Morais, S[abato]. Address Delivered before the Managers and Pupils of the Hebrew Sunday School, on the Life and Character of Miss Rebecca Gratz, Its Founder and First Directress

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Collins, Printer, for the Hebrew Sunday School Society

Philadelphia

1869

FIRST EDITION. On title, inscription: “Mathilda I. Joseph, from [unintelligible], 1869.” On final blank, handwritten “Resolution passed by Managers of ‘Philadelphia Protestant Orphan Society.’ - ‘Resolved that on the death of Miss Gratz, the Managers deplore the loss of a beloved and venerated associate.’”

Singerman 2147

Rebecca Gratz, working hand in hand with Rev. Isaac Leeser, revolutionized Jewish education in America by establishing the institution of the Hebrew Sunday School. Her seemingly boundless love extended not only to the wards of the Jewish Foster Home (p. 9), but also to the charges of the Protestant Orphan Society, as we learn from the handwritten epitaph on the final blank. Miss Gratz never wed. Mathilda I[nez] Joseph (1854-?) of Montreal, Canada, was a great-niece of the much-lamented Rebecca Gratz, granddaughter of Rebecca’s younger sister Rachel. Mathilda’s mother, Sarah Gratz Joseph, was the daughter of Rachel Moses (nee Gratz). Sabato Morais (1823-1897), a native of Livorno, Italy, succeeded Isaac Leeser as hazzan of Mikveh Israel, in which capacity he served until his death 47 years later. Morais founded the Jewish Theological Serminary of America in 1887. EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 294-295