The Jew; Being a Defence of Judaism Against All Adversaries, and Particularly Against the Insidious Attacks of Israel's Advocate. Edited by Solomon Henry Jackson

(AMERICAN JUDAICA

New York

1823-4

Vol. I, Nos. 1-6 (March-August, 1823). English interspersed with Hebrew

Rosenbach 258 (illustrated)

The First Jewish Periodical in America. Solomon Henry Jackson (d.1847), was the first Jewish printer in New York. In the years 1823-25, he edited (and mostly wrote) “The Jew,” an anti-missionary monthly in response to the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews (ASMCJ) who distributed a missionary periodical with the deceptive title of “Israel's Advocate.” Jackson perceived this as a threat against Jewish identity and attacked the Society’s motives and methods. Stated Jackson about the American Jewish community: “Not to defend our character as a people would be a dereliction of duty.”The idea of political equality clearly plays a strong role in the publication of "The Jew."In numerous places, Jackson claims his right to defend his Jewish beliefs is based upon his citizenship as an American. Material from Jackson's The Jew was later serialized by Isaac Leeser in his own periodical, The Occident. See L.P. Lerman, Solomon H. Jackson’s The Jew: A Contemporary American Jewish Response, in: Studies in Bibliography and Booklore (HUC) Vol XX (1998) pp. 43-53; A.J. Karp, Beginnings: Early American Judaica (1975), p. 38-40; L.J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995), pp. 44, 136-7, 280 n. 38;