Kohut, Alexander & Kohut, George Alexander. Approximately eighty letters and documents, both of a scholarly and personal nature. Texts in English, Hebrew, German, and French. Along with a considerable archive of Autograph scholarly notes (see below).

AUCTION 80 | Thursday, March 28th, 2019 at 1:00 PM
The Valmadonna Trust Library: Further Selections from the Historic Collection. * Hebrew Printing in America. * Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 144
(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Kohut, Alexander & Kohut, George Alexander. Approximately eighty letters and documents, both of a scholarly and personal nature. Texts in English, Hebrew, German, and French. Along with a considerable archive of Autograph scholarly notes (see below).

1880’s-1930’s

Est: $3,000 - $5,000
PRICE REALIZED $7,500
The scholarship of Alexander Kohut (1842-94) and his son George Alexander Kohut (1874-1933) are well-known to students of the Talmud and American-Jewish history. Highlights of this collection include: <<*>> A resolution from Kohut’s Congregation Ahavath Chesed offering congratulations and appreciation for his Aruch HaShalem. The congregation grants him “a slight financial aid” of $1000 to defray the cost of publication of the 6th volume. <<*>> An order of 10 copies of the Aruch from the Berlin Ministry of Education. <<*>> A resolution of condolences upon the loss of Kohut’s wife Julie, from the New York Board of Jewish Ministers, signed by Kaufmann Kohler, Gustav Gottheil, and others. This document is beautifully calligraphed. <<*>> A letter on matters relating to the Aruch from Rabbi Solomon Bamberger. <<*>> Typescript and handwritten autograph copies of essays by George Alexander Kohut, including “Some Early Jewish Authors in America” and “Don Quixote in Jewish Literature.” <<*>> Seven autograph scholarly note cards on Isaac Lampronti’s Pachad Yitzchak. The younger Kohut was researching chocolate, vanilla, and all manner of information about America that could be gleaned from the 18th century Italian encylopaedic work. <<*>> Letters to George Alexander Kohut on scholarly, bibliographic, and personal matters from correspondents including David Yellin, Israel Davidson, Paul Haupt, Charles Duschinsky, Solomon Zeitlin, Nathan Porges, Bernard Drachman, etc. <<*>> Two letters from Bernhard Felsenthal, a scholarly mentor of the younger Kohut, who writes that “you are indeed an indefatigable and thorough worker in the field of Jewish Bibliography.” In response to a request for items by Judah Monis that were attainable in his city, Felsenthal writes of the 18th century professor of Hebrew at Harvard and apostate: there “is no historical value whatsoever” in them, and “such stuff was trashy 173 years ago [too].” Kohut had a more sophisticated scholarly sense than that, as his monograph “Judah Monis: First Instructor in Hebrew at Harvard University” shows. <<*>> Eight packets (each containing 100-200 pages) of George Alexander Kohut’s essays on Jews in the Americas; as well as his extensive, handsomely written research notes. Included is his unpublished “Ten Tribes of Israel in America-An Attempt at a Bibliography.”