Nathan the Wise. A Dramatic Poem of Five Acts by Lessing. Translated into English Prose by Dr. <<Isidor Kalisch.>>

First American edition of this fervent plea for religious tolerance. Prussian-born Isidor Kalisch (1816-86) was a reform rabbi who came to America in 1849. In 1850, was called to the Tifereth Israel congregation of Cleveland, Ohio, where he labored in the interest of the radical-reform element of Judaism. In 1855, the first conference of Reform rabbis was held in Cleveland and a ritual and common prayer-book “Minhag America” was agreed upon, which Kalisch edited together with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise.