Rev. J.M. De Solla. A Polemic Essay on the Prohibitory Law of Intermarriage with Mamzerim.

<<A rare and controversial tract.>> Jacob Mendes de Solla, Rabbi of Montego Bay here sanctions marriage to one borne of an adulterous union, arguing on the basis of the medieval exegete Judah ibn Bilam’s interpretation (as cited by Ibn Ezra to Zechariah IX, 6) that the term “mamzer” refers to peoples of antiquity and is no longer current in contemporary times. De Solla’s rabbinic colleague in Kingston, Moses N. Nathan (editor of First Fruits of the West), immediately penned a response upholding the traditional rabbinic interpretation of the term “mamzer.” This generally obtuse subject became current in Jamaica as a consequence of mixed unions, a result of the intermingling that commonly existed among the Jews and the native populace of the Caribbean. See J. Schorsch, Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (2004).