Certificate of Conversion, Isaac Leeser, Philadelphia: 1844

1 leaf (9 3/4 x 7 7/8 in.; 250 x 200 mm). Written in brown ink on paper. Slightly chipped along upper margin and at lower left corner; light strike at left margin; small tear near right margin, 2 inches above lower left corner. Signed by Isaac Leeser; two additional signatures in darker ink.

Dana Evan Kaplan, "Intermarriage and Conversion to Judaism in Early American Orthodoxy, Tradition, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Summer 1997), pp. 39-51.

AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE EARLY AMERICAN CONVERSION CERTIFICATE

This rabbinical document attests to the ritual conversion to Judaism of the three minor children of Moses ben Nathan Bomeisler: his daughter Rebecca, and his two sons, Benjamin and David. The entire document is written in Hebrew by Isaac Leeser, the Hazzan of Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel congregation. Leeser asserts that the father promised to raise the children in the Jewish faith. The unnamed Christian mother testified to Leeser's satisfaction that she had granted irrevocable consent to the process. In order to be valid a ritual Jewish conversion requires the assent of three members of a Bet-Din (Rabbinical Court). In addition to Leeser, the document is signed by the other two members of the Bet Din, Abraham Israel, (scribe and beadle of the Cherry Steet Synagogue), and Jacob Phillips (manager of the United Hebrew Benevolent Society). In view of the fact that the boys were already circumcised, the only ritual act required was the immersion in a ritual bath under the supervision of the court. The immersion of the daughter, Rebecca, was similarly conducted, under the auspices of two women "of the daughters of Israel."