Fünf Reden … (Five Addresses … for Important American Days of Commemoration [Including Several Relating to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln]), Liebman Adler, Chicago: Dampfspressen-Druck der “Illinois Staatszeitung,” 1866

20 pages (7 5/8 x 5 1/8 in.; 194 x 132 mm). Fraktur, leaves strengthened at gutter, minor tears to upper corners, pp. 1-4; upper corner torn away, p. 5/6;washed; lower corners slightly soiled; marbled endpapers. Modern half leather over marbled boards, gilt title and author name on spine.

Singerman 1922; Rainer Liedtke and David Rechter, Towards Normality? Acculturation and Modern German Jewry (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).

Tobias Brinkmann, “Jews, German, or Americans? German-Jewish Immigrants in the Nineteenth-Century United States,” in The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness, ed. by Krista O’Donnell, Renate Bridenthal, Nancy Ruth Reagin (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 111-140; Jonathan D Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, Lincoln and the Jews: A History (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2015).

In 1861, seven years after he emigrated from Germany to the United States, Rabbi Liebman Adler (1812-1892), a moderate reformer, became rabbi of Kehilas Anshe Maarab, the oldest Jewish congregation in Chicago. The present lot comprises five of Adler’s sermons, delivered in German between March and June of 1865). The first sermon was delivered on March 4, 1865, the day of President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration and was the first published Jewish sermon to specifically celebrate his presidency.  Of the five sermons by Adler printed here, four specifically mention Lincoln by name; they all touch on themes that resonated strongly with Northern Jews in nineteenth century America. Anti-slavery and pro-democracy in sentiment, they are particularly effusive in praise of America’s treatment of the Jews, while offering sharp rebuke to the monarchies of Europe. It is not surprising that these were delivered and published in the President’s home state of Illinois, where he had strong base of support, particularly among the Jews of Chicago.