Saraval, Jacob Raphael. Viaggi in Olanda [Travels in Holland]

(TRAVEL)

Zatta

Venice

1807

FIRST EDITION. Text in Italian. Wide margins

Jacob Raphael Saraval (1707?- 1782) served as rabbi of Venice and later Mantua. During the 1760s and 1770s he often travelled through Holland and England on behalf of the Mantuan community. The present work is his travelogue. The book is divided into seven letters sent by the rabbi to a friend in Italy. The sixth letter, which focuses upon the Jews of Amsterdam, is of especial historical interest. He reports, for instance, that the German or Aschkenazic Jews number 35,000, while their Portuguese or Sephardic brethren 7,000 (p. 54). He also reveals that the annual salary of Chief Rabbi Salem is 5,000 florins (pp. 56-57). (Concerning Haham Salem, see M.H. Gans, Memorbook, p. 190.) See S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977), pp. 733-4; EJ, Vol. IV, col. 874 A side-note of interest: Apparently at the request of the Jews of England, Saraval translated into Hebrew, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio, "Esther."