(AMERICAN JUDAICA)
Grace Aguilar. Shema Yisrael - The Spirit of ...

Grace Aguilar. Shema Yisrael - The Spirit of Judaism. Edited by Isaac Leeser.
English interspersed with Hebrew.
First American Edition. Manuscript presentation inscription in both English and Hebrew by Jacob Ezekiel, Richmond, Virginia, 1842. pp. (12), 255. Trace foxed. Original boards, recased, new endpapers. 8vo. Rosenbach 488; Singerman 767.

Philadelphia: C. Sherman, 1842.

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.