Simon Tuska. The Stranger in the Synagogue. Or The Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Worship, Described and Explained.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

E. Darrow & Brother

Rochester

1854

Singerman 1363.

The Hungarian-born author (1835–1871) was son of the Rabbi Mordecai Tuska of Rochester, New York. After two years of U.S. schooling young Tuska was awarded one of the first scholarships to the University of Rochester. Although he specialized in Greek and Latin, his chief interest was Judaism and while still a student wrote the present work to explain Jewish rites and ceremonies to both his Christian colleagues and the Jewish public. He was warmly praised by Isaac Mayer Wise, but his critique of Talmudic law drew the censure of Isaac Leeser. See A.J. Karp, Simon Tuska’s The Stranger in the Synagogue, in: Univesity of Rochester Library Bulletion, Vol. XIV, no. 1 (1958).