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12-2007

Review of , Hebrew Printing in America, 1735– 1926: A History and Annotated Bibliography

Arthur Kiron University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Kiron, A. (2007). Review of Yosef Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America, 1735– 1926: A History and Annotated Bibliography. Judaica Librarianship, 13 13-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.14263/2330-2976.1084

This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/94 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Review of Yosef Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America, 1735– 1926: A History and Annotated Bibliography

Abstract Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from colonial times through the period of mass migration effectively challenges the widespread prejudice that the United States, and American with it, has amounted to a treyfene medine, a wasteland unsuitable for Jewish life. Indeed, this beautifully executed two-volume work is not only a hefty counter- weight to that negative opinion; it also raises the bar of expectations for future bibliographies of Judaica of all kinds. The conception and design of this work effectively centralize in one convenient place, for easy reference and research, all the currently available information about printing in Hebrew letters in one region of the world, and the circulation of these imprints around the globe from 1735 to 1926.

Disciplines Jewish Studies | Library and Information Science

This review is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/94 Book Reviews 43

Goldman, Yosef. Hebrew Printing in America, 1735– Librarians, bibliophiles, book dealers, and col- 1926: A History and Annotated Bibliography. lectors—as well as students and scholars of the Research and by Ari Kinsberg. , NY, topic—will be delighted by the navigational tools 2006. 2 vols. (1,188 p.). $400. Available directly from: built into the design of HPA. In addition to the his- Yosef Goldman Books, 750 East 18th Street, Brooklyn, torical introduction and explanatory apparatus of NY 11230 ([email protected]). ISBN 1599756854. how to use the work in Volume I, the conclusion of Volume II features 13 indexes, inter alia: Hebrew Reviewed by Arthur Kiron, University of Pennsylvania and English titles; authors; places of publication; Library, Philadelphia, PA names of publishers; approbations (haskamot); names of subscription locales (containing a signifi- Yosef Goldman’s superb revitalization of our cant list of Asian [India and China], Australian, knowledge of Hebrew printing in America from Canadian, Caribbean, South American, European, colonial times through the period of mass migra- South African, North African and Middle Eastern tion effectively challenges the widespread preju- subscribers, a veritable field of research in itself); dice that the United States, and American Jewish typesetters; music arrangers, composers, and tran- history with it, has amounted to a treyfene medine, scribers of music; and artists, engravers, and pho- a wasteland unsuitable for Jewish life. Indeed, this tographers. A sub-indexed list of books containing beautifully executed two-volume work is not only chronograms (dates formed by the sum of the a hefty counter-weight to that negative opinion; it numerical values belonging to individual letters of also raises the bar of expectations for future bibli- the Hebrew alphabet) is an innovative addition to ographies of Judaica of all kinds. The conception “Index 8: Imprint Year” (see HPA II: 1,117). and design of this work effectively centralize in one The second volume concludes with two appen- convenient place, for easy reference and research, dixes, featuring reproductions of relevant manu- all the currently available information about print- scripts, including engraved and decorated ketubot, ing in Hebrew letters in one region of the world, financial receipts, an eighteenth-century mohel and the circulation of these imprints around the (circumcision) book, and autograph correspon- globe from 1735 to 1926. dence of prominent nineteenth and early twenti- Goldman’s Hebrew Printing in America (HPA), eth-century American Jewish leaders, such as Jacob undergirded by the research and editing of Ari Mordechai, Mordechai Manuel Noah, , Kinsberg, presents a fully annotated bibliography, Abraham Joseph Ash, and Abraham Yudelowitz. with multiple access points, including biographi- Appendix II provides a selection of photo portraits cal information, indexes, and a thorough compila- of early American rabbis “originally found in the tion of secondary sources. Meticulous attention collection of Benzion Eisenstadt,” a preacher, pub- was paid to the formatting—what is called “the lisher of the Hebrew journal Aspek.lariyah, bio-bibli- anatomy of a record”—and font designs of the cat- ographer, and author of the photographic treasure, alog entries, as well as to meth od o log ical issues of Otsar temunot gedole Yisra’el (Brooklyn, 1909) [HPA orthography (particularly for identifying unfamil- #534; cf. #392]. Notably—and usefully—many of the iar place names spelled in Hebrew), typography bibliographical entries are illustrated by reproduc- (e.g., noting the occurrence of Rashi type and tions of their title pages and occasionally with the pointed [vocalized] texts), and dating (because the images of selected interior illustrated pages. Hebrew calendar year starts in the fall of the Chris- The final product, printed on glossy, folio-sized tian calendar year and continues into the spring of (32 cm.) paper and handsomely bound in gold- the next, ambiguity often exists about the precise embossed, cloth-covered boards, will remain the year of publication) which are specific to Hebrew standard in the field for the foreseeable future. printing. Of particular value are the notes about Indeed, it is already accepted and being cited by each entry’s collation, book size, illustrations, and auction houses, such as Kestenbaum and Co., as paratexts—what the author terms the “includes” an authoritative reference bibliography for their part of the record: “prefatory and supplementary auction catalogs containing American Hebraica. sections such as introductions, copyrights, appen- The contents of the two volumes offer numerous dices, footnotes, advertisements, etc.” The tables new glimpses into the vibrant character of Hebrew of abbreviations also reflect the great care and publishing in America. The date of the earliest bibli- thought that was put into referencing the variety of ographical entry is 1735, the year of publication of relevant sources, descriptive terms of the modern Judah Monis’s Hebrew grammar, printed for use in book trade, and library holdings of extant copies. the instruction of the Holy Tongue at Harvard 44 Book Reviews

College, where Monis, a convert to , 1926 (the terminus ad quem for HPA), as well as the taught. The bibliography concludes in 1926, shortly recent, magisterial labors of Robert Singerman in his after the “Golden Door” of immigration is virtually Judaica Americana, which covers imprints to the closed, and contains a total of 1,208 entries. Of these, year 1900 (Greenwood Press, 1990; 2 vols.). As the 1,190 are arranged chronologically within seventeen introduction makes clear, one of the innovations of chapters, comprising the following subject headings: HPA is to revise the work of Deinard and extend our ; Liturgy; Haggadah; Christian Hebraism; Bible knowledge of Hebrew printing beyond 1900 through Studies; Reference Works; Bibliography; Education the period of mass migration. Indeed, the author and Pedagogy; Drama, Fiction, Humor, and Poetry; spent over fifteen years tracking down extant copies Biography and History; Rabbinica; “Derash” (Ser- to compare, whenever possible, physical editions mons); Periodicals; ; Miscellaneous; Chris- with the descriptions found in previous bibliogra- tian and Missionary publications; and Americana. phies. The end result is an invaluable corrective, with Most of the subject chapters are preceded by brief detailed notes about these discrepancies scattered historical introductions (though it is not clear why throughout the two volumes of entries. The decision some are chosen and not others for commentary). to arrange the entries in subject chapters enables the Following the subject chapters is chapter eighteen, reader not only to look up a particular individual an “Addenda” featuring eighteen printed items item but also to see it in the context of the printing (entries 1,191–1,208). Especially noteworthy among history of its genre as it developed over time. them is entry no. 1,192 [HPA II, 1,046–1,048] for the The tension that exists between the dual pur- Occident and American Jewish Advocate, the pio- poses of doing history and bibliography occasion- neering Jewish monthly published in Philadelphia ally show up in HPA. The word “America” in the title and edited by Isaac Leeser from 1843 to 1869 (the of this work, for example, leaves open what is the last year of publication, following Leeser’s death in chronological and geographical scope of the work. 1868, was edited by Mayer Sulzberger in fulfillment In terms of chronology—and assuming “America” of a pledge to his mentor). Conveniently provided refers to the British colonies before the American here for the first time is a list of all the “complete Revolution (given the inclusion of Monis’s gram- Hebrew contributions” published in the Occident. mar) as well as to the United States after its found- Among the remarkable historical details to be ing—why does HPA commence in 1735, when the gleaned from HPA is the fact that a Lithuanian- first example of Hebrew typography in America, as born darshan (preacher) named Yehezkel Preisser is noted in the prefatory remarks to Chapter One living in in 1909 apparently was the (“”, HPA, I:1), is the The Whole Book of Psalms, first to initiate, albeit unsuccessfully, the now the so-called “Bay Psalm Book,” printed in Cam- worldwide Jewish religious custom of Daf Yomi bridge, Massachusetts in 1640? The criteria for (the seven-and-a-half year cycle of reading of the inclusion in HPA are unclear: if it is the occurrence entire Babylonian Talmud undertaken by obser- of Hebrew type in a printed work, then how much vant around the world reading a page a day). is needed for inclusion? (The practice took hold after 1923, when Rabbi In terms of geography, a similar ambiguity Meir Shapiro of Lublin introduced the study pro- implicit in the word “America” exists. For example, gram at the first great assembly of the orthodox the index of places of publications shows that Agudas Yisroel world organization.) Hebrew works printed in Canada (Montreal and For those unacquainted with Hebrew printing Toronto) are included in HPA. There is no reason to in America, perhaps the most startling discovery to question the relevance of their inclusion histori- be found in HPA is the large number of works of cally, but bibliographically one might ask if the title Rabbinica and Derash, i.e., forms of Jewish legal, then should be “Hebrew Printing in North Ameri- sermonic, and exegetical commentaries generally ca”—or for that matter, “Hebrew Printing in the associated with traditional Ashkenazic literary cul- Atlantic World,” given the inclusion of imprints ture, which were published in the United States from Kingston, Jamaica, and London, England (not and circulated well across the Atlantic to Eastern to mention a number of works printed in Breslau, Europe and the Levant. For the English-only reader Budapest, Haifa, , , Mainz, etc.). in particular, these sections offer a much-needed, The question, then, is the extent to which the bib- valuable entrée. liographical scope of HPA, both chronologically and HPA follows in the footsteps of the pioneering geographically, should extend beyond the national bibliographies of Judaica Americana of A.S.W. boundaries of the United States in order to do justice Rosenbach and , both published in to the historical relationships created by the transat- Book Reviews 45 lantic networks of commerce and communication the output of Hebrew—and particularly bilingual— that are fully demonstrated in this bibliography. editions of Bibles, Prayer books, Haggadot, Rab- A related historical question arises when we con- binics, belles-lettres (for example) in other coun- sider this claim, made in the introduction (p. xii): tries (e.g., England, France, Germany, and Italy [before and after unification]) during the same time From its inception the Hebrew press in period, from the national output of Hebrew print- America was markedly different from its ing in the United States? European predecessors [because] American Another tension can be found in the organiza- publications almost always bore the mark of tion of the bibliography. The subject chapters are a their environment. . . . These works—many of boon to the reader searching for historical informa- which were of low literary and intellectual tion about one of the thirteen subjects, yet HPA caliber, or were of an ephemeral nature— winds up not providing a subject index. This means were infused with much material that reflect- that the chief access points to the “subjects” covered ed the American environment. They teem in the bibliography are restricted to those seventeen with locale-specific material in a way that the pre-determined categories of chapter headings. So, Jewish press of no other country ever did. for example, there is no straightforward way to research Sephardic works, or Hebrew editions con- Problematically, the primary example brought to taining specimens of or Ladino. To be sure, support that claim (Monis’s grammar), is invoked it is readily understandable why one would want to because he was a “living author and he published his follow the chronological development of genres own work in response to local (non-Jewish) needs at such as “Haggadot.” And yet, because the bibliogra- Harvard College.” The case could be made that a sig- phy a priori is broken up into subject chapters, the nificant amount of early Hebrew publishing, reader cannot easily witness the chronological whether by Christian Hebrew teachers and publish- development of Hebrew printing in toto within a ers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries given year, as one can for example with Singerman’s (which served their students in the monasteries, Judaica Americana. To do so, one has to refer to seminaries, and at the local universities where they Index 8 (“Imprint Year”) and then page through the taught) or by Jews themselves in the early modern two volumes to compare the disparate entries listed period (to celebrate, mourn, or remember specific there. The latter difficulty is a minor inconvenience local events, and/or address local needs), reflects but it does highlight one type of navigational trade- similar publishing patterns. Indeed, in the introduc- off generated by the current organization of HPA. tion to HPA’s chapter on “Derash” (I: 607), the author For a future edition, however, one might hope that writes, “No genre of traditional literature mirrors the HPA would be expanded to embrace Hebrew pub- Jewish people of each generation and locale better lishing around the Atlantic and be supplemented by then derash,” referring to “refugees crypto-Jews of an analytical subject index. seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Talmudic stu- Other matters to consider for a future edition dents of 18th-century Metz, and the devotees of the might be to provide transliterated titles as part of the nineteenth-century Mussar movement.” In an header of each entry, for the reader who is interested “Atlantic” context, is not the need to define and in the history but is unable to read Hebrew. Also, as explain “American exceptionalism” with respect to Goldman notes, “The year appears as it is listed on Hebrew printing rendered moot? the title page even when internal evidence suggests a The relevant comparison, however, would not different date” (HPA I, xxi: “Imprint Year”). However, be with Hebrew printing before 1735 but with the it is not clear why, when solid information about the parallel growth of the Hebrew press in other locales exact date of a work (or a date different from that around the world after 1735. Within HPA itself are which is printed on the title page) is available, that entries that offer evidence contradicting the excep- information is not provided to the reader. Variant tional character of Hebrew publishing in “America.” dates could be recorded in parentheses—or better The Canadian publication of Yudel Rosenberg’s yet, both dates could be accompanied with an expla- Sefer Mik. veh Yehudah (Toronto, 1918 or 1919) [HPA nation, especially given the chronological arrange- I: 558, #631], which deals with “the construction of ment within the subject chapters. a mikvah (e.g., in a modern city with electricity and These criticisms notwithstanding, HPA is a modern plumbing),” clearly occurred beyond the splendid achievement that will transform our borders of the United States of “America.” Speaking understanding of Hebrew publishing in the United from the point of view of genre, how different was States and beyond. Sefer ha-talmid, volume 1. New York: 1914. (Source: Yosef Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America, 1735-1926, entry no. 372.)

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