Second Annual Examination of the Sunday School for Religious Instruction of Israelites in Philadelphia, Held at the Synagogue Mikveh Israel … Together with a Prayer by Isaac Leeser and an Address by Moses N. Nathan, Philadelphia: A. Waldie, 1840

28 pages (9 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.; 233 x 135 mm). Very lightly browned at edges. Modern red half morocco over marbled paper. 

Singerman 725; Rosenbach 458. See Jacob Rader Marcus, United States Jewry, 1776-1985, vol. I, pp. 391-2.

For the new Sunday School, the most important school event was the annual examination held at Purim time. In addition to prayers offered by Reverend Isaac Leeser of congregation Mikveh Israel, the festivities coinciding with the second annual examination included a learned discourse by Moses N. Nathan, a British expatriate, who had established a reputation as a staunchly traditional rabbi in Kingston, Jamaica. Following the school’s request that Nathan furnish the text of his sermon for publication he responded that although he had "hitherto objected to the publication of my discourses; the interest which the Sunday School has excited overcomes my scruples, and my esteemed friend, the Rev. Isaac Leeser, will hand you the manuscript.” His choice of Leeser as intermediary might be viewed as ironic, since Nathan's visit to Philadelphia in 1840 may have been part of an effort to succeed Leeser as spiritual leader of Mikveh Israel. At the time, Leeser was already embroiled in a struggle with the synagogue’s officers that would culminate, a decade later, in his departure (see lot 19).