Auction 90 Fine Judaica Including: Printed Books, Manuscripts,  Graphic & Ceremonial Arts
Jul 21, 2020 (your local time)
USA
 Brooklyn Navy Yard: Building 77 Suite 1108 Brooklyn NY, 11205
The auction has ended

LOT 56:

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).
<<Isaac Leeser.>> Circular of the American Jewish Publication Society to the ...

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Sold for: $8,500
Start price:
$ 1,800
Estimated price:
$2,000 - $3,000
Auction house commission: 25%
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(AMERICAN JUDAICA).
<<Isaac Leeser.>> Circular of the American Jewish Publication Society to the Friends of Jewish Literature.



Single printed page, blue paper. Stamp and signature (twice) of William B. Hackenburg of Philadelphia (1837-1918, for bio, see Mayer Sulzberger, Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, no. 28 (1922) pp. 282-4).
Folio. Singerman 880 (three copies recorded).
Philadelphia: December 10th 1845
This is the document Isaac Leeser sent potential members seeking to form a Jewish Publication Society in America. It asks those who receive this circular to influence their friends and the members of synagogues in which they pray, in order to form local societies which will support the AJPS. The formation of ladies’ auxiliaries is called for as well, for “no good work can be perfect while their aid is absent.” The cost of joining is $1 annually, and the circular states that it hopes this call will produce between 1200 and 1500 subscribers. The circular identifies the “want of books illustrative of our blessed religion” as a “severe” problem in both America and England, particularly the lack of appropriate books which a parent can “safely place in the hands of his children.” Leeser does not state, but all would have understood, that he was concerned over the abundance of Christian children’s literature that Jewish parents were using to fill a void. The circular states that two members of the board of managers have already printed texts for Jewish children, a story called “Caleb Asher” and a reprint of Hyman Hurwitz’s “The Hebrew Tales.” The stated plan is to print eight such titles a year. “The want of books illustrative of our blessed religion has long since been severely felt both in England and America…It is the hope that our association may grow and labour successfully in the spread of the kingdom of our Heavenly Father…in this extensive country.”
This is the document Isaac Leeser sent potential members seeking to form a Jewish Publication Society in America. It asks those who receive this circular to influence their friends and the members of synagogues in which they pray, in order to form local societies which will support the AJPS. The formation of ladies’ auxiliaries is called for as well, for “no good work can be perfect while their aid is absent.” The cost of joining is $1 annually, and the circular states that it hopes this call will produce between 1200 and 1500 subscribers. The circular identifies the “want of books illustrative of our blessed religion” as a “severe” problem in both America and England, particularly the lack of appropriate books which a parent can “safely place in the hands of his children.” Leeser does not state, but all would have understood, that he was concerned over the abundance of Christian children’s literature that Jewish parents were using to fill a void. The circular states that two members of the board of managers have already printed texts for Jewish children, a story called “Caleb Asher” and a reprint of Hyman Hurwitz’s “The Hebrew Tales.” The stated plan is to print eight such titles a year. “The want of books illustrative of our blessed religion has long since been severely felt both in England and America…It is the hope that our association may grow and labour successfully in the spread of the kingdom of our Heavenly Father…in this extensive country.”

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