A Group of Three Publications Concerning the Controversy between Reverend Isaac Leeser and Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia: 1850

In 1829, at the urging of Jacob Mordecai, one of Richmond's leading Jewish figures, Isaac Leeser applied for and was elected to the post of Hazzan (Cantor and Reader of the prayer service) of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia. Although Leeser would hold that post for more than two decades, his tenure at Mikveh Israel was marked by constant wrangling with the synagogue Adjunta (Board of Directors) over the extent of the Hazzan's authority, status, and independence, as well as over Leeser's recurring entreaties for a life-time contract. The Board also resisted several innovations by Leeser, such as his introduction into the weekly service of a regular English language sermon, the first of its kind of note in the United States.  Notwithstanding his stormy relationship with the leaders of the congregation, Leeser, in those same years, began a period of intense literary productivity and remarkable organizational activity. Leeser's final break with Mikveh Israel in late 1850 capped more than a year of bitter recriminations, in which both sides in the dispute published sharply worded anonymous pamphlets in defense of their respective positions. The first of these: “A Review…,” was an anti-Leeser tract that was quickly followed by “A Review of ‘The Review’…,” a pro-Leeser response. The resulting bitterness was palpable to all. When public aspersions were cast by the Adjunta on Leeser’s morality and adherence to Jewish law, and politically outflanked by the leaders of the congregation, Leeser descended for the last time from the pulpit in which he had served for 21 years on September 27, 1850.

The present lot includes both anonymous pamphlets as well as a bound copy of the first number of The Occident published after Leeser's departure from the pulpit. There, Leeser personally decried what he saw as his “unmerited persecution” by “those who hate me without cause,” and proudly proclaimed that he had left his former office “without a stain resting on my name, either as man, Jew, or minister.”