Rebekah Hyneman. The Leper, and Other Poems.

Rebekah Hyneman was born in Philadelphia in 1816 to a Jewish father, Abraham Gumpertz and a Christian mother. Her marriage in 1835 to Jewish businessman Benjamin Hyneman intensified her feelings about Judaism. Her husband disappeared on a business trip in Texas after only five years of marriage, yet for the rest of her life Rebekah remained committed to “the faith of [her] adoption.” In 1845, Rebekah and her two sons, Elias Leon and Samuel, were formally converted to Judaism under the aegis of Rev. Isaac Leeser of Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia. Following her conversion, Rebekah regularly contributed religious poetry to Leeser’s landmark journal, The Occident, often promoting ideals of Jewish women’s behavior. Her devotion to Judaism is evident in much of her writing. “The Chosen,” for example, published in The Leper, articulates concern for Jews who forsake Judaism because of “temptations” and an “oppressor’s hand.”