(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Despite the fact that he himself was a German Jew, and despite the fact that by his day the majority of new immigrants were of Aschkenazic descent, Isaac Leeser believed that the regnant rite in America should be Sephardic rather than Aschkenazic. See L.J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995), p. 158. Israel Baer Kursheedt (1766-1852) of Richmond, Virginia, was one of young Isaac Leeser’s first acquaintances in the United States. Kursheedt’s son Gershom and Leeser became fast friends, a friendship which persisted until Gershom Kursheedt’s death in 1863. Although not formally ordained, the elder Kursheedt, a former student of Rabbi Nathan Adler in Frankfurt, was regarded as the foremost expert in Jewish law in America during this early period. Ibid., pp. 41-2 FOR REFERENCE IN FUTURE: In the words of Leeser's biographer, "Without question, Siphthei Tzadikim was the most ambitious Judaica publishing project in America since Jews first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654" (Lance J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism [1995], p. 94)