The Levi family were one of the prominent Jewish families that settled in Portsmouth in the late 1850s. Hannah and Louis Levi were the among the first in the family to settle in Portsmouth. The Levi family were influential in the foundation of the Beneh Abraham congregation. Louis Levi was one of the early congregation members who signed the articles of incorporation for Beneh Abraham. Louis and Hannah Levi like many of the early Jewish families immigrated to America from a German speaking region in Europe.