(Jacob Cohen). Autograph prayer manuscript.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

circa

1790

Selected Psalms written in English. The verses are woven into a text beseeching God’s mercy and favor to listen to his prayers. At the end is a verse in large Hebrew letters, accompanying the words from Psalm 20:2: “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.”

Jacob I. Cohen (1744-1823) was the Richmond and then Philadelphia-based progenitor of a prominent American Jewish family of Baltimore. Arriving in Pennsylvania from Bavaria in 1773, he served a stint in the revolutionary ary, and afterwards settled in Richmond where he was a founder of Congregation Beth Shalome. See Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews, p. 24). This personal prayer by an early American Jew is an expression of deep faith expressed in a distinctly American fashion.