The Occident and American Jewish Advocate. A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Diffusion of Jewish Knowledge. Edited by Isaac Leeser

Bertram W. Korn writes: “Quite aside from its usefulness as a historic record of the time, The Occident was the first instrumentality to give a sense of national belonging to the widely scattered children of Israel in the United States.” Korn, Isaac Leeser: Centennial Reflections, American Jewish Archives, Vol. XIX (1967), p. 136. In 1843, Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) founded the monthly The Occident, the first successful American Jewish newspaper. Leeser was its editor, chief contributor, bookkeeper, and sometimes even typesetter. For twenty-five years, this was an important forum for articles on Jewish life and thought. The volumes of The Occident are a treasure trove of Jewish history, both American and foreign. The present collection offers a good run of this important forum for the American Jewish community through the first seven years of its publication. See L.J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995), pp. 136-150