Philadelphia is full of firsts, and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History is celebrating one of the most surprising of them all. The First Salute, a landmark exhibition created for America’s 250th anniversary, is now open on Independence Mall through April 2027 — and it tells a joyful, high-seas story most visitors have never heard.
On November 16, 1776, the Dutch governor of St. Eustatius, a tiny Caribbean island nicknamed the “Golden Rock,” returned a cannon salute to the American brig Andrew Doria, which sailed into the harbor flying the Grand Union Flag and carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It was the first international recognition of the new United States. From that busy port, merchants — many of them Jewish — helped keep the Patriots supplied, and their island became an unlikely hero of the Revolution.
The star of the 4,500-square-foot show, the first in the museum’s new second-floor exhibition space, is a treasure making its mainland U.S. debut: a Hanukkah lamp made in Amsterdam in 1761 for the island’s Honen Dalim synagogue. It is believed to be the only intact ritual object surviving from that community, safeguarded for more than two centuries by the Jewish community of St. Thomas. Around it, visitors will find a model of the Andrew Doria, blue glass beads, an antique cannon shipped from St. Eustatius, and stories of resilience and religious liberty.
“Bringing it to Philadelphia lets visitors encounter that history as something tangible, human, and real,” says curator Dr. Josh Perelman. Happy City News recommends adding this untold chapter to your America 250 itinerary.
Photo: The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
