(Abraham NANSICH-HAMBURGER). Kuntress…Olam Chadash…Olam Haphuch ["A New World…An Upside Down World": commentary on the state of disbelief of English Jewry]

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

n.p.

London

1789

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographic border

Vinograd, London 123; Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 272; Roth, Kiryath Sepher XIV (1937/38), p. 104, no. 59

In this brief work, the Author expresses his anguish at the skepticism that has infected Anglo-Jewry. It seems Voltaire's Age of Reason made considerable inroads in the Jewish community, to the point where men saw "Moses as a legislator like other kings who write laws" (f.2r.). On a more practical level, we are painted a vivid picture of the process of acculturation into mainstream English society: the men's bare heads ("giluy rosh"), the powdered wigs ("epher tachath pe'er"), mixed dancing, comedies, etc. (f.7r.)