The New Jamaica Almanack and Register, Calculated to the Meridian of the Island for the Year of our Lord 1796.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA)

David Dickson for Thomas Stevenson, Kingston

Saint Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town, Jamaica)

1795

On p. 15: “Kalendar of Months, Sabbaths, and Holidays, which the Hebrews or Jews Observe and Keep, for the Years 5556 and 5557 of the Creation.” The names of the Jewish holidays and new months are noted in English and Hebrew.

Almanacs issued in Jamaica included a page featuring the Jewish calendar from as early as 1776, which “would seem to be an indication of the importance of Jewish residents in the eyes of Christian Jamaicans” (see B. W. Korn, “The Haham DeCordova of Jamaica,” in: American Jewish Archives 18.2 (Nov. 1966) p. 141 n.2). These Jamaican calendars represent the very earliest appearance of Hebrew font in the Western Hemisphere, in a publication intended specifically for Jews. Earlier works with Hebrew type, such as Judah Monis’s Hebrew Grammar, were intended for a Gentile audience. It is interesting to note that the first Hebrew calendar on the American continent was not printed until 1851 (Singerman S463). For an article discussing the National Library of Israel’s copy of The New Jamaica Almanack