Isaac Leeser. The Claims of the Jews to an Equality of Rights.

AUCTION 76 | Thursday, June 14th, 2018 at 3:00 PM
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Ceremonial & Graphic Art

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Lot 7
(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Isaac Leeser. The Claims of the Jews to an Equality of Rights.

<<FIRST EDITION.>> pp. 99. Modern morocco-backed marbled boards. 8vo. Singerman 745; Rosenbach 476.

Philadelphia: C. Sherman 1841

Est: $1,000 - $1,500
In his book “The Claims of the Jews to an Equality of Rights,” Rev. Isaac Leeser (1806-68) emerged as the national leader of American Jewry. The volume contains six essays which first appeared as a series of letters to the Philadelphia Gazette seeking to thwart the efforts of Christian missionaries. In his final missive, Leeser boldly wrote: “As citizens with equal rights, not as tolerated aliens, we demand of our fellow-citizens to abate the causeless prejudice which so many entertain for us” (p. 82). See L. J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995) pp. 106-7.