(Italian-American rabbi, 1823-1897). Autograph Letter Signed, written to M. Sohlberg of Amsterdam.

MORAIS, SABATO.

Lag b’Omer

Philadelphia

1873

In Hebrew, with address in English. Concerning delivery of a Get.

“… After much toil, I found the woman mentioned in the letter delivered to me last month… She promised that she will willingly accept the Get from her husband through an emissary… Therefore this Mitzvah is now incumbent upon the people of Amsterdam to arrange properly and send to our Beth Din.” Sabato Morais, a native of Livorno, Italy, succeeded Isaac Leeser as Minister (Hazzan) of Mikveh Israel in 1852, in which capacity he served until his death 45 years later. Morais founded the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1887. R. Mordechai Sohlberg, although in this letter entitled as “HaGevir” actually served as a Rabbi in Amsterdam. He was a descendent of the Chacham Tzvi. His son I. L. Sohlberg served as an Assistant Rabbi in The Hague. For further on Morais, see A. Kiron. Golden Ages, Promised Lands: The Victorian Rabbinic Humanism of Sabato Morais. Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University (1999).