Letters of Rebecca Gratz EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES By
RABBI DAVID PHILIPSON, D. D. Author of The Reform Movement in
Judaism The Jew in English Fiction, etc., etc. PHILADELPHIA THE
JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1929 COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE
JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY PHILADELPHIA, PA. REBECCA GRATZ, FROM A
PAINTING BY SULLY DEDICATED TO THE SISTERHOOD OF THE BENE ISRAEL
CONGREGATION CINCINNATI FOREWORD As is stated in the essay which
introduces this collection of the family letters of the leading
American Jewess of her day, these important epistles were placed at
my disposal by the niece of Rebecca Gratz, Mrs. Thomas Hart Clay of
Lexington, Kentucky. My thanks are due to Mrs. Clay, not only for
her ready consent to my request to let me have the letters for
publication, but also for the per mission to have photographs made
of the superb portraits of her father, Benjamin Gratz, and her
aunt, Rebecca Gratz, by the great American painter, James Sully,
for inclusion in this volume. The picture of the Benjamin Gratz
homestead was likewise loaned to me by Mrs. Clay for reproduction
in these pages. Mrs. Clay furthermore gave me much interesting
information concerning her famous aunt whom she had seen on
occasional visits to Philadelphia with her father during her
childhood. My thanks are also due to the Sisterhood of the Bene
Israel Congregation Rockdale Avenue Temple of Cin cinnati, who
supplied the funds for the publication of these letters as a
memento of the fortieth anniversary of my service as rabbi of the
congregation. How beautifully appropriate it is for an organization
of Jewish women to v VI FOREWORD be the medium through whom the
noble thoughts of a great sisterJewess are given to the world I
desire to thank my friend, Rabbi Louis I. Egelson of Cincinnati,
for his helpfulness in reading the proof and seeing the volume
through the press. D. P. Cincinnati, Ohio. February, 1929.
INTRODUCTION During a brief sojourn at Lexington, Kentucky, several
years ago, I had the pleasure of forming the personal ac quaintance
of Mrs. Thomas Hart Clay, the last surviving child of Benjamin
Gratz and a niece of Rebecca Gratz, who is generally supposed to be
the original of the famous character, Rebecca, in Sir Walter Scotts
novel Ivanhoe, through the description of the famous American
Jewess fur nished Scott by Washington Irving, an intimate friend of
the Gratz family. In the course of a most interesting and revela
tory conversation, Mrs. Clay, whose cultivated mind is a storehouse
of valuable historical data and reminiscences, in formed me that
she had in her possession a large number of letters that had been
written by Rebecca Gratz to her broth er Benjamin and her two
sisters-in-law, the wives of Benja min Gratz. I sensed at once that
here was possibly an unex pected and important discovery that might
prove of great value. I urged Mrs. Clay to place these letters at
my dis posal. She acceded graciously to my request. My supposition
as to the value of the letters was more than realized when I had
the opportunity to examine the very interesting corre spondence.
The letters number hundreds and extend over more than half a
century, namely, from the year 1808 to the year 1866. Although
being largely family letters still they contain much that
transcends the narrow family circle. Events of the day are
mentioned and commented upon, books of recent ap
INTRODUCTIONpearance are discussed, men and women in the public eye
are referred to. The reader of these epistles feels that he is
perusing the outpourings of an unusual personality. The letters are
pervaded with a deep religious feeling and a broad humanity, which
stamp the writer to have been a noble woman whose charity knew no
creed and whose in terests were as wide as her heart was warm and
her impulses unselfish. These letters verify the traditions that
have de scended about Rebecca Gratzs loveliness of disposition and
elevation of spirit...
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