H. Polano. Selections from the Talmud. Being Specimens of the Contents of that Ancient Book, Its Commentaries, Teachings, Poetry, and Legends. Also Brief Sketches of the Men Who Made and Commented Upon It.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Sherman & Company

Phladelphia

1876

Singerman 2597

Polano taught Hebrew language and literature in Phladelphia at Cong. Mikveh Israel, the Hebrew Education Society and Maimonides College. Among his educational publications was Selections from the Talmud, which was the first American effort to translate the Talmud into English. See Max Whiteman, “Isaac Leeser and the Jews of Philadelphia,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 48.4 [June 1959], 240). “The object of the following pages is to give the student and general reader a fair idea of the contents of the Talmud. Some time since the translator was asked how it was that no English translation of the Talmud was in existence, and being convinced that many would be interested in its contents, he resolved upon the book which he now presents to the public” (p. v). The contents include both aggadah and legal material. See Henry S. Morais, The Jews of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1894), 65, 159, 188, 354.