.)

It wasn’t a crazy an idea—not too crazy anyway. Evidently, a small group of Sephardic Jews had settled in Savannah, Georgia in 1733, but had fled to Charleston when it looked like the Spaniards in Florida had designs on Georgia. The Spanish Inquisition was still in business then, so this was a prudent move. For most of the 18th as well as the early 19th century, South Carolina was the destination of choice for Jewish immigrants to America.

I haven’t been able to find much more on the homeland idea. Evidently, some Jewish settlers did come to the area that was known for a time as “Jews Land.” But I don’t think anyone would have classified Jews Land as a raging success.

[This is a fascinating bit of obscure history! Read on to find out more about the Jewish man to first hold public office in the US, and why he became briefly known as the Southern Paul Revere. — Ed]