An attractive copy of a scarce siddur I acquired recently is one of extraordinary importance; it’s the first edition of the Sephardic siddur published in the New World in Hebrew and English. Published in 1837 and titled “The Form of Prayers: The Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews,” it represented a translation into English of the Sephardic prayers used at Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel synagogue, where the editor and noted translator Isaac Leeser served as leader.
Born in Prussia in 1806, Leeser emigrated to the United States at age 17, arriving at Richmond, Va., in 1824. Leeser soon gained fame for his articles in local papers defending Judaism, and achieved wide acclaim for his article in the Richmond Whig to defend Judaism from an attack that was printed in the London Quarterly. At this time in the U.S., in general congregations were not led by ordained rabbis, rather by a chazzan, and it was at this time that Abraham Israel Keys, the chazzan of the Spanish & Portuguese Congregation of Philadelphia, Mikveh Israel, passed away.
Despite being of Ashkenazi background, Leeser was offered the position, a position which he held until 1850 when he resigned after disagreement with the congregation. The scarcity of capable people to fill the position was noted by Leeser in a letter to Rabbi Solomon Hirschell of London: “Knowing my own want of proper qualification, I would never have consented to serve, if others more fitting in point of standing, information, or other qualities had been here; but this not being the case (as is proved by there being yet two congregations at least in this country without a regular chazzan), I consented to serve.” In 1857, the newly formed Congregation Beth-El-Emeth in Philadelphia called Leeser to lead them, and he served there until his death in 1868, never having married.
Leeser is best remembered for his extensive English translations and prolific writing for the American Jewish community, having authored numerous books and translations, edited a newspaper and full translations of the siddur and Tanach in an era where books written by Jews in English were nearly non-existent. This siddur translation was marketed to both sides of the Atlantic and thus contained a prayer for both the U.S. president as well as the British monarch. Being that there were no Hebrew printers in America, Leeser taught two gentile printers Hebrew in order to accelerate the printing project and indeed the siddur and a series of machzorim were completed within a 13-month period, a remarkable feat in an era of movable type and printing blocks.
