Bidspirit auction | (AMERICA). Friedman, Aharon Tzvi. Tuv

(AMERICA). Friedman, Aharon Tzvi. Tuv Ta’am [the necessity for Jews to maintain the laws of ritual slaughter]. Hebrew and some English. Three differing subtitles. pp. 6, 16, (2), 17-40, (2), 41-75, (2), 77-107, (1), 3. With additional orange wrapper (not noted by Goldman). Contemporary boards, rubbed. 8vo. Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America no. 1092. New York, M. Topolowsky, 1875. A Response to the First anti-Shechitah Campaign in America. In 1866 the first anti-Shechitah campaign in America was waged by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Henry Bergh, founding president of the Society, sent a letter to the proprietor of a kosher abattoir in New York accusing him of engaging in “barbarous, revolting, and wicked” practices. Bergh further called on him to desist from violating the laws of New York and of God by “mangl[ing] and tortur[ing] his creatures.” Aaron Friedman composed this pamphlet to refute Bergh’s accusations. He not only succeeded in silencing Bergh, but later, in 1885, Bergh even defended shechitah against charges of cruelty, leveled by the Philadelphia branch of his Society. “According to a family legend, the English translation of this work convinced President Ulysses S. Grant to eat only kosher meat” (Goldman). R. Aaron Friedman (1822-76), a native of Stavisk, Poland, served as Shochet, or ritual slaughterer, of his hometown before emigrating in 1848 to New York, where he was employed by one of the largest abattoirs in the country. On account of Friedman’s strict Orthodoxy and learning, he was known in some circles as the “Baal Shem of America.”