THE ETHICS OF THE FATHERS
New York: Publication Office of "The American Hebrew", 1885. Item #43467
1st Edition. Original purple boards, 8vo, vii, i, 5-188p. Singerman 3367.
Period Reform leader Rabbi Rudolph Grossman’s copy, with his ownership signature on the front endpaper.
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).
Rabbi Rudolph Grossman (1867-1927) “was an Austrian-born American rabbi….He became associate rabbi of Temple Beth-El in New York City, New York, in 1889. He worked there until 1896, when he became rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. From 1898 to 1900, he was Grand Chaplain of the Freemason Grand Lodge of New York. In 1902, he was corresponding secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis….
Grossman was vice-president and president of the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York, president of the Jewish Religious School Union of New York and the New York Board of Jewish Ministers, and a member of the Commission on Jewish Religious Literature.He was also the founder of the Beth-El Sisterhood, a member of the governing board of Hebrew Union College, and a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis….
Grossman died…on September 22, 1927. Over two thousand people attended his funeral in the West End Synagogue, with another five hundred standing outside the synagogue. The funeral service was conducted by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Grossman's former pupil, and Rabbi Nathan Stern, the West End Synagogue's rabbi.
The honorary pallbearers included Congregation Rodeph Sholom president Henry M. Goldfogle and other officials from the Congregation, Congregation trustees (including Irving J. Joseph), and several rabbis (including Nathan Stern, Stephen S. Wise, Barnett A. Elzas, Hyman G. Enelow, Israel Goldstein, Sidney Goldstein, Maurice H. Harris, Nathan Krass, Isaac Landman, Alexander Lyons, and Joseph Silverman). His funeral was also attended by New York Supreme Court Justice Aaron J. Levy, General Sessions Judge Otto A. Rosalsky, Joseph S. Rosalsky, and Magistrates Edward Weil and Louis B. Brodsky” (Wikipedia).
Singerman and OCLC-Worldcat together locate 7 copies in the US (AJHS, Yale, Cornell, NYPL, JTS, HUC, Penn), none south or west of Cincinnati.
Old dampstains to boards, endpages, and page margins. Small corner tear and light bowing to boards, one signature starting. Solid, about Good- Condition. An association copy of this important work in the history of the American Reform movement. (B) (KH-9-33A-D-'^).
Price: $500.00