(Isaac Leeser, et al.) Persecution of the Jews in the East: Containing the Proceedings of a Meeting Held at the Synagogue Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia.

<<Isaac Leeser Denouncesthe Damascus blood-libel. A Scarce Pamphlet.>> “A very numerous and respectable meeting of the Israelites resident at Philadelphia was held… 27th August, 1840, to express their sympathy for their suffering brethren in Damascus, and to co-operate with their brethren in other parts of the world to ameliorate their situation.” The “foul accusations against our people,” were deplored, as was the resulting “unwarranted, cruel, and barbarous massacre.” Letters were read from the Jews of Damascus appealing to their co-religionists in Istanbul, and from the Jews of Istanbul appealing to Messrs. de Rothschild in London. These documents are reproduced in the present pamphlet, followed by Isaac Leeser’s address to the meeting and a variety of resolutions passed. Included are the subsequent correspondence of representatives from the Philadelphia meeting with President Martin van Buren (p. 26). The Damascus Affair represented for American Jews their first effort in creating a distinctive political agenda and the first time they became players in global Jewish diplomacy. (See H.R. Dinur, The Jews of the United States, 2006).