Noah, Mordecai Manuel (1785–1851)

US playwright and journalist. Starting out as a reporter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Noah wrote several plays between 1802 and 1822. In 1813 he was sent to Tunis as consul to negotiate for the release of Americans held by pirates there. In 1817, he became editor of the National Advocate in New York. In 1825 he unsuccessfully tried to found a Jewish refuge on an island in the Niagara River. He was sheriff of New York (1822), surveyor of the Port of New York (1829), and an associate judge of the New York court of sessions (1841). He was founder and editor of several New York newspapers. Noah was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.