Malachovsky, Hillel. K'thabim Basepher / Sketches and Letters from Jewish Life in America

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Magil Brothers

Philadelphia

1902

FIRST EDITION. Lacking frontispiece portrait. With Author's Hebrew inscription to Dr. A. Cowley

Goldman 1123

The Russian-born Malachovsky (1860-1943) served as the Principal of Harlem's Uptown Talmud Torah and contributed to and edited various Hebrew and Yiddish journals. In the present work, Malachovsky writes about Jewish life in various American cities in which he decries that even among the Orthodox it is common that on Sabbath morning the President of a synagogue prays with "fear and utmost devotion" following which he promptly departs for work (p. 73). Malachovsky compares his life as a Maskil in Russia and America in a sarcastic poem on p. 79: Whereas in Russia, when he studied Torah and Hebrew literature assiduously, he was considered a "Kofer"- an unbeliever, in America, although he has moved from the path of the Torah, he is considered a believer simply because he is not a supporter of the anarchists. See Y. Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America Vol. I (2006) p. 27