Falk, Joshua ben Mordecai Hakohen. Avnei Yehoshua [“Stones of Joshua”: Philosophical Commentary to the Ethics of the Fathers]

The First Rabbinical Text Published in America. The First Hebrew Book Printed in New York. The author, Joshua Falk, was well aware of the revolutionary aspect of issuing a work of Jewish scholarship - in Hebrew - in the New World. His preface urges people to buy this book in order to prove that Jewish works of this nature do indeed have an audience in America; consequently, more such rabbinic text will be printed in this country. The typsetter, Naphtali ben Cathriel Samuel of Thorn (Prussia), also recognized the book’s importance, viz. the colophon: “ I give thanks that it was my good fortune to be the typesetter of this scholarly book, the first of its kind in America.” The author bases much of his work on classic philosophical investigations culled from Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, Halevi’s Kuzari, Arama’s Akeidath Yitzhchak, Albo’s Ikarim and Aldabi’s Shevilei Emunah. Joshua Falk (1799-1864) a native of Poland, arrived in America in 1858 and served briefly as Rabbi in Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, New York. He died in the year of the book’s publication whilst visiting his daughter in Keokuk, Iowa. See A.J. Karp, From the End of the Earth: Judaic Treasures from the Library of Congress (1991) pp.316-7 (illustrated)