Seixas, Gershom Mendes (1746–1816)

US rabbi. Seixas was minister of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York for almost 50 years, 1768–1816. He was one of 13 ministers at George Washington's first inauguration and, in 1787, he became a trustee of Columbia College. He urged Jewish people to enter the mainstream of American society and was the first rabbi to preach sermons in English in an American synagogue.