Letter of Moses Mendelsohn to Deacon Lavater.
INSCRIBED BY REBECCA GRATZ TO HER NIECE
[Judaica] (Gratz, Rebecca.) Letter of Moses Mendelsohn [sic] to Deacon Lavater. New York:
J. Kingsland, 1821.
8vo.; 15 pages; salmon printed wrappers.
First editon of the first translation of Mendelssohn’s letter into English. Singerman 0337,
Rosenbach 214. A presentation copy, inscribed by Rebecca Gratz to her niece, Sara Graetz
Moses: Sara [ ]Moses / from her Aunt / R. Gratz / March [ ] 1836. Rebecca’s sister Rachel
married Solomon Moses, the son of Isaac Moses. Sara Moses was the mother of Henry Joseph of
Montreal. Gratz, who read Isaac Leeser’s translation of Mendelsohn’s Jerusalem in manuscript,
was familiar with his work, which she studied aggressively.
Moses Mendelssohn achieved fame and distinction as the father of the Jewish Haskalah or
Enlightenment, which entailed reconciling the Jewish religion with the broad universalist
principles of the European Enlightenment. Mendelssohn pioneered Jewish engagement in non-
Jewish intellectual life in Germany, embracing the philosophical project begun by Leibniz and
developed thereafter by Christian Wolff. Mendelssohn remained fathful to Orthodox Judaism, but
chellenged Jewish traditionalism by translating the Pentateuch into German and by generally
advocating the adoption of the High German language and other forms of acculturation into
German society. After the Swiss clergyman Johann Caspar Lavater challenged Mendelssohn to
convert to Christianity, Mendelssohn penned this reply, which silenced Lavater and earned
Mendelssohn much respect among Enlightenment intellectuals. Noteworty are Mendelssohn’s
pointed formulation of the disdvantages faced by Jews in Christian society and his measured
praise for the degree of toleration enjoyed by the small Jewish community in Frederick II’s
Prussia.
Books inscribed by Gratz are legitimately scarce; that this has an association with Isaac Lesser,
and is inscribed by Gratz to a female relation, makes it near perfect.
(#4657732)
Print Inquire