SAPHIR, JACOB (“Even Sapir.”) Gai Chizayon [in praise of Sir Moses and Lady Judith Montefiore upon their arrival to Eretz Israel]

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Israel Bak

Jerusalem

1855

Unopened and Uncut

Vinograd, Jerusalem 82; Halevy 53

Saphir relates of the munificence of Sir Moses Montefiore and Gershom Kursheedt for utilizing the funds provided by the American Jewish philanthropist Judah Touro to build a hospital in Jerusalem (see pp.12-15). Touro was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1775 and died in New Orleans in 1854. He left a legacy of $60,000 to support the indigent residents of Jerusalem, the funds to be distributed at the discretion of Sir Moses Montefiore and Gershom Kursheedt who were named as trustees. Gershom Kursheedt (1817-1863), named after his maternal grandfather, Gershom Mendes Seixas, Hazan of Spanish-Portuguese congregations in New York and Philadelphia, was a disciple of Isaac Leeser. See B.W. Korn, The Early Jews of New Orleans (1969), pp. 74-90 (Touro), 247-252 (Kursheedt)