Autograph Letter Signed. Congratulations conveyed to Michael Gratz from his brother Barnard Gratz, his wife Miriam Gratz, and their daughter Rebecca Gratz, on the birth of Michael and Miriam’s son, Benjamin

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

October 3rd

Philadelphia

1792

English with smattering of Yiddish. Address panel: “Mr. Michael Gratz, to the Care of Col. Henry Fry at the Moha[w]k River, Albany.” Postscript: “forward at Unidellah.”

See Stern, Americans of Jewish Descent, p. 64; Wolf and Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson (1957), pp. 36-37, 40-41

MICHAEL GRATZ'S WIFE, BROTHER AND DAUGHTER REBECCA, INFORM, AND SHARE DETAILS OF, THE BIRTH AND BRITH-MILAH OF A SON Evidently Michael Gratz had been absent from home for some time and here, his brother Barnard informs Michael of the birth of a son to Michael's wife, Miriam. Additionally, Barnard himself had just celebrated the birth of a daughter on Rosh Hashana, news he also conveys here. A second letter cojoined with the first is from Michael Gratz's wife, Miriam, who assures her husband (who had been travelling for four months) that she had "kept all the Mitzwoth in our own family,” and here provides details of the boy's Brith (circumcision) ceremony, however regrets that the letter her husband sent with instructions what to name the child arrived after the Brith had already taken place. Michael Gratz's daughter Rebecca provides a third letter, in which she offers her congratulations to her father on the increase in the family. She describes the month-old baby. “He looks about him and takes a good deal of notice, already.” The letter is signed: "R"(ebecca)