(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).
Joseph Samuel Christian Frederick Frey. Preaching ...

Joseph Samuel Christian Frederick Frey. Preaching Contract with the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews.
pp. (4). With handwritten date and contract fields on p. 1 (“Friday, July 2,” “Sabbath afternoon or evening,” etc.) And on p. 4: manuscript address: Rev. David D. Field, Stockbridge, (Massachusetts) and postmarks. Creased at folds. Minor tear and paper loss on p. 3 affecting 3 or 4 words, that paper being adhered to the remains of wax seal on p. 4. 8vo.

May 25th-June 2nd, New York: 1824.

Correspondence with Rev. Frey relating to preaching and public collections in churches in New England and New York to promote the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews.
     Born into an observant Jewish family in Germany, Joseph Levi (1771-1850) studied to be a rabbi but in 1799 converted to Christianity. Thereupon he assumed the surname Frey and embarked on a career as a Christian missionary to the Jews, first in Europe and from 1816, in the United States.
     In addition to the preaching appointment and contract on the front page of this document, the inside pages of this bifolio tell a remarkable tale. Frey, inspired by letters he received from another converted Jew, undertook to attempt to create a settlement, to be populated exclusively by Jewish converts to Christianity. In order to accomplish this goal, Frey formed his own organization devoted to the “colonizing and evangelizing” of the Jews. By his own account, he had, in the span of four years formed upwards of two hundred auxiliary societies dedicated to his cause and raised some $8,000. His attempts at raising funds from Christians to support his efforts at missionizing among the Jews were complicated by the charges of embezzlement and malfeasance that followed him from Europe to the New World. Through his own full-throated protestations of innocence and the accumulation of numerous attestations of character from fellow Christian pastors, Frey managed to continue his missionary work throughout his life.