Gomez, Isaac. Selections of a Father for the Use of His Children.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Southwick and Peluse

New York

1820

Singerman 322; Rosenbach 209.

The earliest children’s book by an American Jew. Isaac Gomez (1768-1831), whose great-grandfather fled from Portugal to New York in 1703, was active in New York’s Jewish community. The few early literary contributions by American Jews “was anything but impressive, but Gomez’s book is worth remembering as one of American Jewry’s earliest literary efforts …Gomez, both a devotee of the humanities and a committed Jew, lived comfortably ensconced in the two worlds of the Jew and the cultured American” J. R. Marcus, United States Jewry, Vol. 3, p. 455. See also Blau and Baron, The Jews of the United States, 1790-1840, Vol. 2, pp. 440-2. Gomez’s Jewish affiliations are felt with his decision to include here a selection from The History of Pope Pius V, which is the source for the “pound of flesh” incident in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. As opposed to Shakespeare’s telling, in the History of Pope Pius V, it is the Jew who is the victim and the Christian who threatens him. Gomez prefaced the selection by writing: “The following subject shows that Shakespeare altered the character of Shylock, making him to be of the Jewish nation, when in reality he was not.” As Louis Harap notes (The Image of the Jew in American Literature, p. 260), “Gomez was obviously trying to combat the effects of the Shylock stereotype.” In a review, President John Adams judged this book “worthy to be presented by every Father to every Child, and deserves a place in every family”.