Aguilar, Grace. Shema Yisrael - The Spirit of Judaism. Edited by Isaac Leeser

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

C. Sherman

Philadelphia

1842

First American Edition. English interspersed with Hebrew

Rosenbach 488; Singerman 767

Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) was an English Jewess of Portuguese Marrano descent. Leeser published The Spirit of Judaism, Aguilar's theological work for women, after having edited the manuscript for thirteen months. In the Editor's Preface, Leeser notes a point of difference between Miss Aguilar and himself, notably Aguilar's aversion to Rabbinic tradition, or the Oral Law. See L. J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995), pp.133-34