|
by Isaac Leeser
In
lieu of an editorial article upon a particular subject of our own
selection, we will refer this month to the commencement of what we think a
good movement, and which, we hope, is destined to exist many years, and to
produce an abundant harvest of useful results to the cause of our religion
in this country. When one looks back no more than ten years even, and
compares the number and the position of the Israelites then with what they
are now, he must become impressed with the conviction, that something more
is necessary now than was the case formerly; and, what is more, that we
have the means of carrying out many enterprises at the present moment
which, but a few years ago, were beyond our reach. The immigration into
this country, from Germany especially, has regularly increased our
population almost every month, and this result will, no doubt, be
witnessed for years to come, partially owing to the oppressions of
continental governments, with the exception of France, Belgium, and
Holland, and partly to the attraction which the members of the families
already in America offer to their relatives in Europe to come to join them
in their new homes. It may be admitted, that by far the greater number of
the newcomers have but very limited means, and, many of them, but limited
educations, and add, therefore, on their first arrival, but little moral
and physical strength to our communities; nevertheless they form a nucleus
of future strength by their very presence; by industry and frugality by
far the largest portion are soon put beyond actual want; they feel the
importance of an honourable name and fair standing in the community, and
soon they will seek for their children those advantages which they
themselves had not the opportunity of enjoying. And should they not feel this impulse sufficiently strongly within
themselves, should they be so lost to all ideas of refinement and
religious duty as to desire for their offspring nothing nobler than the acquisition of wealth: it would evidently
be the obligation of those who are more noble-hearted to awaken their
fellow Israelites to a better sense of what they owe to themselves and
their children. Nor is it to be doubted that the appeal would prove
successful. A repulse may be experienced, say even repeated refusals
should have to be submitted to; but if, with true courage, which knows not
what defeat means, the friendly attacks are renewed, they will, to
a surety, at length prevail, and the amelioration of our people by our own
means, and in the spirit of our religion, will be effected; and we will be
able to point to our success as a proof that, in the western world, also,
Judaism has found a home, and numbers many friends and faithful adherents.
It
has long since appeared to us that Jewish literature might find a secure
abode in the United States, by enlisting all Israelites to take an active
interest in its growth. The mere publication of books, by even the best
writers, struck us as far from adequate to supply the want which had been
long felt, in the absence of an English Jewish literature. Books published
in the usual way would have no chance to reach all the scattered
settlements of Jews, which are daily becoming more numerous and diffused.
Booksellers could not be expected to take an active part in the disposal
of works which might be injurious to their interest, if found by some
zealots of other persuasions in their establishments; and, if exert this
should not be so to any great extent, still we should experience a very
great difficulty in inducing persons to purchase books necessarily at a
high price, from the limited sale which one could expect for them under
the most favourable circumstances. But if a great many persons were to
unite themselves into a society, established for no other purpose than to
print and circulate books, we imagined that, by this means, many works now
almost out of print, and others not yet written, but which would be
written could the authors find purchasers for them, would be given to the
press and circulated in every town and village of the country.
Our
own experience had proved to us how hopelessly a writer on Jewish
religion has to look at his manuscript, from the almost impossibility of
finding readers for his labour, unless some fortunate position in life
enables him to obtain for himself a hearing. It will be, perhaps, averred,
that true merit will make itself appreciated under the most adverse
circumstances; but people know not how long time it takes for the most
meritorious to have their genius appreciated, and their services
acknowledged. A book by a new author is not eagerly sought for; who
is to publish it? what bookseller will venture to risk any considerable
outlay for one not yet approved by the public? and surely but few writers
have the means, and, if they have, would have the courage to venture upon
the dangerous experiment of private publication, unless, indeed, they had
some powerful friends to induce the public to receive their works with
some degree of favour.
Perhaps
it may be said by some, that our own course is a complete refutation of
what we have just advanced; but they who think so can know but little of
the great difficulties which we have had to encounter, and the very small
pecuniary success which has attended us. In one thing we were fortunate;
we are possessed of a considerable share of indifference to loss or gain,
and our circumstances and position have, ever since we first ventured to
bring out our first publication, been of that nature, that the chance of
the accession of a little gain, or the experience of a little loss, could
exert but small influence upon our mind; as, on the one hand, our desires
do not require a great amount for their gratification, nor would, on the
other, the small loss which our limited means would permit us to
incur—and we never vet ventured beyond them—abstract any thing from
the comforts in life to which we have been accustomed. Besides this, our
position gave us a number of friends, whose partiality will always induce
them to cast an eye at our productions, if even they do not obtain their
entire approbation. But there are very few indeed who would either have
the time and opportunity which
we had, or who would undergo the labour if they had even more advantages
than we have enjoyed. It is not so easy a task, this writing for the
people, and the pleasures it confers are more than counterbalanced by the
vexations to which it subjects the greatest favourite of the public.
To
enable, therefore, inquirers in Jewish literature to communicate the
results of their studies, in a manner satisfactory to themselves, it will
be necessary to establish a public to which they can appeal at once
for support. And how can this be better done than by having an association
who are all alike interested in the success of the works? In other words,
it struck us, that it would be best to establish a common fund, to be
devoted solely to the production of books, so that every subscriber should
be supplied according to the amount of his contribution, and that the
remainder, after devoting a certain number of topics for distribution
among the poor, should be sold for the benefit of the general fund, which,
when sufficient, should be employed to compensate authors for any works of
interest to Israelites, the copyright of which they might sell, in part
or entirely, to the society.
A
threefold object would be thereby secured; first, the encouragement of
reading among Israelites; secondly, the supplying of good books to those
who cannot afford to buy them; and, thirdly, to incite Jewish talent to
devote itself to the development of subjects connected with our religion
and history. That this is perfectly feasible can be easily demonstrated.
Suppose we had thirteen hundred subscribers to our Society, and we were to
issue fifteen hundred copies each, of ten little books, per annum, like
No. 1 of the Jewish Miscellany; the cost of the whole would be, to judge
from that of the just mentioned, about nine hundred dollars, we should
then have a surplus of four hundred dollars, besides two hundred copies
for distribution among the poor. In the course of a few years we should
thus accumulate a moderate fund, to make some compensation, at all events,
to persons willing to write; and then, if their works were of real merit,
they could make such arrangements for extra copies for themselves, to be
issued with the consent of the Society, as to obtain fir them something
more than the Society might give them in money. There is another advantage
naturally arising from this method of publishing works. An author would in
that case not have to struggle for a little notoriety—to watch with
anxiety whether his work will be left upon the bookseller’s shelf; for
he would at once be before a considerable portion of persons able to
decide on his merits, and he would thus be appreciated, and perhaps
enabled thereby of obtaining, for more extensive works, a favourable
reception, without the intervention of the Society, if he, when his
reputation is established, should prefer to dispense with the necessarily
limited aid which his early patrons could afford to grant.
But
it is almost impossible to foretell what such a Society might be able to
accomplish; how it might aid to awaken many, now inattentive to religious
duties, to a sense of their delinquency: how it might unite distant
congregations, seeing that they were all interested in an enterprise which
is theirs in common; how it might aid to dispel ignorance among ourselves,
and enable the Israelite to put many a work in the hand of his Christian
neighbour to dispossess him of any prejudice he may entertain against us,
for want of proper information concerning us, our doctrines and our
conduct.
Our attention has accordingly been long fixed to
devise some feasible plan to carry out our views. We even sent out
letters, several years ago, to some influential gentlemen in the South, to
enlist their co-operation; but without success. Still we never gave up the
idea, still looking for a better result at a later period; when
accidentally the subject was renewed in our mind by a conversation at the
house of a friend, during the course of last autumn, when two persons
offered the sum of five dollars each, for as many copies of Caleb Asher,
if they could be procured. We eagerly embraced the offer, and after
consulting with Mr. Abraham Hart, the worthy President of our
congregation, (we will not pay him any compliments, as most of our readers
know of him, at all events), the work was put to press, and
immediately set in extensive circulation, under the name of “The Jewish
Miscellany, No. 1.” We at the same time issued a prospectus, bearing our
names, to invite the aid of Israelites in the United States, to form an
American Jewish Publication Society, and the call was in various ways
responded to by sundry donations and contributions being sent to us,
which, with the sale of the above work, brought the sum of $162.75, which,
after paying for No. 1, left in our hands $72.08 for other works. In
addition to these contributions, an auxiliary Society was formed in
Richmond, as we announced in No. l of the present volume of our magazine.
But various causes prevented Mr. Hart and ourself from organizing the
parent Society is form during the summer. We had determined, however, to
call upon the Israelites of this city, immediately after the holidays, to
assemble in general meeting for the above purpose.
The meeting accordingly took place on the 9th of
November, corresponding with the 9th of Heshvan, at the meeting room of
our congregation, where we were gratified by the assembly of a large
number of our friends, and we believe that it was the largest society
meeting which had taken place for many years.
Mr.
Hart was called to the chair, and opened the meeting with a short address,
in which he stated in substance, that we had always been very ready to
supply the poor with food for the body, with clothing, with fuel, and
medical attendance in sickness; but no effort had yet been made in
America, to supply poor and rich with food for the soul; an object which
ought to be dear to every Israelite. He exhibited the specimens of the
work already done, No. 1 containing Caleb Asher, are No. 2, containing the
Hebrew Tales, by the late Dr. Hurwitz of London; and said, the first
productions are what might be called light reading; but they were pioneers
on the way, to induce our younger members to read, and when they had once
imbibed a taste for letters, they would crave and demand graver matter,
more solid food of the mind; and it would be precisely such an institution
as was proposed to be formed, which could supply the want thus
created.—When Mr. Hart had concluded, we followed him to show the
necessity there existed to fortify the mind of old and young with sound
knowledge on a matter so necessary to them as their eternal welfare.
Constant efforts were making to warp the intellect of our people, by
scattering among them erroneous views, views hostile to our faith,
subversive of our existence as Israelites. And how is the young member of
Jacob’s house to meet and combat these errors, without the means which
would enable him to refute the specious arguments so constantly resorted
to? Living instruction cannot
always be obtained; but sound doctrines scattered abroad through books,
might be made every where accessible; we therefore hoped that the society
would be established on a permanent footing, and be the means of
instructing every Israelite in the land in the nature of his religion, and
the scope of his duties. We instanced among outer things, the great
efforts which the apostate-makers were using to distribute their works,
frequently in the guise of the Pentateuch and Bible, among all classes of
our people; and we urged upon the meeting to distribute themselves such
reading among all, that error of every class, might find no chance of
being brought into our houses. Some farther conversation ensued, when it
was proposed to appoint a committee of three to nominate officers for the
Society. Whilst the committee was absent, the far greater portion of the
persons present, if not all, signed their names to the prospectus, and
several added donations besides, which will all be acknowledged, probably
in the next number of the Miscellany. The committee upon re-entering,
announced the following nominations: Abraham Hart, President, Henry Cohen
and David Samuels, Vice-Presidents, Joseph L. Moss, Treasurer, Alfred T.
Jones, Recording Secretary, and Isaac Lesser, Corresponding Secretary,*
Hyman Gratz, Lazarus Arnold, Louis Bomeisler, Leon Hyneman, Elias P. Levy,
and Solomon Solis, Managers, and John Moss, Mayer, Arnold, and Gratz
Etting, Trustees.—A committee was then appointed to draft a Constitution
and By-Laws, for the government of the Society, to report to an adjourned
meeting on the 30th of November, and another of nine, to collect
subscriptions and donations. After which the meeting adjourned till the
above day.
Our
distant friends will thus see that the Israelites of Philadelphia have now
fairly begun the good work. Of its usefulness there can be no doubt; and
we trust that, as there is nothing sectional in it, all will unite with us
to farther this enterprise, in which all have an equal interest.
Especially do we hope that the large congregations in New York,
Charleston, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and St. Louis, will do their best to
show themselves animated by the proper spirit; and sure we are, that they
will have always good reason to bless the day that they did this service
to the cause of their religion.
|
