TRAVELS IN ENGLAND, FRANCE,
SPAIN, AND THE BARBARY STATES
The First Book of American Diplomacy
by an American Jew

Mordecai Manuel Noah (b. Philadelphia 1785-d. 1851) was widely recognized both in his own day and the present to have been the most influential Jewish American of the 19th century. Growing up in an educated family prepared him to take on more accomplishments in a single life than many men's lives combined. He was the editor of The New York Enquirer, New York Evening Star, Noah's Times and Weekly Messenger as well as the National Advocate. A popular, prolific playwright he also found time to pass the New York bar, become the U.S. Consul to Tunis, carry out the duties of High Sheriff of New York and Grand Sachem of Tammany, as well as oversee the Port of New York (1829-1833) under the appointment of President Jackson. In view of these achievements, it is no wonder Noah commanded the respect of three presidents; Adams, Madison, and Jefferson, in addition to the common man. It has been said that to the Jews of his day he was the quintessential American, and to the Americans he was the representative Jew.

TOBIAS FAMILY
HANDWRITTEN LEDGER SHEETS
Charleston Jewish Business Ledger

At a time when the Jewish population in America numbered about 3,000 (out of ten million citizens) Charleston, with nearly 700 Jews, was home to the largest Jewish community in the nation. This invaluable ledger records the participation of one Jewish family in the well being of Charleston citizens.

THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF
THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

FIRST EDITION. An educated Christian's perspective on the events before and after the Jewish dispersion, including both Old and New Testament predictions concerning the "restoration" of the Land of Israel. Though the title page indicates that this book also contains Dr. Priestley's Letters to the Jews and an answer by David Levi, a Learned Jew, it is absent from this volume.

REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE SENATE
OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE TRANSPORTATION
OF THE MAILS ON SUNDAY
Separation of Church and State Silk Broadside
Announcing U.S. Government's Position

RARITY: This is a magnificently worded Senate decision on the separation of Church vs. State. Its support of the rights of all religious observances illustrates the profound power of the basic principals inherent in our Constitution. Broadsides printed on silk from this period are extremely scarce. We were unable to find this broadside in Streeter, Church, Sabin or Howe, nor in the collections of the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, or The U.S. Postal Museum. The American Antiquarian Society has a variant (also 1829) in their collection.

NEW TRANSLATION OF
THE HEBREW PROPHETS

FIRST EDITION: Volume 1 explains and translates into English the teachings of the Old Testament prophets, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah; Vol. 2 highlights Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Jeremiah. Rosenbach: 363.

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE
AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY
First constitution of the first Jewish
Publication Society in America

Under the direction of Isaac Leeser, the AJPS was the first society established in America for the publication in English of books of Jewish content, and preceded The Jewish Publication Society (est. 1888) by 43 years. In addition, its goal was to counter the prevalent missionary activity directed against the Jews at that time. In the December 1845 issue of The Occident—Isaac Leeser wrote on the formation of the AJPS: "It has long since appeared to us that Jewish literature might find a secure abode in the United States, by enlisting all Israelites to take an active interest in its growth...A threefold object would be thereby secured; first the encouragement of reading among Israelites; secondly, the supplying of good books to those who cannot afford to buy them; and thirdly to incite Jewish talent to devote itself to the development of subjects connected with our religion and history."

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE
HEBREW EDUCATION SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA
The First printing of the first Constitution of
the First Jewish Education Society in America

RARITY: Rosenbach: 630. Singerman: 1049 cites seven institutional copies.

HOME SCENES AND HEART STUDIES

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. This volume contains nineteen short stories of romance and historical characters posthumously published by Sarah Aguilar, Grace's mother. Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) an English Jew of Sephardic lineage was popular as a novelist, important as a theologian, but ignored as a poet. Her work centered around themes of exile and assimilation at just the point that British Jews were seeking full civil rights. Aguilar is the first Anglo Jew to write "midrashic" poems about Hebrew characters and was also among the first to jump the boundaries of Victorian women's "domestic sphere" to write politically relevant stories. Some of her most powerful work is clearly pro-Zionist.

STATE EXECUTIVE DOCUMENT 60. MILITARY
COMMISSION TO EUROPE IN 1855-1856

FIRST EDITION. Alfred Mordecai (1804-1887) southern Jew, soldier, and engineer, graduated first in his class from West Point in 1823. He made a successful career of the army for the next 42 years rising to an influential position in the Ordnance Dept. During 1855-56, under orders from Jefferson Davis as Sec. of War, he served on the military commission to the Crimea documenting the military organizations of those countries involved... France, Russia, Great Britain, and Prussia. State Executive Document 60 prodigiously details the ground plans of European arsenals and armories as well as the latest weaponry of the day... small firearms, cannon and their production history. Highly detailed diagrams of gun barrels, carriages and mortars assured that the information contained in this book was of immediate and lasting interest to the military strategists of the forthcoming American Civil War. Mordecai himself was absolutely devastated by the idea of having to choose which side to fight for–:opposed to slavery, he was in sympathy with the North but would not raise arms against his native North Carolina. At great personal cost he chose instead to resign and become a teacher. It may be concluded that Major Mordecai's honest morals cost him a lofty place in our nation's history. Few soldiers of his day were as highly trained, professionally respected or steeped in experience. But for his great heart, he might have been mentioned today along with Stonewall Jackson and William Tecumseh Sherman.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Benjamin as Secretary of State for the Confederacy addresses
issues regarding expulsion of the British Ambassadors

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED
Virgin Islands synagogue correspondence
announcing opening of a religious school for both sexes
Extensive list of women supporters

ACKNOWLEDGING ROLE OF JEWISH WOMEN. It is invigorating to read of the respect this congregation afforded Jewish women during the mid-19th century. It was very unusual for a fledgling community to take the initiative to set up a religious school for females, boys nearly always taking precedence. The request for further books by Grace Aguilar, also clearly demonstrates the important position her work commanded at this time. Of particular note is the fact that the subscribers to Leeser's publication (most having names of Spanish/Portuguese descent) are nearly all women. Please inquire regarding this subscriber's list.

REPLY TO BISHOP COLENSO'S
ATTACK UPON THE PENTATEUCH
Early San Francisco Imprint defending Judaism

Bishop John William Colenso (1814-1883) served in the Anglican Church in Cape Town, South Africa. His extreme theological ideas were so radical in nature they were cause for him to eventually be excommunicated from his own church. Singerman 1802 locates only four institutional copies.

CAMPAIGN DIAL
Jewish Publisher of a Civil War Newspaper
S.E. Cohen endorses Lincoln

HEADLINE: "For President Lincoln.. For Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Our Country, One and Inseparable." This Philadelphia newspaper is completely, enthusiastically, pro Lincoln in his bid for re-election in the autumn of 1864 against the Democratic candidate, George B. McClellan. Lincoln won by a landslide but there had been some room for doubt. He had many detractors who felt that he had turned the War from a conflict to preserve the Union into a battle to abolish slavery. Obviously the Jewish publisher, Mr. S.E. Cohen, felt rather strongly about the issue of slavery and used his daily newspaper as a herald against it. Mr. Cohen had been active in Philadelphia civic affairs and compiled its City Directory in 1860 (Morais, The Jews of Philadelphia).

NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 21, 1865
Synagogues pay tribute to Lincoln

A very lengthy, almost 3/4 column detailing the descriptions of various Jewish congregations in New York and how they paid tribute to the late President. Mentioned by name are Shearith Israel where the Rev. J.J. Lyons recited the Kaddish, B'nai Jeshurum where Dr. Raphael spoke and the Broadway Synagogue. Contains news from around the nation of fighting still going on and mentions the lynching of several men in San Francisco who expressed joy over Lincoln's murder.

TWELVE HUNDRED QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS ON THE BIBLE
First Jewish book published in North Carolina

"This educational volume based solely on the Old Testament presents 1200 biblical questions and supplies the appropriate answers," The author's statement reveals their intent "...that it may be found useful to young persons engaged in the study of the Scriptures." Singerman: 2089 cites five institutional copies.

SEDER HAGGADAH
SHEL PESACH

The first separate printing of an American Haggadah appeared in 1837.

THE JEWS OF PHILADELPHIA
PRIOR TO 1800
First history of the Jews of Philadelphia

FIRST HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF PHILADELPHIA. This is the printing of a lecture given by Hyman Rosenbach (1858-1892) to the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia on November 24th, 1883. Rosenbach gives a very thorough accounting of the first immigrant Jewish families including the Franks and the Gratzs as well as the preeminent social and religious leaders of the time. Hyman was the eldest of 8 siblings, the youngest being the great American-Jewish bookseller, A.S.W. Rosenbach. (Malcolm Stern, First American Jewish Families).

GEDICHTE [POEMS]
Poems by Minna

These poems were written by the Jewish poet Minna Neuer who was originally from St. Louis but later made homes in both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Singerman: 3835.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTY-FIRST ANNUAL
MEETING OF THE HEBREW BENEVOLENT
AND ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY
Earliest Jewish charitable institution in America
A Who's Who of New York Jewry in 1894

Published as the equivalent of an annual report, this volume gives an accounting of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Society. The cover letter bound inside explains that they are the oldest Hebrew Charitable Institution in the country and have given out an "immense amount in cash for the Relief of Out-Door Poor and for fitting both boys and girls for higher education". A memoriam to their late President Jesse Seligman is included along with extensive lists of names of the 767 patrons and 2472 members.

A POEM READ BY SURGEON NATHAN MAYER
The Most Versatile Jewish Soldier in the War Between the States
—Harry Simonhoff, Jewish Participant in the Civil War

INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY NATHAN MAYER. In 1894 the State of Connecticut placed a memorial on the battleground of Antietam. During that dedication Dr. Mayer read a poem called Antietam which he wrote and is offered for sale here, signed by him. Among his touchingwords are these: "To my brave and faithful comrades, whose individual history, endurance, sufferings and loyal devotion in campaigns, in hospital and in prison, no one had better opportunities to know." At the Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history (more than 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers wounded, killed, and missing), Dr. Mayer, a surgeon in the famous Hartford regiment, converted a farmhouse into a field hospital and attended to his patients. In addition to his medical skills, Nathan Mayer became a poet, novelist, columnist, and dramatic and music critic. "Dr. Mayer's novel Differences (1867), which gives an informative account of Jewish life and commerce in the North as well as the South during and after the Civil War, is the first American Jewish novel that has a claim to literary quality and seriousness." (Carole S. Kessner).

Published as the equivalent of an annual report, this volume gives an accounting of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Society. The cover letter bound inside explains that they are the oldest Hebrew Charitable Institution in the country and have given out an "immense amount in cash for the Relief of Out-Door Poor and for fitting both boys and girls for higher education." A memoriam to their late President Jesse Seligman is included along with extensive lists of names of the 767 patrons and 2472 members.