Leeser, Isaac. Letter to Gotthard Dellman Bernheim, copied in the hand of Solomon Nunes Carvalho. Text in English.

Christian missionary activity was one of the problems that American Jewish religious leadership faced in the 19th century. To the missionaries every convert counted, but all the more so when the convert was a rabbi. The misleadingly titled Jewish Chronicle, printed a notice that “Rabbi Markeson [sic] presided over a Jewish congregation in Montgomery… the Rabbi has publicly and boldly professed Christianity. It was done under circumstances exceedingly trying.” (The Jewish Chronicle (9:2) August 1852, p. 30). Marcuson, a recent immigrant from Bohemia who served as hazzan and shochet in Montgomery, AL, had been hired by the newly formed congregation Shaar Hashamayim in Pittsburgh, and this accusation arose. Marcuson apparently had conversations with missionaries on religious topics but he steadfastly denied he had agreed to be baptized. Marcuson’s congregants believed him and they and he met and corresponded with Leeser (in Yiddish) who was satisfied he was telling the truth. Leeser’s good opinion of Marcuson is apparent in a brief notice in The Occident a decade after these events: “Mr. M[arcuson] is certainly one of the first (leading) Talmudists in the country…we hope…that he may succeed in accomplishing much good for the cause of Israel” (The Occident (21:40) April, 1863).