Americana:
Descriptive Geography of Palestine by Joseph Schwartz
Philadelphia, 1850
This book was translated from its original Hebrew title Tevu’os Ha’aretz into English by Rabbi Isaac Leeser.
Rabbi Joseph Schwartz (1805-1865) was a brilliant scholar and prolific author who conducted extensive research on Eretz Yisrael in his era. The original Hebrew book, entitled Tevu’os Ha’aretz, presents a current geographical and historical description of the Holy Land, was first printed in Jerusalem in 1845 and translated into English five years later.
This swift rendition of the book into English and its publication in the United States is testimony to the interest and affinity that American Jewry felt toward their homeland in Israel.
In 1825 at the age of only 19,
Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) emigrated from his native Germany to the United States where he served for many years as a chazzan and later as rabbi of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia. Leeser was a vehement opponent of secularization and use of Christian translations of the Bible . He was thus the first to translate the Torah into English on behalf of American Jewry without referring to prior translations of the Old Testament. His translation of the Chumash and siddur had a major impact on the future translation of dozens of fundamental Jewish works in the United States, and he was instrumental in founding the Jewish press of America and a Hebrew seminary in 1847.
The book includes two maps of Israel drawn by the author himself, as well as 14 picture panels.
Philadelphia, 1850. First translated edition. Author’s portrait on p. xxii; 518 [17] sides. [14] picture panels; [2] folded maps, one large, sized 58×22 cm. Size: 22 cm.
Original binding with gilded engraving of Maarat HaMachpeilah in Hebron. New spine.
Good condition. Rare in such good, complete condition.
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