Auction 109 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Megillot and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Chumash Ezrat HaSofer – Amsterdam, 1767-1769 – Copy of Mordecai Manuel Noah of Philadelphia, Visionary of the Jewish State, With His 1832 Signature – Dedication of Merchant Moses Eliezer Montefiore to His Uncle
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Chumash Ezrat HaSofer, Book of Shemot, with haftarot, and with Or Torah glosses by R. Menachem de Lonzano, for study and for sofrim. Amsterdam: Yisrael Mondovy for Gerard Johann Janson, 1767-1769.
Original leather binding (repaired), with gilt decorations.
Leaves 84-85 (Song of the Sea) especially large; folding leaves.
On margins of first title page, signature of Mordecai Manuel Noah – "M. M. Noah" – dated 1832.
Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851) was an American visionary of the Jewish state, who campaigned for the establishment of a Jewish state some one hundred years before Theodor Herzl and the founding of the Zionist movement. Noah was one of the leading Jewish figures and activists of the early 19th century; he served as a US consul and New York State judge and sheriff, and as editor of some of the major journals of his time. He gained renown for his attempt to establish a state by the name of Ararat on Grand Island, near Buffalo, New York, as a refuge for Jews.
His extensive efforts in this regard included correspondence with some of the founding fathers of the United States of America, including Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, who expressed to him their support for the Jewish people. According to the historian Bernard Dov Weinryb, Mordecai Manuel Noah can be regarded as the earliest forerunner of modern Zionism (see: Bernard Dov Weinryb, Yesodot HaTzionut in Tarbitz VIII, 1, The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, Tishrei 1936, pp. 69-112 [Hebrew]).
Dedication on first title page from the merchant "Moses Eliezer Montefiore, to his uncle Capt. J. Montefiore", as well as two of his signatures in Hebrew.
Moses Eliezer Montefiore (1798-1894), son of Eliezer (Moses) Montefiore (1761-1837), was a pioneer of modern industry in Australia. Moses Eliezer Montefiore was active as a merchant in Saint Thomas Island in the West Indies, and resided in Finsbury, London. The present dedication is evidently addressed to one of his father's many brothers.
[1], [66]-121; [2], 28 leaves. 19.5 cm. Dark paper. Wide margins. Good-fair condition. Stains. Small marginal tears to several leaves. Original leather binding (repaired), with color endpaper. Defects to binding.
English Jewry and Americana
English Jewry and Americana