The Charleston Book: A Miscellany in Prose and Verse.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Samuel Hart

Charleston

1845

Includes: Isaac Harby : The Fall of Jerusalem (pp. 46-50); Penina Moise : Miriam (pp. 94-5); Penina Moise: The Convict (pp. 363-70).

The first Jew to publish a book of poetry in the United States – a woman – Penina Moise (1797-1880) was one of the most prolific and creative writers of poetry on Jewish themes in America. She was also superintendent of the first Jewish religious school in Charleston and many of her poems and songs focused upon Jewish history and heritage in order to encourage a sense of pride in the Jewish faith of her school-children. Teacher, playwright, literary critic and newspaper editor, Isaac Harby (1788-1828) was an early advocate of reforms in Judaism in Charleston, South Carolina.