Schwarz, Joseph. A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine. Translated by Isaac Leeser. Illustrated With Maps and Numerous Engravings.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

C. Sherman

Philadelphia

1850

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION AND FIRST EDITION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. English interspersed with Hebrew. Frontispiece portrait of author, foldout maps of Land of Israel, lithographed views of Holy Places, etc. Opening pastedown with Jews’ College school-prize label, presented to Martin Loewe and signed by headmaster, Louis Loewe, 1865.

Singerman 1161; Rosenbach 683.

This work first appeared in Hebrew under the title Tevu’oth Ha’Aretz in 1845. Four years later, the author visited the United States as a rabbinical emissary from the Holy Land and resided with his brother who was already established in New York. Whilst in America, Joseph Schwarz arranged for the Rev. Isaac Leeser to translate Tevu’oth Ha’Aretz into English. The publication was “probably the most important Jewish work issued in America up to that time.” (JE, Vol. XI, p. 119). Leeser was well cognizant of the pioneering status of the new book and he proudly stated: “The execution of the whole…is the work of Jewish writers and artists, the drawings being executed by Mr. S. Shuster, a lithographer belonging to our Nation” (translator’s preface, p. viii). Leeser published the volume to “extend the knowledge of Palestine…and also to enkindle sympathy and kind acts for those of our brothers, who still cling to the soil of our ancestors” (translator’s preface, pp. viii-ix). See L.J. Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995) p. 176.