(STOKES, GEORGE). Jewish Nation; Containing an Account of Their Mannners and Customs, Rites and Worship, Laws and Polity. Revised by D.P. Kidder.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Joseph Longking

New York

1850

FIRST EDITION. With Numerous Illustrative Engravings. A few contemporary pictures: On p. 22, "Polish Jews"; on p. 232, "a Jewish priest at prayer, wearing the phylactery for the head"

Rosenbach 669; Singerman 1165

Traces Jewish history from Biblical times to present. According to Singerman, the book is a reworking of an earlier work by George Stokes, The Manners and Customs of the Jews, and Other Nations Mentioned in the Bible (Hartford, 1833). The two illustrations drawn from contemporary life convey well the image of the Jew in the popular imagination: the exotic Polish Jews with their broad-brimmed hats, long gabardines with sashes, and full beards, as opposed to the acculturated American rabbi, who though wearing tallith (prayer shawl) and tephillin (phylacteries), is dressed in conventional Western dress, with muttonchop sideburns, much in vogue at the time.