(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

AUCTION 61 | Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic Art and Ceremonial Objects

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Lot 4

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

(Moses Lopez). A Lunar Calendar, of the Festivals and Other Days in the Year Observed by the Israelites…The whole of which having been carefully examined and corrected its utility has obtained the voluntary acknowledgment and approbation of Rev. Mr. Seixas, the respectable hazan of the K.K. Shearith Israel in New York. pp. (132). Ex-library, lightly browned. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, heavily rubbed, boards detached. 12mo. Singerman 163.

Newport: Printed at the Office of the Newport Mercury 1806

Est: $8,000 - $10,000

<<First Jewish Calendar printed in America. Examined and corrected by Hazan Gershom Mendes Seixas. Only the second book printed for American Jews.>> Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745–1816) was the minister of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York from 1768 to 1776 and again from 1784 to 1816. He was the first native-born Jewish minister in the United States. Aside from two published sermons, this calendar is his only work produced for the American Jewish Community. Among the supplementary material here is a table for determining “the Hour to commence the Sabbath, in the City of New-York,” which “may, with a small variation, answer well for all the Northern States of America.” Also included is a table listing the Torah and Haftarah readings for the Sabbaths and Festivals. See M. Satlow, Two Copies of a Printed Early American Jewish Calendar in Providence, in: Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 15, no. 3 (November 2009) pp. 416-25.