Schwarz, Joseph. A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine. Translated by Isaac Leeser. Illustrated With Maps and Numerous Engravings.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

C. Sherman

Philadelphia

1850

FIRSTAMERICAN EDITION AND FIRST EDITION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Frontispiece portrait of author, maps and engravings.

Singerman 1161; Rosenbach 683

The nineteenth century witnessed an unparalleled interest in the Holy Land due to new directions in Bible studies and the increasing popularity of visiting the land itself. This new interest was reflected in a growing body of literature, consisting of geographies and travelogues. One such work by a Jew was Joseph Schwarz’s Tevu’oth Ha'Aretz (See Lot 172). Schwarz visited America as a rabbinical emissary in 1849 and stayed with his brother Abraham (a resident of New York). While there, he arranged for Isaac Leeser to translate and publish his Tevu’oth Ha'Aretz, and it appeared the following year as Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine (See L. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism, p. 176). It was the first contribution to the subject by American Jews to the field and the “most important Jewish work published in America up to that time” (JE, XI, 119). Leeser was cognizant of the pioneering status of his work and he boasted: “The execution of the whole [book] … is the work of Jewish writers and artists, the drawings being executed by Mr. S. Shuster, a lithographer belonging to our nation.” The title page identifies the publisher as Abraham Hart, who financed the entire project (p. viii), but Leeser elsewhere stated that Schwartz’s brother was the publisher (Occident, vol. 7, p. 379). The present copy contains a label stating that the book was available for purchase from the brother. Leeser published the volume to “extend the knowledge of Palestine … and also to enkindle sympathy and kind acts for those of our brothers, who still cling to the soil of our ancestors.” The American edition contains additional material on the Lost Ten Tribes not in the Hebrew edition, as well as Leeser’s introduction. Some words in Hebrew type are interspersed in the text.