CATECHISM FOR JEWISH CHILDREN: DESIGNED AS A RELIGIOUS MANUAL FOR HOUSE AND SCHOOL
Philadelphia; Printed by Sherman & Co. for Abraham de Sola, 1873. Item #42153
Fourth Edition. 5633. Original Cloth. 12mo. X, 134 pages. 19 cm. Third edition. Singerman 2342. Dedicated to Rebecca Gratz. In 1873, the same year this edition was published, the distributor Rabbi Abraham de Sola, “by invitation of President Ulysses S. Grant's administration…delivered the opening prayer for the United States Congress. The event was of significance, as De Sola [then a Canadian rabbi] was a British subject, and this was the first indication of a more friendly feeling between the United States and Great Britain after the dangerously strained relations that had been caused by the recently adjusted Alabama Claims. William Ewart Gladstone, then British Prime Minister, as well as Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, extended the thanks of the British government to De Sola. Abraham de Sola frequently visited the United States, and, through his pulpit addresses and numerous contributions to the press, became recognized there as one of the most powerful leaders of Orthodox Judaism, at a time of heightened tension between the Orthodox and Reform wings of the community. He was intimately associated with Isaac Leeser [the author of this work], Samuel Myer Isaacs, Bernhard Illowy, J. J. Lyons, and other traditionalist religious leaders, and on Leeser's death [in 1868] was invited to become successor to his pulpit; but this and many similar offers he declined. For twenty years he was a constant contributor to Leeser's Occident, and after the latter's death he purchased the copyrights and stereotype plates of his works and continued their publication,” for example, this work here (Wikipedia).This four edition also includes Leeser's Preface to Third edition in which he writes, “The favourable reception which this manual met with on its first appearance induced me to issue, in 5605, a second edition, differing scarcely from the first; […] About eleven years have now elapsed since this book was reissued; and, as it has by degrees found its way into many schools, I now present it in a manner more permanent than before, --the title slightly changed, and with such verbal corrections here and there as a careful revision has pointed out to be needed. The second edition had indeed not been exhausted by the public demand; but, a calamitous conflagration having destroyed the remainder of the same, a new supply had to be provided, to answer any demand which may be made for it; and it is to be hoped that the Catechism in its new form may be the means of an extended usefulness for many years to come. And, in this connection, I cannot avoid stating that it is a gratifying phenomenon that, notwithstanding the indifference which many express towards religion, there is a deep-seated feeling that something ought and must be done to enlighten the youthful mind. Therefore, if any event in my life can afford me some degree of satisfaction, it is the consciousness of having added one contribution, by this unpretending work, to satisfy the demand for information in the ways of the law of God. […] With these few words the Catechism is again offered to the indulgent kindness of the American and British Israelites, in the full hope that it may be of service to those for whose edification it was composed. ” Subjects: Jewish religious education. Jews - Education - United States. OCLC lists 6 copies. Jewish ex-library with minimal marks, pocket removed from rear blank pastedown, original gilt-titled spine and marbled boards are a bit rubbed but still very attractive, about Very Good- condition. (SPEC-40-1).
Price: $450.00