Leeser Bible.
The Leeser Bible
The First English Translation of
the Complete Hebrew Bible
by a Jew
—
Rebecca Gratz’s Copy
[Gratz, Rebecca]. [Leeser, Isaac]. The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures: Carefully translated according to the Massoretic text, on the basis of the English version, after the best Jewish authorities; and supplied with short explanatory notes. By Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia: (1854).
4to.; contemporary full black morocco, stamped in gilt, with raised spine bands; a.e.g.; expertly re-hinged. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition of Leeser’s magnum opus: the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a Jew. In Leeser’s preface he wrote of his life-long ambition to do for his “fellow Hebrews who use the English as their vernacular, what had been done for the Germans by some of the most eminent minds…” That is, to present an Old Testament Bible in the people’s tongue which is unprejudiced against Jews. “They will be able to study a version of the Bible which has not been made by the authority of churches in which they have no confidence.” This task took Reverend Leeser over 15 years to complete and was published in stages beginning in 1845, with his translation of The Pentateuch, The Law of God.
A presentation copy, gifted by Lesser to Gratz and inscribed twice by Gratz, first with a notation of the gift, on the second blank: Rebecca Gratz from Rev’d Isaac Leeser, Translator and Compiler; and second, on the first blank, conveying the Bible to her niece, Sarah Gratz Moses Joseph: Sara Gratz Joseph from R.G. Sara was the daughter of Rachel Gratz and Solomon Moses. An additional signature stamp is found on the front endpaper.
This Bible profoundly links Rebecca Gratz to her friend and philanthropic co-worker Isaac Leeser. Published letters of Miss Gratz (1781-1869) mention Reverend Leeser often and with a great deal of affection and “possessed of a large fund of biblical knowledge” (September 8, 1829 ALS to sister-in-law). Neither of the two ever married but instead chose to dedicate their lives to the wellbeing and personal growth of their fellow Jews. Rebecca founded the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society as well as other social organizations. Leeser (1806-1868) was the first chazzan of Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia and the first to introduce a regular English sermon into the synagogue service. Their contributions to 19th American Jewry are numerous and extraordinary. Both were instrumental, even passionate about the role of education for Jews in America, and Leeser dedicated his Catechism for Younger Children in 1840 to “Miss Rebecca Gratz, Superintendent of the Sunday-School for Religious Instruction of Israelites in Philadelphia.”
The most significant relic of American Jewry we have encountered, linking two integral figures of American Jewish history through one of the great foundational texts of modern Jewish life in the United States.
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