Eulogy in Commemoration of the Deceased Poetess, Minna Kleeberg.
Memorial to a Jewish Poet
[Judaica]. Kleeberg, Minna. Eulogy in Commemoration of the Deceased Poetess, Minna Kleeberg, Pronounced in the Temple of the Congregation “Mishkan Israel,” in New Haven, on the 11th Of January 1879, as a Tribute of His Love and Affection by Her Husband, Rev. Dr. L. Kleeberg, Rabbi of the Congregation. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor, 1879.
8vo.; brown printed wrappers; one small closed tear to spine; a very good copy of a fragile pamphlet.
First edition of a privately published and circulated memorial. This uncommon tribute to Minna Kleeberg, a 19th-century Jewish-American writer and activist, was written by her husband, a rabbi, and delivered at Kleeberg’s service. Minna Kleeberg was born in Germany, daughter of a doctor, “and was carefully trained by her father, early showing poetical taste. In 1862 she married Rev. Dr. L. Kleeberg, with whom she came to this country in 1866. Her poems soon attracted attention, and her efforts to repel anti-Semitic accusations gained general praise” (Appleton’s). In the eulogy, Kleeberg’s husband speaks movingly of her work and in particular of her efforts on behalf of Jewish women:
At my first interview with her, then a maiden of eighteen years, I was surprised and delighted at the development precocious of her mind and heart. The productions of German, French and English poets and thinkers, and above all, purely scientific works, were her dearest companions...She often expressed to me her regret that in consequence of her sex the doors were closed to higher academic culture and the practical expression of knowledge. Almost from her childhood she complained of the subordinate position which tradition and custom had assigned to woman. Upon her thirteenth birthday and the following Sabbath she shed bitter tears that she was not, like Jewish boys of her own age, entitled to take part in the public reading of the law, and by this rite be solemnly consecrated to the cause of Israel. Especially offensive to her was the formula designed for women in the old ritual: ‘God be praised that he has created me according to his will.’ Such a sentiment she was unwilling to utter.
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