Myer Myers won fame as an early American artist and as a patriot. His life was filled with battles with himself and for the freedom that was so important to him and to his people. He was thirteen in 1736, the oldest son of Solomon and Judith Myers who had come from Holland, two of the earliest Jewish settlers in the colony of New York. Solomon was a shopkeeper, but he wanted his sons to do whatever they thought was best. Myer found that he wanted ot be a silversmith, not easy in those days.

His adventures and dissapointments as a boy apprentice, his making of the beautiful silver Menorah-to be a symbol to him all his life- which saved him from being aressted by British troops as a spy during the Revolution are told wiht warmth and drama by Mr. Wise. Eventually, Myer became a very prominent member and officer of the Shearith Israel Congregation, the first synagogue in New York.

Many characters and exciting events are a part of this patriots's life, a life which shows, too, the story of New York as it changed from a busy seaport town to a commercial city, and America as it changed from a colony to a free nation.

From the dust jacket