More than any other person of his time, Isaac Leeser 0806-1868)
envisioned the development of a major center of Jewish culture and
religious activity in the United States. He single-handedly
provided American Jews with many of the basic religious texts,
institutions, and conceptual tools they needed to construct the
cultural foundation of what would later emerge as the largest
Jewish community in the history of the Jewish people. Born in
Germany, Leeser arrived in the United States in 1824. At that time,
the American Jewish community was still a relatively unimportant
outpost of Jewish life. No sustained or coordinated effort was
being made to protect and expand Jewish political rights in
America. The community was small, weak, and seemingly not
interested in evolving into a cohesive, dynamic center of Jewish
life. Leeser settled in Philadelphia where he sought to unite
American Jews and the growing immigrant community under the banner
of modern Sephardic Orthodoxy. Thoroughly Americanized prior to the
first period of mass Jewish immigration to the United States
between 1830 and 1854, Leeser served as a bridge between the old
native-born and new immigrant American Jews. Among the former, he
inspired a handful to work for the revitalization of Judaism in
America. To the latter, he was a spiritual leader, a champion of
tradition, and a guide to life in a new land. Leeser had a decisive
impact on American Judaism during a career that spanned nearly
forty years. The outstanding Jewish religious leader in America
prior to the Civil War, he shaped both the American Jewish
community and American Judaism. He sought to professionalize the
American rabbinate, introduced vernacular preaching into the North
American synagogue, and produced the first English language
translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. As editor and publisher of
The Occident, Leeser also laid the groundwork for the now vigorous
and thriving American Jewish press. Leeser's influence extended
well beyond the American Jewish community An outspoken advocate of
religious liberty, he defended Jewish civil rights, sought to
improve Jewish-Christian relations, and was an early advocate of
modern Zionism. At the international level, Leeser helped mobilize
Jewish opinion during the Damascus Affair and corresponded with a
number of important Jewish leaders in Great Britain and western
Europe. In the first biography of Isaac Leeser, Lance Sussman makes
extensive use of archival and primary sources to provide a thorough
study of a man who has been largely ignored by traditional
histories. Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism also
tells an important part of the story of Judaism's response to the
challenge of political freedom and social acceptance in a new,
modern society Judaism itself was transformed as it came to terms
with America, and the key figure in this process was Isaac Leeser.
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