Isaac Leeser - Publishing

Publishing

The scarcity of books concerning the Jewish religion emphasized the fact that there was no American Jewish publisher. Having translated Johlson's Instruction in the Mosaic Religion, Leeser issued in the winter of 1829-30 proposals to publish it and The Jews and the Mosaic Law. When no offers were forthcoming, he became his own publisher.

In 1845, Leeser published a Hebrew-English edition of the Torah in five volumes; the English translation was his own. It was the first such translation in the United States, and it became the standard Bible for English-speaking Jews during the nineteenth century.

Three years later, Leeser published a masoretic Hebrew edition of the Tanakh, Biblia Hebraica, in cooperation with Joseph Jaquett, a local Episcopalian minister. It was the first of its kind to be printed in America.

In 1853, Leeser completed his English translation of the entire Tanakh, commonly called The Leeser Bible. In 1857 he issued a second (folio-size) edition of this Bible. A compact size edition (containing a "Notes" section in the back of the book) was printed two years after the quarto edition (which contained footnotes of more extensive notes), as stated in the second to the last paragraph of the Preface of the compact size edition.