Letter from A. Kohn to Isaac Leeser;March 10, 1851 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from A. Kohn to Isaac Leeser;March 10, 1851

Author

A. Kohn

Contributor

Isaac Leeser

Date Created

10 March 1851

Location(s)

Chicago

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 3 page(s) on 4 sheet(s).

Type

Letter

Language(s)

English

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3ms3kn1p/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3ms3kn1p

Physical Characteristics

Unlined Paper

Manuscript

Is Part Of

The Jesselson Family Collection of Isaac Leeser Material

content

Rev. Mr I. Leeser Philadelphia
Chicago March 10th 1851
Dear Sir!
Your esteemed favor of 18' of last month is before me, in reply to which I would like to treat of business first & of miscellanious things afterwards. We are owing you incl. The now ending vol. of the Occident $11.00, of which we have to deduct an outlay for postage on the 23' March 1848 for books send to S. Coh. Here $—73 remaining $10.72, for which please to find an order to N. Y. enclosed, acknowledging its receipt in the next Occident.
Your bill against S. Coh we have presented, to which he replied as follows: I have remitted Mr Leeser on the 23' Jan 1848 by you (respect. Kohn, the same having been send in the letter ordering the Occident) Three Dollars, then again I have receipt for Three Dollars in the Occident of June 1849, & Six Dollars were send by me to Mr Leeser some time in Febr. Last, which makes up the 12 Dollars, the amount of the bill. I hope it is in order, please to write about it.
In regard to your retiring from your office last fall, I felt sorry when reading of it, there must have been a serious misunderstanding between you & your congr. to have caused such a step, as far as I could learn, you acted the part of a man of self respect by retiring. I regret very much, that I could not do much with your circulars, to procure you new subscribers there is too much indifferism amongst Hebrew about their holy Religion its defenders, or any thing out of trade, it is realy deplorable, but let us hope for better in the future. I have always looked upon the Occid. as a welcome visitor, I like its tendency & spirit & shall always peruse any of the volumes with pleasure & satisfaction.
But Mr Leeser I would advice you one thing that if you do wish more subscribers for your Occ. or weekly paper about to be published, do come out on a Editors Tour to the west, & by personally soliciting subscribers to your Periodicals

you will get 10 subscribers, to one you might get without it. If you start after Hebrew & go to New York Albany Utica Syracuse Rochester Bufalo Erie Cleveland Sandusky Toledo Detroit Milwaukee Chicago Peru Pevria? St Louis, & then down the Miss. & Ohio up towards Cincinatti & home again, I will warrant you a great many new names on your Lists, & they pay all, which is a principal thing. From Albany West you will find Hebrew in every town or City of little importance, who will take your Occ. if they see you & the paper. There area great many who never heard of it, do come out & show it to them, tell them that it is a necessary Book in their families, particularly for those who live isolated in places where there are only a few & no Hebrew or Synagogue. Please look on the maps and note every little town from here down the Illinois River to St Louis & from there on the Miss. & then to Cincinnati & you will find Hebrew in every town of importance, who will take your paper if you present it yourself. The Exp. of travelling will come out of it. This is a friendly advice of mine, you may take it into consideration, it is given gratis, & with the best intentions.
They are at present forming a Congreg. at Detroit Mich, another has been started at Milwaukee, where there are a great many families congregated from Bohemia.
Here we began a Hebrew 3 years ago with 15 members we now number 40 paying members, have a Burial Ground, & by building a Synagogue now, we are under an Expense of ca 2200 Dollars to come out of the pockets of the members. There are a good many things besides building a Synagogue to be wished but patience & perseverance will accomplish a great many things.
By and bye, the Asmonean lately had an article from a Corresp. from here, in which it states that by the liberality of the NY. merchant we are enabled to go on with our work of building, this is not a fact, all we got from NY. Was from 60 to 65 Dollars, honor to whom honor is due!

Another thing! Could you not publish those several = Dias letters = in Phamplet form? they would sell well every traveling Hebrew in the M. S. wuld buy one I warrant you.
If you would try to give in your next volume of the Occident some more light reading for children, some extracts from Hebrew, little anecdotes, little parables cc suitable for the young, it would be some improvement, & lead to more subscribers. There are a great many who do not like always grave matters or articles requiring thought & study, some lighter food will sometimes be more acceptable.
Your Editions of Hebrew cc you will also have oportunity to sell, if you should resolve to make a Western Tour.
About those Hebrew you send by Mr Goldsmith NY I never got them, neither are they with any of the booksellers here. Finally Mr Leeser, I shall be in NY. on or about Hebrew, & should be very happy to make your personal acquaintance should you come there, you will easily find me by inquiring after me. Please to excuse my long epistle, any faults in the writing of it, I am only a German decendant of Hebrew.
yours respectfully
A Kohn

Identifier

LSTCAT_item43

Date

1851-03-10