KOL YA’AKOV. KOUL JACOB IN DEFENCE OF THE JEWISH RELIGION: CONTAINING THE ARGUMENTS OF THE REV. C.F. FREY, ONE OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE LONDON SOCIETY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS, AND ANSWERS THERETO קול יעקב
New-York: Re-printed: For John Reid, Bookseller, 1816. Item #43452
First American edition. Original Boards. 8vo. 79 pages. 23 cm. In English, with some Hebrew. Singerman 0260.
Copy belonging to Simon Gratz (1773-1839) with his signature and date (1817, the year after publication) on the front end paper and on the title page. The signature matches examples of his signature which can be seen online at
www.kaplancollection.org/item/deed-simon-gratz-to-james-duncan-and-2b696467
The book then bears the donation bookplate of another, later “Simon Gratz, esq,” (1837-1925) who was a prominent 19th-century Philadelphia lawyer, educator, and civic leader. The bookplate is from Gratz College, which the later Simon Gratz helped found.
Nikelsburger takes on an apostate Jew, Rev. Frey, who is intent on converting his former coreligionists to Christianity. In his opening letter to Frey Nikelsburger does not hold back: “In your eagerness to convert the Jews to your way of thinking, you make no scruples of converting and perverting the prophets, by turning their words to a meaning, which you conceive to be best adapted to your purpose; and, in doing this, you make them not only flatly contradict each other, but themselves also.”
"For American Jews, Koul Jacob seemed an appropriate answer to Frey [a Jewish convert to Christianity] who had resumed his missionary activities shortly after his arrival in America. It was a well-tempered but firm refutation of Frey's arguments. Moreover, its author was an English Jew, and if American Christians were to take offense at it, its European authorship distanced American Jews from it" (Berlin, G. Defending the Faith… Albany: SUNY, 1979).
"Simon Gratz (1773-1839) and Hyman Gratz (1776-1857) inherited their father's business. Their store was at the Graff House (7th & Market) where Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Both Simon and Hyman Gratz were treasurers of Mikveh Israel. They were among the founders of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Simon served in the Pennsylvania Volunteers during the war of 1812." (www.ushistory.org/mikvehisrael)
Simon Gratz' sister was Rebecca Gratz (1781-1869), the founder of the first Jewish Sunday school in America, and who was also "said to have been the model of Rebecca, the daughter of the Jewish merchant Isaac of York, who is the heroine in the novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. Scott's attention had been drawn to Gratz's character by Washington Irving, who was a close friend of the Gratz family" (Wikipeida).
In addition, Simon Gratz was a participant in the famous US Supreme Court real estate case of 1848, Gratz Vs. Cohen (see: Solis-Cohen, J. “A FAMOUS FAMILY FIGHT ABOUT REAL ESTATE: GRATZ VS. COHEN.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, no. 37 (1947): 345–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43058341 ).
OCLC: 5192299A copy with no special assocation sold for $1000 (with commissions) at auction in 2005. Rear board detached, light wear to boards, some staining, nice copy. Good+ Condition. (RAB-58-16-MLDB).
Price: $1,200.00