Rabbi Isaac Leeser, translator

The Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, Carefully Translated According to the Massoretic Text, on the Basis of the English Version, after the Best Jewish Authorities; and Supplied with Short Explanatory Notes.
Philadelphia: L. Johnson and Company, 5614 (i.e., 1854). (BRA0866)

This is the first English translation of the Hebrew Bible produced and published in the United States. The translator, Rabbi Isaac Leeser (1806–1868), was the head rabbi of the Synagogue Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, where he became America’s most prolific Jewish writer. He compiled a Hebrew reader and Jewish catechism and also edited The Occident, the first Jewish periodical in America. Leeser’s translation of the Pentateuch was published at his own expense in 1845–1846, and the complete Bible was published for the first time in 1854. Dr. Sellers’ copy is inscribed by the translator, “To the Savannah Hebrew Sunday School from Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia, April 11, 5627.” The date 5627 corresponds to 1867, the year before he died.

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Scripture and Worship
Rabbi Isaac Leeser, translator