POST-BIBLICAL HISTORY OF THE JEWS; FROM THE CLOSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, ABOUT THE YEAR 420 B.C.E., TILL THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND TEMPLE IN THE YEAR 70 C.E. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. (ONLY)

Hardcover. Philadelphia: Moss & Brother, 1855. Cloth, 8vo. 486 pages. First edition. Raphall (1798-1868) was born in Stockholm and settled in England in 1825, quickly becoming prominent in British Jewry as one of its chief exponents to the Christian world and as a fighter for the political rights of Jews and against defamations of Judaism. He published the first Jewish periodical in England and co-produced the first translation of parts of the Mishna into English. In 1849 he moved to the US, and in 1860 delivered the first invocation by a rabbi before the US House of Representatives. Raphall is most known, however, for his delivery, less than a year later at the height of the secession crisis in Janualry of 1861, of what became "the most highly publicized rabbinical statement on the 'Bible and Slavery'" in which he placed "Judaism squarely in opposition to abolitionism, [and] denied that any statement in the Bible could be interpreted to prohibit slavery, and, insisted that, on the contrary, biblical law granted the right to own slaves. " (EJ) . This played well with Jewish Southerners. He eventually settled in New York, where he led the B'nai Jeshurun congregation. (JE) Singerman 1409. SUBJECT(S) : Jews -- History -- 586 B. C. -70 A. D. Ex-library. Dampstained, with some warping and staining to pages. Front hinge gone. Boards very warped and discolored; backstrip peeling. Text in good condition. (AMR-5-25).