Early Life
Born as Isaak Leeser in Neuenkirchen/Rheine, Westphalia, Isaac Leeser received his education at the primary school of nearby Dülmen and thereupon at a gymnasium in Münster. He was well-grounded in Latin, German, and Hebrew. He also studied the Talmud tractates Moed, Bava Metzia, and portions of Kodashim and Bava Batra under Hebrew masters. At the age of seventeen he emigrated to America, arriving at Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1824. His uncle, Zalma Rehiné, a respected merchant in that city, sent Leeser to a private school but after ten weeks the school closed, and for the next five years Leeser was employed in his uncle's counting-room. Although his circumstances were inhospitable for the growth of his Jewish knowledge, Leeser showed his bent by voluntarily assisting the hazzan to teach religion on Saturdays and Sundays and also by defending Judaism in the public press from time to time when it was assailed.
Read more about this topic: Isaac Leeser
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labour.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The writing career is not a romantic one. The writer’s life may be colorful, but his work itself is rather drab.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)