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Moses Levy was the son of Eliahu Ha-Levi ibn Yuli (death circa 1800), a courtier and royal merchant, and his wife, Rachel, one of three wives in a plural marriage. The Ibn Yuli family were élite Sephardi Jews who served as court officials and advisers to the sultans of Morocco.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/799705796|title=Moses Levy of Florida Jewish Utopian and antebellum reformer|last=Auteur.|first=Monaco, C. S. (1950- ).,|date=cop. 2005|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|isbn=0807130958|oclc=799705796}}</ref>
In 1790 widespread atrocities directed against the Jewish community forced the family to flee to Gibraltar, where Moses Levy grew to young adulthood. At eighteen Levy—having dropped the Yuli surname—left the region for the [[Danish Virgin Islands]], where he established himself as a leading merchant and shipper in [[Charlotte Amalie]], St Thomas. In 1803 he married Hannah Abendanone (1786–1872), the daughter of a local merchant, David Abendanone, and his wife, Rachel. They had four children. The youngest, [[David Levy Yulee]], became a United Stated Senator from Florida. Moses Levy's firm of Levy and Benjamin pursued an extensive trade throughout the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe. Philip Benjamin, one of his partners, was the father of [[Judah P. Benjamin]], later a
Influenced by evangelical culture, in 1816 Levy underwent a spiritual epiphany, an event that was at least partially attributable to a rancorous and long-failing marriage. After a rare, formal divorce granted by the Danish king (1818) Levy abandoned a flourishing business in favor of a life devoted to what he called the 'sacred cause' of reform. His plans included an 'asylum' for Jews who were then suffering extensive abuse in post-Napoleonic Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/799705796|title=Moses Levy of Florida Jewish Utopian and antebellum reformer|last=Auteur.|first=Monaco, C. S. (1950- ).,|date=cop. 2005|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|isbn=0807130958|oclc=799705796}}</ref>
His colonization attempts in frontier East Florida, entirely self-funded, were beset by difficulties and in 1825 he departed for England, where he hoped to elicit support.
In London, Levy took on an activist role during 1827–8 and his writing and oratory became well known in the metropolis. His initial celebrity can be largely attributed to the enthusiastic backing of influential Christians—particularly the editors of the evangelical newspaper ''The World'' as well as the leadership of the Philo-Judaean Society. Philo-Judaeans were ostensibly devoted to the material and educational welfare of London's impoverished Jews but nevertheless
Levy's agenda for reform also included the gradual abolition of slavery and he frequently expounded the subject in England. His pamphlet ''A Plan for the Abolition of Slavery, Consistently with the Interests of All Parties Concerned'' (1828) was praised for addressing pragmatic issues that other abolitionists avoided. Despite the publication's anonymity Levy's authorship was well known in reform circles. His anti-slavery philosophy evolved from his background as a sugar planter in the New World—practical experience that few abolitionists could equal. From his perspective immediate emancipation would be calamitous since blacks were not only psychologically injured by slavery but were also hampered by illiteracy. Consequently Levy—an actual slave-owner in Florida—advocated universal education for slave children, a system that would stress reading, writing, and science fundamentals as well as farming skills. Freedom would be awarded at the age of twenty-one and each family would be given land for cultivation. Levy envisaged a 'united association' of philanthropic businesses that would put his tenets into practice.
Despite Levy's rather utopian outlook his ideas received wide recognition. The London ''Literary Chronicle'' recommended the pamphlet 'to the serious attention of the legislature and the public' (cited in ''The World'', 20 August 1828); ''The World'' devoted a lengthy column to the treatise, in which the author's 'great benevolence of soul, and deep and enlightened piety' (ibid., 9 July 1828) were particularly stressed; and a new anti-slavery society, organized at Salvador House, [[Bishopsgate]], London, took up Levy's far-ranging abolitionist creed.
Levy chaired a series of impassioned and much publicized
Upon his return to the slave-holding south, Levy curtailed his abolitionism. But other elements of his reform agenda could be safely broached, and from his residence in St Augustine, Florida, he led the first campaign for free education in public schools in the territory. His appointment as education commissioner by the governor (1831) reflected a growing acceptance of Levy's call to action. However, the onset of the Second Seminole War (1835) and the resultant devastation put an end to his reform career—as well as his Jewish communal farming settlement, Pilgrimage—and, in combination with legal challenges to his extensive land holdings, caused great economic hardship. By 1849 Levy had regained much of his former wealth after his claim to nearly 100,000 acres was validated by state and federal courts. Levy died while on a summer excursion to the White Sulphur Springs resort in Virginia on 7 September 1854. The youngest of his children, David L. Yulee (1810–1886), became the first Jew elected to the American senate, representing Florida.
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