THE ETHICS OF THE FATHERS
New York: Publication Office of, 1885. Item #41134
1st Edition. Original purple boards, 8vo, vii, i, 5-188p. Singerman 3367. Commentary on the Pirkei Avot by one of the leading Reform rabbis of the 19th Century. In English tranlsation, but also includes "Beth Elohim" (pp. [171]-88) in German.
"By Rev Alexander Kohut, Rabbi Of The Congragtion Ahawath Chesed."
A series of lectures on Ethics of the Fathers, the first part of which was printed in book form (New York, 1885) [i.e. this work], clearly established his respected conservatism in what became known as the “Kohler-Kohut Controversy” which many scholars see as the central reason for the calling of the Pittsburgh Conference that same year.
Alexander Kohut (1842-1894) "was a rabbi and orientalist from a poor Hungarian rabbinic family that could not even afford to send young Alexander son to the village school. There being no Hebrew school (cheder) in his native town, Alexander reached his eighth year without having learned even the rudiments of Hebrew or Hungarian. At a very tender age, while selling his mother's tarts in the marketplace, he was kidnapped by Gipsies, because of his extraordinary beauty.
Much later, in 1885, after earning his rabbinic diploma and a Ph.D Later, Kohut was appointed as rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New York. His arrival in the U.S. was the signal for rallying the conservative forces of American Jewry; and it was not long before he was bitterly assailed by the radical wing of the Reform movement" (JE 1905. See also Walter Jacob, “The Changing World of Reform Judaism: The Pittsburgh Platform in Retrospect,” 1985).
Singerman and OCLC-Worldcat together locate 7 copies in the US (AJHS, Yale, Cornell, NYPL, JTS, HUC, Penn), none south or west of Cincinnati.
An important work in the history of the Reform movement in the US. YMHA library marikings on front and rear blank endpapers, all text pages clean and Very Good Condition. A Very Nice Copy. (SBK) (KH-9-33-D).
Price: $1,000.00