Isaac Leeser Translation
The first American Jewish English translation of the Bible was the 19th century effort by Isaac Leeser. Leeser began with a five-volume, bilingual Hebrew–English edition of the Torah and haftarot, The Law of God (Philadelphia, 1845). The complete translation of the entire Bible was published as The Twenty-four books of the Holy Scriptures in 1853 (commonly called The Leeser Bible). In 1857 he re-issued it in a second (folio-size) edition, with abridged notes.
Until the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation, the Leeser translation was the most important Jewish English translation. It was widely-used in North American synagogues and reprinted in England.
A modern writer notes that despite its longevity, Leeser's translation was "wooden" and "devoid of literary distinction". He concludes that "it is perhaps the existence of Leeser's work rather than its merits that marks it as a noteworthy achievement".
Read more about this topic: Jewish English Bible Translations
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