The Farmer’s Weekly Museum: New Hampshire and Vermont Journal.

Auction 90 | Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Arts

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Lot 51
(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

The Farmer’s Weekly Museum: New Hampshire and Vermont Journal.

Daily newspaper, including article representing an <<uncommonly early example of American proto-Zionism.>> 4 pages. Folio.

Walpole, NH: 4th March 1799

Est: $1,500 - $2,500
PRICE REALIZED $2,000
"It is time to resume our rank among the other nations of the universe… Oh my brethren! Let us rebuild the temple of Jerusalem! … Let us employ the means in our power to restore us to our country." Nahum Sokolow mentions this text (originally a 1798 French newspaper article) in his History of Zionism (p. 65), referring to its significance as "a Zionist program." Jeremy D. Popkin wrote about the same article as "the earliest known published Zionist manifesto," even though Popkin thought it was French disinformation. See his Zionism and the Enlightenment: The Letter of a Jew to his Brethren (1981). Yet even if Popkin is correct in his view, the mere fact that New Englanders of the Federalist era thought the subject newsworthy, would itself suffice to confer historical significance to this article, representing an uncommonly early American reaction to the notion of Jews rebuilding their homeland. <<Abstract transcript:>> “An account of a prior 1798 newspaper article published in Europe,"Letter of a Jew to his Brethren: A letter from an Italian Jew to his brethren, a translation of which is published in the English papers, seems to offer a new clue to the discovery of the subject for which Bonaparte and his army was dispatched to Egypt… An invincible nation, which now fills the world with her glory, has shown us what the love of country can perform… Let us implore her generosity -- request her assistance; and we may be assured that the philosophy which guides the chiefs of that sublime nation will induce them to give our demand a favorable reception… We are more than six million people, scattered over the fact of the earth. We possess immense riches. Let us employ the means in our power to restore us to our country. The moment is propitious, and to profit is our duty." The writer then proceeds to digest a plan to systemize operations so as to ensure success. For the purpose, Jews are to be divided into fifteen tribes:  The Italian, the Helvetic, the Hungarian, the Polish, the Russian, the Northern, the British, the Spanish, the Gallic, the Dutch, the Prussian, the German, the Turkish, the Asiasatic, and the African. Each of the tribes shall nominate a delegate, who together shall form a council, to hold its sittings in Paris, and whose decisions, shall have the force of law. "The country we propose to occupy shall include (liable to such arrangement as shall be agreeable to France), Lower Egypt, with the addition of a district of country which shall have for its limits a line running from Ptolemais or Saint John D'Acre to the Asphatic Lake or Dead Sea, and from the South Point of that Lake to the Red Sea. This position, which is the most advantageous in the world will render us, by the navigation of the Red Sea, masters of the commerce of India, Arabia and South and East of Africa. Assiana and Ethiopia, those two countries which furnished Solomon with so much gold and ivory, and so many precious stones, will trade the more willingly with us, that the greater part of their inhabitants still practice the Law of Moses.  The neighborhood of Aleppo and Damascus will facilitate our commerce with Persia; and by the Mediterranean we will communicate with Spain, France, Italy and the rest of Europe. Placed in the center of the world, our country will become the entrepot of all the world and precious productions of all the earth.” Transcription of the entire article available upon request.