(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).
(Bible, English). Torah Nevi’im U’kethuvim- The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures. Carefully Translated According to the Massoratic Text, After the Best Jewish Authorities. By ISAAC LEESER.

Second edition. Text in English. Printed in two columns.
pp. xii, 1243. Ex-library, trace stained. Modern boards. Thick 12mo. Singerman 1418; not in Darlow & Moule.

Philadelphia: C. Sherman & Son 1856

Isaac Leeser (1806-1868), a German Jew by birth, served as the hazzan of the Sephardi congregation Mikveh Israel of Philadelphia. He founded the Jewish Publication Society of America, as well as the Occident, a monthly Jewish newspaper, in which he served as Editor for 25 years.

Perhaps his crowning achievement was his translation of the Bible into English. Leeser’s version became the standard American Jewish translation and remained so well into the 20th century. The translation is truly a monumental effort. Though an Orthodox rabbi who fought the inroads of Reform, Leeser consulted not only the classic rabbinic commentaries such as Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, etc., but also the modern works of Mendelssohn, Zunz and Philippson.

After the appearance of the first edition of this Bible translation, Leeser was inspired; “to make an effort to make it more accessible to all classes than the expensive and heavy quarto could expect to be.”

In preparing this work anew for the press, the whole had been carefully subjected to the closest scrutiny and improved and corrected wherever deemed necessary.

Reminding his readers of the pioneering nature of the work, Leeser adds: “Many attempts have been made of late years by Israelites in all European countries to furnish new versions in the various languages which they speak. Hitherto, no other translation in the English had been compiled by Jews.”