Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Synagogue of Shearith Israel in the City of New York …, Mordecai M. Noah, New York, C.S. Van Winkle: 1818

48 pages ( 8  1/4  x 5  1/2  in.; 210 x 140 mm). Original paper front wrapper mounted, browned . pp 39-42, hole, expertly repaired affecting only a few words; pp. 3/4, 41/42, marginal tear, expertly repaired, touching but not affecting text; other marginal repairs expertly repaired and not affecting text. Later stab-sewn. Modern brown buckram folder; half morocco over marbled paper slipcase; titles gilt.

One of the early American republic’s most influential Jews, Mordecai M. Noah was a journalist, editor of New York newspapers the National Advocate, publisher of the New York Enquirer, and a community activist. He held the position of United States Consul to Tunis in 1816, was the sheriff of New York in 1821, the Surveyor of the Port from 1829-1833, and a judge of the Court of General Sessions in 1841. He is perhaps most remembered as the originator of the ambitious, though never-realized Ararat Project on Grand Island near Niagara Falls in 1825—a proposed utopian city of refuge for persecuted European Jews. The present lot is an address delivered by Noah in New York at the consecration of the new synagogue building of Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in America. His address received written responses from Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. These were published by Noah in his 1819 book, Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States. (Singerman, 0290).