Letter from Jonas Bondi to Isaac Leeser;March 14, 1860

Title: Letter from Jonas Bondi to Isaac Leeser;March 14, 1860
Author: Jonas Bondi
Contributor: Isaac Leeser
Date Created: 14 March 1860
Location(s): Philadelphia
Format: Letter. 2 page(s) on 1 sheet(s).; Letter
Type: Letter
Language(s): English; Hebrew
Has Format: https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3tb0zm8d/manifest.json
Link to Colenda: https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3tb0zm8d
Physical Characteristics: Unlined Paper; Manuscript
Is Part Of: The Dropsie College Isaac Leeser Collection at the Penn Libraries
content: Friday, 20th Adar, (April), 1860.
Very honored friend:
I have received your worthy letter with a willing soul. Why and wherefore have you turned down my important articles without telling me a word ? “Is this the Torah and this its reward?” If I could have suspected this, I would have offered them to a different publication. How can your newspaper prosper ? In your time it has had a good develop-ment. You will never be finished with this stuff of de Sala when only the very few learned people in the world are interested in it. “The dwel-ler in heaven laughs”, for God hears my laughter?. “God mocks them”. Whom, then, Who is interested in Ellis Joseph's present gift, who leaves his congregation like sheep without a shepherd? That's fodder for the “Messenger”. I regret this matter very much. This affair will be old news next week. I have some more material, especially Krones, of Bres-lau, sent me his excellent program for the Frankel seminary of January 27, 1866, and to have let me say good luck, through you. He gave Szold only a German certificate, for he had not attended the Seminary as a student; he only lodged with him, but did not study. He has no title Morenu, and certainly not the permissions to be a rabbi. He has a Morenu and, perhaps, even a Semicha from the ultraorthodox Rabbi Tiktin in Breslau, who writes willingly, without knowing the warning of the rabbis. It is a case of “A disqualified one who makes illegitimate children legitimate”. So you see again these ultraorthodox. There is no fear of God in this place, there is no God in another place. Frankel is hurt by your failure to send him the “Occident”. He will send you his “Monatschrifft”. He wants to write against Szola. In exchange for that German certificate, Szola presented the seminary with an entire set of Talmud. “Bribery blinds even the wise”. Frankel mentions him among the donors, but only as “Herr Szola, preacher in Baltimore, not “doctor” or “Rabbiner.” What does Rabbi Abraham Rice say about this ? “The four houses of trampling” which

developed out of the one which he consecrated all of them torn apart and over-pious, occupying themselves with the treatise about Samaritans and those who fear sexual looseness.
Couldn't you obtain for me, by means of a Committee sent to Mr. Hart, a call for one of two lectures on history, over there ? Please see that it is arranged. “The deed is greater than the doer”. Frankel's discussion in the program, about marriage, is excellent. I would have sent it to you, but I am angry. I expect that the entire article will be printed next week.
Write to me about a lecture. I want to read “Esther” for them, or about the establishment of the Second Temple. Write to me about it. Perhaps I could work in the German congregation, but only truth and peace. I expect a immediate reply.
Your friend,
Jonah Bondi
In the Porutguese congregation here, an examination for Sanochecim? took place here recently, at which Solomon Joseph and Sanat Phillips were chosen as Shochetim and Rabbi Abraham as the head of the court. Think, should such things happen in Israel ? Are these Jews ? They appear to me like Karaites who have Tzizit and T'phillin hanging in the synagogue. They may have the schochet and the slaughtering knife also in the syn-agogue. Stand up the former and hang up the latter. The sensible pro-posal, to join in with other congregations and appoint schochetim who are capable, in various parts of the city, was turned down, in order that the Portuguese Jew who lives in the 40's (streets) should not be forced to eat slaughtered meat because of the distance. That would be compulsion. As it is, the schochet stands in his place and we changed the process around. The slaughtering knife is not placed on the throat, but it hangs in the air. Einhorn's protest must be welcome to you and to me. He has made up his mind that that is better. Decision forces decision. Thus the board will make no further concessions ? The Harts will not permit Lewengut to represent them. They will attain their ends through Einhorn. Thank him for it. That is the reason why you should keep si-lent now. Let the others bargain, who opposed your views, such as Isaacs. “The wise man has eyes in his head, the fool walks in darkness”. That is how it had to be. Dr, Raphall called the de Sola “en soof?”.
Identifier: LSDCBx3FF4a_22
Date: 1860-03-14

Part of Letter from Jonas Bondi to Isaac Leeser;March 14, 1860

Jonas Bondi, “Letter from Jonas Bondi to Isaac Leeser;March 14, 1860”, 1860-03-14, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed September 18, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/67694