ABOAB DA FONSECA, ISAAC. Parafrasis commentada sobre el Pentateuco

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Jacob de Cordova

Amsterdam

1681

FIRST EDITION. Finely engraved title page by Johan van den Aveele depicting events in the life of the Biblical Isaac. Two issues (this without the portrait)

Kayserling 4; Gans, Memorbook p.99 (illustrated)

A paraphrastic (as opposed to literal) Spanish translation of the Pentateuch, embellished with author’s insights. Isaac ABOAB dA FONSECA was one of the Netherland’s most esteemed Rabbinic leaders. In 1651 he accepted a call as Haham to Recife, Brazil, at that time in the hands of the Dutch. Thus, he became the first Rabbi to minister on the American Continent. The victory of the Portuguese in 1654, however, doomed the Jewish Community of Recife and most Jews returned to Amsterdam. Others scattered to various places in the Caribbean. A small group migrated farther North - and such was the beginning of the great Jewish community of New York. See A. Wiznitzer, The Exodus from Brazil and Arrival in New Amsterdam of the Jewish Pilgrim Fathers1654, in: A.J. Karp (Ed.) The Jewish Experience in America (1969) Vol. I, pp.19-36