The New York Spectator. [Twice-weekly newspaper]. Complete for the years 1824 and 1825. <<More than 200 issues>>, bound together in one volume.

Born into a family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry, Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851) was the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence. He was a person of many accomplishments: Lawyer, newspaper editor, playwright, diplomat, politician, judge and major activist for Jewish causes. Noah commanded the respect of four U. S. Presidents: Adams, Madison, Jefferson and Jackson. It has been said that to the Jews of his day he was the quintessential American and to Americans, he was the representative Jew. A firm believer in the cause of Jewish territorial independence, in 1825 Noah launched a scheme to establish a semi-autonomous Jewish colony he dubbed “Ararat” on Grand Island in the Niagara River near Buffalo. The attempt - which received wide publicity - was a dismal failure and Noah’s pretensions as ruler were ridiculed in the press. The volume here includes detailed reporting about the Ararat venture, including Noah’s extensive speech at the dedication ceremony (two full columns of newsprint, see issue 27th September 1825, pages 2-3). Also contains a lengthy two-column critique of Noah and his activities (see issue 21st October 1825, page 2). Other news-topics of interest in this large volume include: The commissioning of Lieut. Alfred Mordecai, the opening of the Erie Canal; President Jefferson’s final days; General Lafayette’s grand tour of the United States, etc. See J.D, Sarna, Jacksonian Jew: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah, and https://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarna/americanjewishcultureandscholarship/Archive5/TheRootsofArarat.pdf.