|
|
|
 1806 - 1868 (61 years)
-
| Name |
Isaac Leeser [2] |
| Born |
12 Dec 1806 |
Neuenkirchen, Westphalia, Germany  [2] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Reference Number |
4133 |
| Died |
1 Feb 1868 |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [2] |
| Person ID |
I4133 |
aojd |
| Last Modified |
11 Nov 2011 |
-
| Notes |
- (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011
Among the most important figures in nineteenth-century American Jewish life, Isaac Leeser played many roles— rabbi, writer, editor, organizer and translator. Born in Neuenkirchen in Westphalia, his Munster education included grounding in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.
Leeser arrived in America in the 1820s, and in 1828 he was elected to replace congregation Mikveh Israel's hazzan, Abraham I. Keys. The early years of Leeser's tenure in Philadelphia saw the development of two of his key innovations and greatest contributions to American Judaism. Inspired by the Reform movement among Jews in Germany, Leeser introduced English language sermons as a regular practice at Mikveh Israel. Next, after trying in vein to find a publisher for his manuscript, Jews and the Mosaic Law, Leeser opened his own publishing firm, the first in America to have an explicitly Jewish focus. Leeser's Jewish catechism served as the key text in Rebecca Gratz's Sunday school, laying the cornerstone of American Jewish pedagogy.
From 1830 until his death, less than forty years later, he published numerous volumes of theological, historical and liturgical works. Most famously, he was responsible for the first English translation of the Bible in America.
In 1843 Leeser founded the Occident, America's first Jewish periodical. He would continue to edit the publication until his death. He also helped found a Jewish foster home and Jewish hospital, and served as president of Maimonedes College, the earliest Jewish college in the country.
Leeser retired from Mikveh Israel in 1850, though seven years later he took up a post at the newly formed Beth El Emeth in Philadelphia where he officiated until his death.
More than any other public figure of his time, Leeser can be said through his tireless efforts to have formed a scattered group of Jews in America into an American Jewish community. [3]
|
-
| Sources |
- [S285] .
- [S4] PG.153 LEESER (Reliability: 3).
QUAY 3
- [S294] LEESER, ISAAC (Reliability: 3).
|
|
| |
