Hebrew Language
H. Henry's Imrai Shaipher, A Hebrew Vocabulary (New York,
1838), published by the Jewish printer M. Jackson, bore the
recommendations, among others, of M.
M. Noah and I. B. Seixas, Reader of K. K. Shearith Israel; as well as
those of John Dowling, Pastor of the West Baptist Church; and the Reverend
S. Luckey, Editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal. The author,
who dedicates the volume to his father, P. Henry, Esquire, thanks Peter
Westervelt for "revising the proof sheets," explaining "the
English language not being my native tongue, I could not, myself ... have
undertaken to correct." Henry also laments his "want of proper
assistance from books, which I was almost destitute of, for, a Bible, a
Lexicon of but second rate quality, and a small Grammar, published in
England in 1653, these were the only Heb. books, my library could boast
of." He undertook nonetheless preparation of a handbook facilitating
finding the roots of Hebrew words. (It is of interest to note that, in
1838, there was someone in America, as the author notes, who could inform
him that the title he chose for his work had already been used in Europe by
Naphtali Herz Wessely for a poetical work.)
The author, H. Henry,
describes his work as "A Hebrew Vocabulary ... designed to lessen the
difficulty which students encounter in searching for the roots of
defective words etc." A recent immigrant, Henry acknowledges the help
he received, "in revising the proof sheets ... the English language
not being my native tongue." The printer and publisher is Morris
Jackson, son of New York's first Jewish printer and publisher, Solomon
Henry Jackson.
H. Henry, Imrai Shaipher, A Hebrew Vocabulary, New York,
1838. General Collection.
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During the nineteenth century, Hebrew grammars by Jews
and non-Jews continued to appear. A few articles and letters in Hebrew
appeared in the Occident, and in the 1860s two Hebrew volumes were
published. in 1871 with the appearance of the Hebrew weekly Ha-Zofeh
ba'Arez ha-Hadashah (The Watchman in the New Land), which began
publication on June 11 and lasted for five years, the language became a
living reality. Its editor, Zvi Hirsch Bernstein (1846-1907), was
twenty-four years old when he arrived from Russia in 1870. Already a
contributor to a number of Hebrew periodicals there, once in America he
turned to publishing, founding Die Post, the first Yiddish
periodical in America, which lasted but six months. In his second year, he
launched two periodicals, the four-language Hebrew News in Yiddish,
Hebrew, German, and English, which soon folded, and Ha-Zofeh.
The migration of Jews from
Eastern Europe to the United States, which became a mighty wave at the end
of the nineteenth century and the beginning the twentieth, was not yet a
trickle in June 1871, when Zvi Bernstein began the publication of the
first Hebrew periodical in America, Ha-Zofeh ba-Arez ha-Hadashah (The
Watchman in the New World). The editor declared its mission to be:
To stand on the watchtower and report what was happening to our brethren
in all parts of the world, especially in America, and the history of the
times, which is needed to be known by every person.
Subscription: $4.20 annually; advertisements 10 cents a line; ads for the
"public good" are free.
Ha-Zofeh ba-Arez ha-Hadashah, New York, June 27, 1871. Hebraic
Section.
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That paper's second issue contains a report on the
annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites; news items
from Buffalo and Cincinnati as well as from Russia and Jerusalem; scholarly
articles on the sources of Jewish surnames, the excommunication of Spinoza,
and Jews in the East Indies; a report of new books; a letter from Vilna,
and various announcements. Its front page carried praise from America's
leading Hebraist, Rabbi H. Vidaver, of New York's Congregation B'nai
Jeshurun, who wrote:
All who esteem and love will praise you; and everyone
will hail you ... for being the first to have the courage to plant this
Hebrew shoot in the "Vineyard of Ben Shemen," when most of our
people are interested only in the "fat of the land . . ."
Be strong and of good courage, stretch forth the Hebrew pen and the
blessings of those who honor the language will descend upon you — and
among them am I.
Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From
the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress,
(DC: Library of Congress,
1991).
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