Leeser, Isaac (Ed.). Sidur Divrei Tzadikim. The Book of Daily Prayers for Every Day in the Year. According to the Custom of the German and Polish Jews.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

C. Sherman

Philadelphia

1848

FIRST EDITION. Inscription on front fly leaf: "Presented by the Rev. S.M. Isaacs, to Miss Maria Josephi." Dated in Hebrew: "Erev Yom Kippur [5]617 [i.e. 1856]." Paste-in rear of book announcing in English and Hebrew Jahrzeit of Father, July 27th, 1862. Contemporary blind-tooled red morocco, gilt extra, spine in compartments, in gilt lettering, front center, "Maria Josephi."

Vinograd, Philadelphia 18; Rosenbach 636; Singerman 1024; Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America 37

First Aschkenazi Prayer Book Printed in America. Prepared by the Champion of American Orthodoxy, Isaac Leeser. Leeser writes in his introduction that the Hebrew text is “chiefly after Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim’s celebrated Sapha Berurah.” The English translation is based upon “our modern German translators, generally Arnheim of Glogau, David Friedländer, and Mendelssohn, or from my own studies and previous version of the Portuguese Tephilla, in which I had generally followed David Levi.” Samuel Myer Isaacs (1804-1878) was the second rabbi in the United States to preach in English (the first being Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia). Isaacs arrived in New York from London in 1839. Samuel's father, Myer Isaacs, was a native of Leeuwarden, Holland, who after financial losses suffered in the Napoleonic Wars, emigrated to London. Of Myer's five sons, four became rabbis, serving in England, Australia and the United States. After an initial stint as rabbi of B'nai Jeshurun, Samuel M. Isaacs became Rabbi of New York's Shaaray Tefillah congregation. In 1857, Samuel and his son Myer founded the Jewish Messenger newspaper. Rev. S.M. Isaacs played a prominent role in American Jewish affairs, representing the Jewish community at official government functions. See JE, Vol. VI, p. 635.