Discourses, Argumentative and Devotional on the Jewish Religion, Isaac Leeser, Philadelphia: Haswell and Fleu (vols. I & II, 1837; Sherman and Co. (vol.III), 1841

Isaac Leeser's work laid the foundations for many of the key institutions of present-day American Jewish life and his contributions to nearly every area of Jewish culture and religion in this country define him as one of the seminal figures in the history of the development of American Judaism. Of all Leeser’s accomplishments, however, it was his role as the pioneer Jewish preacher in the United States that was closest to his heart. Perhaps nowhere can the measure of the man and his milieu be better perceived than in the pages of his Discourses.

The initial two-volume anthology of fifty-two sermons was issued in 1837. Unable to find a publisher for the work, Leeser was forced "to undertake the literary as well as the mercantile part of the enterprise". The first anthology of sermons by an American Jew—previously only a few ephemeral pamphlets each with just one sermon had been printed—Discourses was eagerly anticipated by Jews throughout the New World and subscribers included individuals living in all the major Jewish communities in the United States as well as from Canada, Europe and the West Indies. The favorable reception to the Discourses, followed by "frequent inquiries for a continuation," induced Leeser to issue vol. 3 as a second series in 1841. It would be more than a quarter century later, in 1867, before Isaac Leeser would publish additional sermonic material.  Although the contents of these three volumes would be republished at that time as part of a 10 volume set, it is in this, their original state, that they represent the absolute earliest and arguably most important testament to the birth of the Jewish sermon in America.