[Horowitz, Jonathan]. Mock and Absurd Philosophy, or A Word to the Reasonable. By One Who Salutes All.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

T.B. Wait and Company

Boston

1811

Singerman 211; Shaw & Shoemaker 23408.

This unusual work by an American Jew is a thoughtful argument against atheism and calls on members of different religious faiths to unite in their humanity. ‘If a religion is a bond which binds the individuals of each nation in particular, humanity goes farther, by tying and uniting together the individuals of us all’ (p. 89). Not only this, but the founders of religion preached ‘the same truth’ (p. 92). The author, Jonathan Horwitz (1783-1852), was a Jewish immigrant to Philadelphia who prepared the text for the first Hebrew Bible in America in 1814, and later taught Oriental languages. Apparently the first appeal by an American Jew calling for religious tolerance.