Bidspirit auction | (AMERICAN-JUDAICA). Schreiben eines deutschen Juden,

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA). Schreiben eines deutschen Juden, an den Praesidenten des Kongresses der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika [”Letter of a German Jew to the President of the Congress of the United States.”] In Deutsches Museum: Erster Band, Januar bis Junius, 1783, pp. 558-66. pp. (5), 574. Lightly foxed. Recent boards. 8vo. Leipzig Weygandschen Buchhandlung, 1783. American Colonization Proposal, 1783. THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO ENGINEER THE MIGRATION OF JEWS FROM EUROPE TO THE UNITED STATES.     Leopold Friedrich Guenther von Goeckingk write here that he received a letter from an unnamed Jew with a proposal to the President of the Continental Congress to permit two thousand Jewish families to immigrate to America and establish there a Jewish colony. The letter remains an enigma among historians as it is unclear whether it is fictitious or not. Some argue that it represents an actual attempt by German Jews to ameliorate their condition by starting a new life in distant America which promised them greater rights and more opportunities to make a living. One difficulty with this interpretation is that the letter refers to the emigration of 2,000 families, at a time when the total Jewish population of Prussia proper numbered only about 1,600 families. Furthermore, there is neither a record of this letter having been received by any branch of the United States government, nor is there any recorded discussion within the Jewish community concerning this colonization proposal. These and other difficulties have led scholars to conclude that the letter is fictitious and that it must be understood within the context of local contemporary debates about emancipation and the Jewish Question. Noting that the United States already “tolerates” Jews, the anonymous author of the letter casts the Jewish immigrants as potential colonists, who, if granted the proper privileges, would help promote American wealth and prosperity. Understood as such, the letter was thus a political plea to the German public. Presenting Jews as desirable colonists for the United States had the obvious function of highlighting their utility as domestic resources that the German states could conceivably lose to the United States. Thus, rather than continue the status quo which would propel Prussian Jews to more promising distant shores, instead, by emancipating its Jews, Prussia would be produce the necessary “revolution” in the Jews’ “entire way of thinking and living” and at the same time contribute to Prussian internal colonial expansion. See See A. J. Karp, Judaic Treasures from the Library of Congress (1991) pp. 226-7 and J. M. Hess, Germans, Jews, and the Claims of Modernity (2002) p. 44. Further research details available upon request.