SHEMA YISRAEL. THE SPIRIT OF JUDAISM. שמע ישראל
Philadelphia: Published at 1 Monroe Place [by Isaac Leeser], 1842. Item #42798
5602. 1st edition. Bound in attractive cloth, 12mo, 12, 255 pages. Rosenbach 488; Singerman 767.First edition of Grace Aguilar’s first major work and one of her few works to be published while she was alive.
Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) was the first Anglo-Jewish author to reach bestselling status. The Spirit of Judaism was highly praised by many Jewish and Christian readers alike and on both sides of the Atlantic. It was a popular teaching text in many synagogues, as well as in some Protestant churches, up until the 1950’s. In “Spirit of Judaism,” Aguilar pondered the meaning of the shema. She argued for English tolerance as well as for Jewish religious reform and called for a vernacular Bible translation (soon completed by this book’s editor, Isaac Leeser, in 1845). She also called for changes to Jewish childhood education and offered a new perspective on the spiritual requirements of women in general and in the Jewish world specifically.”
“On her own she was able to persuade Isaac Leeser, editor of The Occident, an American Jewish magazine, to publish…The Spirit of Judaism as the initial volume of a new series of books he was bringing out. The original manuscript was lost at sea, but Aguilar was able to recreate it from her notes, and it was published in 1842. When she received her copy, Aguilar was angry that Leeser had added a preface detailing his differences of opinion with Aguilar.
The book was nevertheless well-received, and Aguilar began publishing poems in small English journals” (Wikipedia).
Aguilar (1816-1847) did not live long, but her literary impact was far-reaching. After her father’s death, she began to write to make ends meet. “Spirit of Judaism” (1842) was followed in 1845 by “The Jewish Faith” and “Women of Israel.”
As a young lady of unusual talents, her writings had found an early champion in Isaac Leeser, who published her in early issues of his Occident. Meanwhile, she found acclaim in her native England, where her words could be read frequently in the Jewish Chronicle. Her short pieces and novels won her a broad audience with the general public. Among other themes, Aguilar wrote on Jewish women — a quite new literary topic. The quality and depth of her writing was a particular inspiration to young women.
“When she died in 1847 at the age of thirty-one, Grace Aguilar enjoyed a reputation as a poet, historical romance writer, domestic novelist, Jewish emancipator, religious reformer, educator, social historian, theologian, and liturgist. A Jewish woman in Victorian England, Aguilar produced a body of work that appealed to both Jews and Christians, women and men, religious traditionalists and reformers.
Distributed throughout the British Empire, Europe, and the United States, her books—which record the ambivalent encounter of a British minority with the majority culture—were translated into French, German, and Hebrew. She developed new and hybrid literary genres, helped to build the Anglo-Jewish subculture, advocated Jews’ emancipation in the Victorian world, and insisted on women’s emancipation in the Jewish world” (Michael Galchinsky).
The first female Anglo-Jewish writers—”including Grace Aguilar, the first bestselling Anglo-Jewish author—were motivated to publish positive depictions of Jews in response to antisemitism and Christian conversionist campaigns….
Grace Aguilar, known in her time as a poet, historical romance writer, domestic novelist, Jewish emancipator, religious reformer, educator, social historian, theologian and liturgist.The romance and domestic fiction of the novelist, poet, and devotional writer Grace Aguilar remained popular among Victorian readers throughout the century, although most of her literary successes were posthumous. Aguilar’s work included fiction and poetry for the general woman reader as well as works specifically addressing a Jewish audience and Jewish questions. She was also a prolific poet, publishing in Anglo-Jewish periodicals as well as in the American Jewish journal The Occident….
Of Sephardic descent….Aguilar’s work was published during the time that Jews were campaigning for political emancipation and her fiction can be seen as part of the effort to portray Jews as loyal Englishmen and women worthy of equal civil rights” (Nadia Valman in Jewish Women’s Archive).Galchinsky (1997) notes that in her short life, Aguilar became one of the most prolific women writers, and “the most prominent spokesperson for English Jews” in Victorian London. Several of her publications sold as many as Dickens’ and were still republished many years after her death….
Her essays on Judaism and the education of women granted her international recognition to the point that the Aguilar branch of the New York Public Library in East Harlem is named after her. Aguilar advocated for a new form of Anglo-Jewish practice or Liberal Judaism and was a leading force in the establishment of Jewish women’s institutions and literary communities. Her death at the age of 31 was mourned by Christians and Jews and tributes appeared in the press in London and Philadelphia….
Grace Aguilar’s work as a writer and as an educator was celebrated by contemporary Jewish women who admired the fact that it fell upon a woman to be ‘the public advocate of the faith of Israel’ (Lask Abrahams 1951). She fostered literary and philanthropic associations and contributed to other women’s projects such as Charlotte Montefiore’s Cheap Jewish Library and Abigail Lindo’s lexicographical work. She was the inspiration for Marion Hartog's Jewish Sabbath Journal (1855), the first Jewish women's periodical published in modern times” (East End Women’s Museum).For more on Aguilar see:
Galchinsky, M., 1997. Modern Jewish Women’s dilemmas: Gace Aguilar’s Bargains. Literature and Theology. Vol 11, n. 1, March 1997.
Jewish Virtual Library. Grace Aguilar, 1816-1847.https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/grace-aguilar
Lask Abrahams, B., 1951. Grace Aguilar: A Centenary Tribute. Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England), 1945-1951, Vol. 16 (1945-1951), pp. 137-148. Jewish Historical Society of England: http://www.jstor.com/stable/2977786
Our colleague offers a copy for sale online for $2400.
OCLC: 7332583. Period female reader’s ink notations in what appears to be an early 19th Century female hand on blank endpapers, noting, for example, the pages on which the “Duties of home” are discussed and, on the final blank page, a weekly calendar indicating when a series of school “lessons are to be prepared at hom[e] for the days on which they are to be recidet [sic]...” Owner’s name penned (“G.L. Hackenburg”) penned in top margin of books dedication page, an attractive clean copy bound in modern cloth. (AMR-69-4-DOL-’bexjj).
Price: $2,000.00