First Gemora printed in America! Chicago 1887. Yerushalmi Maseches Bikurim with the Bikurei Anavim & Pri Hillulim ...

First Gemora printed in America! Chicago 1887. Yerushalmi Maseches Bikurim with the Bikurei Anavim & Pri Hillulim commentaries.
Published in 1887, this was the first volume of the Talmud to be published in America. With a three-part commentary by R. Avrohom Eliezer Alperstein. In this first edition, the author extolled the virtues of the members of his congregation in Chicago. Apparently the author’s high opinion of his congregants did not last, as in the second edition, published in 1890, the author rewrote the introduction, referring to his members as “wild boars” and refers to America as a whole as an “Ama Reika”, an “an empty people”.
R. Avrohom Eliezer Alperstein (1853-1917), was born in Kobrin and studied under the RIDVaZ and the Beis HaLevi in Slutzk. He served as Rav in several communities in Lithuania including Slabodka, before immigrating to the United States in 1881. He initially settled in Chicago, but then moved to New York where he served as the first Rosh Yeshiva in the newly established Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon. Known as a tremendous Talmid Chochom, he was one of the founders of Agudas HaRabanim and served as its Vice president. He lived in terrible poverty, declining to get involved in the Kashrus “industry”, which he viewed as a disreputable business.
Goldman 568. Mishkin 8. 2, 48, 1 pages. 32 cm. Fine condition. Some damage to title page and final page. Modern binding.
The first volume of Talmud and the first Talmudic commentary printed in America.
Extremely scarce.
Opening bid $500