Karigal) A Sermon Preached at the Synagogue, In Newport, RI, 1773.
[Judaica]. Karigal, Haijm Isaac. A Sermon Preached At The Synagogue, In Newport, Rhode Island, Called “The Salvation of Israel:“ On the Day of Pentecost, Or Feast of Weeks, The 6th day of the Month Sivan, The year of the Creation, 5333: Or, May 28, 1773. Being the Anniversary Of giving the Law at Mount Sinai: By the Venerable Hocham, The Learned Rabbi, Hiajm Isaac Karigal, Of the City of Hebron, near Jerusalem, In the Holy Land. Newport, Rhode Island: Printed and Sold by S. Southwick..., 1773.
8vo.; dis-bound; remnants of binding visible; small nick to last leaf, which is trimmed beneath the final paragraph of text; not affecting any text; contemporary owner’s signature; discreet notes on rear blank; lightly offset. In a quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition of the scarce first Jewish sermon printed in the United States, delivered by Rabbi Haijm Isaac Karigal to members of Newport, Rhode Island’s Congregation Jeshuath Israel.
Rhode Island was the first colony to extend equivalent financial and legal opportunities to Americans of Jewish background. Newport, founded in 1639, distinguished itself by serving as an ecumenical haven: its Code of Laws defined the Commonwealth as a “Democracie” and explicitly stated that “...Otherwise than thus what is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the name of his God” (UJE, Vol. 8, p. 213).
The Jewish settlement in Newport dates to 1658, when fifteen Jewish families emigrated from Barbados. The Barbadian Jews of Rhode Island were soon joined by Jews from elsewhere in the West Indies, from Spain, and from Portugal. Prominent among the latter were the Sephardic Lopez and Rivera families, who in 1759 provided the vision and initial funding to establish Newport’s first synagogue. Just prior to the American Revolution Newport was said to be home to more than 1,100 Jews, of whom roughly a third regularly attended services at the synagogue. These same Jewish residents were also central to Newport’s civic and municipal affairs. Wealthy and enterprising Jewish shipping families like the Lopezes were in large part responsible for the city’s emergence as a major commercial port.
As a port city with a strong Jewish population, Newport’s synagogue attracted its share of foreign dignitaries. Among the most distinguished of Newport’s religious tourists was Rabbi Isaac Karigal of Hebron, Palestine, who visited the city in the early 1770s on the invitation of Ezra Stiles, a learned Newport resident and non-Jewish Hebrew scholar who would later become a president of Yale University. In America Karigal had sought out the company of fellow Judaic scholars; it was through these circles that he became acquainted with Stiles, then a Newport-based Biblical student. The two struck up a correspondence in which they shared their interpretations of various Biblical quotes and passages. Their friendship was cemented in 1773, with Karigal’s visit to Rhode Island. Karigal, who was ordained as a rabbi at the tender age of 17, spent much of his religious life on the road: after serving as a substitute rabbi in Curaco, the Middle East, Europe, and England, he sailed for Jamaica, where he spent a turbulent year before departing for the New World.
The highlight of Karigal’s sojourn occurred in May 1773, when the rabbi delivered his historic remarks to members of Newport’s Congregation Jeshuath Israel. The sermon was originally delivered in Spanish to members of the predominantly Sephardic congregation. It was translated into English by Moses Lopez, scion of the prominent philanthropic family, and published by the Congregation, whose leaders were apparently well aware of its historic importance as a founding Judeo-American religious document.
An impressive, inspiring, and yet troubling testament to both the vital contributions of New England’s colonial Jewish community and to the ultimate disintegration of that community as a cohesive unit. The
Print Inquire
