Collection of Autograph Letters Signed, Manuscripts and related papers concerning Imber’s periodical “Uriel - A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Cabbalistic Science.”

Uriel was the first journal in America devoted to Kabbalah. Its editor, Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) famous for his "HaTikvah," adopted by the State of Israel as its national anthem, was also an occultist. He immigrated to the United States from Palestine, and by 1893, consumed with a Blavatskyan Theosophic fervor, sought to establish a society in Boston devoted to “Cabbalistic Science.” The present lot indicates how Imber joined with four other Bostonians imbued with similar passions and how they recruited finances and talent for their proposed publication. Although good reviews from both the Jewish and Gentile press were received, just two issues of Uriel were to appear. Causes for this early collapse is indicated in the lengthy letter that their primary financial backer wrote in which he repeatedly attacks Imber’s eccentric character as lacking in integrity.