(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH. Letters to the Jews; Inviting Them to an Amicable Discussion of the Evidences of Christianity [conversionist polemic]. FIRST EDITION. pp. (4), 54, (2). Birmingham, 1786. * BOUND WITH: LEVI, DAVID. Letters to Dr. Priestly, in Answer to Those He Addressed to the Jews; Inviting Them to an Amicable Discussion of the Evidences of Christianity. Second Edition. pp. 103, (1). London: J. Johnson, 1787. * PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH. Letters to the Jews. Part II. Occasioned by Mr. David Levi's Reply to the Former Letters. pp. (4), 56. Birmingham, 1787. * LEVI, DAVID. Letters to Dr. Priestley, in Answer to His Letters to the Jews, Part II. Occasioned by Mr. David Levi's Reply to the Former Part. pp. (4), 159, (1). London, 1789

Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 260, no.23, 24 and p. 262, no. 36

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), English natural scientist and Enlightenment theologian, most famous for his isolation of oxygen in the gaseous state, was instrumental in founding Unitarianism, in England whose church accords to Jesus the status of a prophet only - as opposed to the notions of Trinitarianism. Priestley believed that this subdued form of Christianity would be acceptable to Jews. David Levi (1742-1801), English Hebraist and polemicist, was the first Jew to write in defense of his fellow-Jews in the English language. In his Letters to Dr. Priestley, he rejected the attempts of the noted scholar to convert Jews to Christianity by refuting Priestley's supposed evidences