A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, by Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, … translated by Isaac Leeser, …. Illustrated With Maps and Numerous Engravings, Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1850

532 pages (8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 225 x 140 mm), Frontispiece portrait of author, two (unnumbered) foldout maps, 12 unnumbered) leaves of lithographed views of the Holy Land, with tissue guards. Lightly foxed. Blind-tooled morocco, gilt extra, dentelles, all edges gilt; lightly rubbed; folder and matching half-morocco slipcase.

Singerman 1161; Rosenbach 683; Lance Sussman, Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism. 1995, p.176.

The 19th-century witnessed sharply increased interest in the Holy Land due to new directions in Bible studies and the rising popularity of visiting the Land itself. This renewed attention was reflected in the growing body of literature of geographies and travelogues. One such Hebrew work was Joseph Schwarz's Tevuot ha-Aretz, issued in Jerusalem in 1845. When Schwarz visited the United States, four years later, as a rabbinical emissary from the Holy Land he arranged for Isaac Leeser to translate and publish Tevuot ha-Aretz.  When it appeared the following year under the title, A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, it was recognized as one of the most important Jewish works published in America up to that time. Leeser proudly stated in his introduction: "The execution of the whole (book] is the work of Jewish writers and artists, the drawings being executed by Mr. S. Shuster, a lithographer belonging to our Nation." Leeser further expressed his hope that the publication of the volume might "extend the knowledge of Palestine, … and also to enkindle sympathy and kind acts for those of our brothers, who cling to the soil of our ancestors."