Judah Monis  Judah Monis (February 4, 1683April 25, 1764) was North America's first college instructor of the Hebrew language, teaching at Harvard College from 1722 to 1760, and authored the first Hebrew textbook published in North America. Monis was also the first Jew to receive a college degree in the American colonies. His conversion to Christianity made him a figure of some controversy to both Jews and Christians. Monis was born into a family of former Portuguese conversos in Italy or the Barbary States, and was educated at Jewish academies in Livorno, Italy and Amsterdam. Monis read for Jewish congregations in Jamaica and New York, and in roughly 1715, opened a small store in New York City, where he also began a second career teaching Hebrew to Jews and Christians, as well as a pastime of conducting discussions of theological topics, such as Kabbalah and the Holy Trinity with leading Christian authorities. On February 28 of the following year, Monis was declared a freeman of the city. Around 1720, he left the established Jewish community of New York and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where very few Jews lived at the time. At Harvard University in Cambridge Monis received his M.A. in 1720, marking the first time a Jew had received a college degree in the American colonies and to receive an Honorary degree. As part of his graduation, Monis wrote a Hebrew grammar, entitled "A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue", and in 1720 submitted a handwritten copy to the Harvard Corporation for its "judicious perusal." According to the general assumption that a scholar should be able to study the Bible in its original languages, all upperclassmen at Harvard were required to study Hebrew. A similar policy was to be instituted at Yale by Ezra Stiles later in the century. This was regarded as a difficult and unpleasant course, one reason for this being that there was no textbook available. On April 30, 1722, the corporation voted "That Mr. Judah Monis be approved instructor of the Hebrew Language," the first such position in America. He was also granted a salary of 50 pounds a year for two years. However, at that time, Harvard required all faculty to be professing Christians, and so Monis, the descendant of conversos, converted to Christianity a month before beginning his Harvard career. He was baptized in private in Harvard's College Hall and later in public. After the second baptism, Monis gave a speech in which he proved that Jesus Christ was the Messiah.