A Warning Concerning the Matter of Divorces from Chief Rabbi Solomon Hirschell of London to Congregation Bnai Jeshurun at New York, London [i.e., New York]: 1837 [i.e., 1839]

1 sheet (6 7/8 x 6 1/8 in.; 175 x 155 mm). Printed with manuscript additions in Hebrew in brown ink. Trimmed. Lightly stained at creases; central tear with tape repair on verso. 

Jacob Neusner, "The Role of English Jews in American Jewish Life," in ed. Jeffrey S. Gurock, The Colonial and Early National Period 1654-1840: American Jewish History, vol I pp. 450-51; Israel Goldstein, “Ritual Questions,” Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects in Memory of Abraham Solomon Friedus, pp. 377-378.

It would take nearly two centuries following the arrival of the first Jews in North America in 1654 before an ordained rabbi took up permanent residence in the United States in 1840.  Needless to say, the lack of qualified rabbis during these early years created a void in religious leadership, which was filled to a certain extent by laymen who possessed better than average Jewish educations, who served as the religious functionaries of the various American Jewish communities during this period.

Nevertheless, when it came to the especially vexing questions surrounding such important matters as marriage, conversion, and divorce, American Jewry often turned toward the authority of the Great Synagogue in London and the English Chief Rabbi. There being no recognized authority in America to whom the perplexed might turn, the guidance of the British Chief Rabbinate was eagerly sought out. To a great extent, until the middle of the nineteenth century the Jewish community in America was religiously dependent on the authority of the Great Synagogue in London.

In 1837, English Chief Rabbi, Solomon Hirschell sent a letter to New York’s Congregation Bnai Jeshurun, warning about the granting of divorces in America by unqualified individuals. Hirschell explicitly mentions Hirsch Sofer as someone whose divorces should be treated with skepticism. The leaders of Bnai Jeshurun disregarded Hirschell’s explicit request that they communicate the contents of his letter to the other American congregations, until two years later in March of 1839, when they were suddenly presented with evidence that the aforementioned Hirsch Sofer was in fact about to grant yet another questionable divorce. They hurriedly, though belatedly, carried out Hirschell’s instructions and disseminated copies of his original letter, one of which comprises the present lot. The printer, necessarily acting in great haste, must have lacked the appropriate Hebrew fount at the moment of typesetting, but compensated by leaving blank spaces for the Hebrew manuscript insertions seen here.