Henry Luria.
Rare Female Conversion Narrative
[Judaica]. Cohen, Mrs. S. J. Henry Luria; or, The Little Jewish Convert: A Memoir. New York: John F. Trow, Printer, 1860.
8vo.; a few pages lightly soiled; endpapers offset; red pebbled cloth stamped in blind in gilt, wear to extremities; two unobtrusive stains to front cover.
First edition of Cohen’s scarce, idiosyncratic memoir of conversion to Judaism, a mixed marriage, and a reconversion to Christianity; prints “Memoir of My Life” and “Henry Luria; or, The Little Jewish Convert: A Thrilling Narrative,” each with occasional poetry; a section of “fugitive pieces” of verse and reflection; and a section of letters. Henry Luria was published by Cohen’s pastor at the Press of Christ’s Church, Holly Springs, Mississippi, as an instructional tool for readers meditating on their faith and as an exposé of Jewish practices, many of which Cohen describes in detail. Little biographical information about S.J. Cohen can be found outside of these covers: In “Memoir of My Life,” Cohen narrates her life, from emigration from England to the States and the death of her parents until her marriage to her husband, the son of a Philadelphia rabbi. This section ends with several chapters exploring her “conviction and admiration of the Jewish ceremonials,” her initiation into her new faith and a description of the ceremonies themselves, and the “severe trials,” and “continuation of severe affliction” which occurred after her marriage when Cohen’s allegiance to Christianity proved ultimately too strong to suppress. The second half of the book recounts the “extraordinary” conversion from Judaism experienced by her youngest son, Henry Luria, a conversion Cohen claims to have taken to part in.
Cohen prefaces her publication—which she describes in her dedication as “a memoir abounding in the most thrilling facts connected with her life” during her “hours of affliction and trial, caused by domestic troubles arising out of a religious difference” —with some background material explaining the development of the work. Her letter to her pastor, the publisher of the book, the Reverend Rector of Christ’s Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, is comprised largely of detailed recollections which predate the events narrated, in an attempt to defend the accuracy of the memories recounted. Though the value of these passages is dubious at best, her statement of purpose is cogent: “let me hope that many of my young readers will be profited by my sufferings and example, and trace the hand of the Almighty, as I do, extended over me, through all the windings and deviousness of the path I trod, for I can trace his promises in all.” She also prints the reverend’s reply, in which he assesses the value of her work: “With careful revision it will be one of the most interesting works issued form the Press for many years. The light it throws upon the internal and domestic features of Isrealitish society in the United States, will present in a new aspect their customs, manners, and views in their ‘last dispersion.’”
Though it is clear from his letter that the Reverend’s greater interest was in Cohen’s insight into Jewish practices, she was grateful for the opportunity to tell her story and, in appreciation, dedicated the work to him. The pain Cohen experienced for her faith was continually acute: first in rejecting Christianity, then in attempting to suppress her return to it; in hiding it from her rabbinical husband and in revealing it; in denying it to her children and in witnessing her son’s seemingly divine conversion on his deathbed (Henry Luria eventually succumbed to scarlet fever); in the separation from her husband who, as a rabbi, could not publicly acknowledge a Christian wife nor tolerate any Christian education of his children; in the necessity that their children choose a parent (all but a single daughter remained with their mother). The examination of these struggles, told in a confessional format, provid
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