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. Prominent Jewish leader Isaac Harby, a forerunner of Reform Judaism, was moved to write, in a letter to Monroe, Later career Noah moved to New York, where he founded and edited The National Advocate, The New York Enquirer (later merged into the New York Courier and Enquirer), The Evening Star, and The Sunday Times newspapers. Noah was known to use his power as an editor of The National Advocate and law enforcement powers as a sheriff to personally shut down rival plays produced by black theater groups that drew attention and revenue away from his own productions, with some reports that the performers continued to recite their lines as they were dragged from the stage to their cells. In 1819, Noah's most successful play, She Would Be a Soldier, was produced. That play has since established Noah as America's first important Jewish writer. She Would Be a Soldier is now included in college level anthologies. In 1825, with virtually no support from anyone — not even his fellow Jews — in a precursor to modern Zionism, he tried to found a Jewish "refuge" at Grand Island in the Niagara River, to be called "Ararat," after Mount Ararat, the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark. He purchased land on Grand Island for $4.38 per acre to build a refuge for Jews of all nations. 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 also shared the belief, among various others, that some Native American "Indians" were from the Lost Tribes of Israel, on which he wrote the Discourse on the Evidences of the American Indians being the Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In his Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews, Noah proclaimed his faith that the Jews would return and rebuild their ancient homeland and called on America to take the lead in this endeavor. On September 2, 1825, soon after Noah's arrival in Buffalo from New York, thousands of Christians and a smattering of