Carigal, Hayyim Isaac. A Sermon Preached at the Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island

First Jewish Sermon Preached and Printed in America. A landmark in the flowering of American-Judaica. Carigal, a native of Hebron, traveled through Europe and visited the Caribbean in 1761. He served as a rabbi in Curaçao for two years before returning to Europe. In 1772-1773 he visited Philadelphia, New York and Newport. While in America, Carrigal became friendly with Ezra Stiles, the president of Yale and a Hebrew scholar. The two discussed matters of Jewish learning, and they later corresponded with one another. Stiles was among the dignitaries who were present in the Newport synagogue during the Pentecost festival of 1773, when Carrigal delivered a forty-seven-minute-long sermon in Spanish (Ladino?). In the middle of the sermon, which dealt with the salvation of Israel, Carrigal paused to acknowledge Aaron Levy, the parnas (warden) of the congregation and a leading merchant-shipper. An English translation of the sermon by Abraham (Michael) Lopez, a former Marrano and a Newport merchant, was published in pamphlet form. It was the first Jewish sermon preached and printed in America. The present copy contains a curious ms. note by “J.H. Esq.”: “Tis said that this sermon was written and delivered in Hebrew, and that it was translated by the Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., afterwards President of Yale College.” See A.J. Karp, Beginnings: Early American Judaica, pp. 11-16; Lee M. Freedman, Rabbi Haim Isaac Carigal: His Newport Sermon and His Yale Portrait (1940)