There is no way of determining exactly how many Jews were Tories, or loyalists, and how many were Whigs, or separatists. In a sense, the Revolution was also a civil war, which set family against family, friend against friend. The loyalist Jews, many from England, were grateful to England for the security it had offered them and found it difficult to take up arms against the mother country. The Jews from the Dutch Colonies and from Spain, who owed no such loyalty, found it easier to side with those in favor of separation. The majority of the Jews were, however, Whigs.
