Letter from Aaron Wolff to Isaac Leeser;July 02, 1847 · Isaac Leeser Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from Aaron Wolff to Isaac Leeser;July 02, 1847

Author

Aaron Wolff

Contributor

Isaac Leeser

Location(s)

Saint Thomas

Philadelphia

Format

Letter. 6 page(s).

Type

Letter

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3v69944p/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3v69944p

Physical Characteristics

Lined Paper

Wax Seal

Manuscript

Is Part Of

The Dropsie College Isaac Leeser Collection at the Penn Libraries

content

St Thomas 2 July 1847 private
Revd Mr Leeser
Phila
Dr Sir
Your letter of 12 Nov, 11 Dec & 4 Jany are before me I would have been[?] replied to before this but really I have been & am still so occupied that I could not spare time before, the affairs of our Congregation have been extremely heavy for me as you shall find, I will firstly reply to your letter of Dec. You are quite correct when you state that I am interested for you. I have always been, & am so still, this has been the reason of my always writing you in the stile I do. I regret to find that you had been so indisposed. I hurt that your health has since been perfectly re-established.
Mr Nans.[?] and myself are at variance, because at his arrival I placed every confidence in him as an old friend & a man being alike friendly to myself as well as to the party appeared to me, & one to when I considered devoted the duty of interfering & reconciling all the evils of the hart, but in stead of that he inserted[?] himself under the banner and did all he could to annoy & vex him me, being then in appearance friendly disposed, he concocted a letter which Dr Peixotto signed as President Addressed to the head of the Commission for framing the new laws in which he reviled me shamefully. I attacked him upon it & he acknowledged it; for this & other reasons I withdrew from him & not only myself but other highly respectable members of the congregation lost the opinion they held of him, he then became a leader of the party; & continued to do all he could to annoy, this led him to be in[?] agreement M Nathan as well as to myself, making use of no measured language, calling him a Counting Priest &c.
I have written you so fully in the benefits

of confirmation that I will add what has really come under my notice, there was 3 entire families here, who previously to Mr Carillons [?], & were on the eve of apostatizing, his instructions for the confirmation & private arguments completely brought them back to their duty. I have since had the pleasure of beholding its Moral & Religious effects upon the Young people who now venerate their religion because they begin to understand it. it is only a few whose opinions are lax and are desirous of helping their children in ignorance of true religion that are so violently opposed to it because they are afraid that their children will reproach them for not keeping the Sabbath & holy days which is strictly enforced in the Catechism, the proof that it is well received is, that Mr Nathan will confirm 14 young people in Passover. I am sorry that we do not agree upon this point, for experience has confined my opinion of its benefits & I am resolved to promote it with all my might. Mr Nathan would have replied but the man has been so annoyed by the conduct of Simmonds & his party that I do not for the life of me know how he could get thro' his duties as well as he did, added to it, we have a heavy task to get through the new laws, the heaviest part falling upon himself & myself;–I saw him last night, he promises to reply very soon.–By the Bye I have never secured the Occident for September. Please to forward it.
I now come to our Congregational Matters under the Administration of Simmonds & his friends. I informed you of the abuses of power in some cases, these continued so long, & new ones were added that enacted[?] a great stir in the Congregation & very many that had been opposed to me, now saw that the reports they were against me were false; at length Simmonds quitted the Island for the purpose of marrying her Brother with a lady at Caracao , by which the

the administration of the Synagogue was only left in the hands of 4 instead of 7 persons—5 of the body forming a quorum, two of the members at the election refused to act & never did as long as the Quorum was complete no one opposed the legality.–but at Simmonds leaving, he with the 4 others balloted [?] out of 2 instead of 4 Wardens as the law orders to fill the place of President; now previous to balloting for a new the old President must resign, as soon as he did this, the body was reduced to 4 which were not a quorum & had not the power of doing any business, consequently the balloting was illegal; the most respectable members of the Congregation represented the business to [?] & showed the necessity of the Government of the Congregation being filled up & of a new election for that purpose (the laws of the Congregation does not provide for such a state of things,) the Government who knew I were heartily disgusted with all the proceedings of the entire party since the affair with Carellion who saw how every thing had gone to [?][?], & who know that these people were improper ones to be in the Government, appointed me President & Messrs O[?] & Fidangree[?] Wardens, & then ordered an entire new election of 7. this the 4 Remaining of Simmonds Administration protested against, & as the were the majority I could not carry out the Government order, I informed Government of it & sent in the protest, the Governor immediately dismissed them from their offices & placed Miss Rothschild, Dr DeCortz, Dr Monsato & Isaac Pritt[?] in their stead the Board to continue until further orders:–we found the affairs in a very bad & neglected state, the circular they published was proved to be incorrect in all its parts, the Synagogue was in need of repair the [?] at the Burial Ground in a very bad state, and [?] the minister & every other officer in credit. The Minister

for 6 months pay as well as the other officers, we required $1200 over & above the Taxes to make the Synagogue clear, in consequence we determined to call a meeting of the congregation & lay before the members an expose (I could get the sum required by [?] pay $250 per year) previous to having any idea of calling a general meeting, I wrote a letter to Nans proposing a reconciliation of all that had passed & asking him to use his influence with those over whom I know he had influence to forget & bury the past remote[?] for the general good. I did this for the common good, with no view to my particular standing, because I was already at the head of the Congregation placed there by government, & consequently not in need of the suffrages of any one—the act was purely religious—his reply was of a nature that in time will make him feel regret & a refusal; except upon terms that could never have been acceded to by any will in either of the congregation, he wanted us to go back—only have Readers without pulpit instruction, to do away with Taxes & substitute offerings to them upon the religiously inclined the whole burthen of maintaining the establishment, at length the meeting took place at that meeting he and the arguments quoted which was met by a vote of 3 to 1, against him, & his party of 10 persons, he promises that affairs shall be worse than

ever, then you see his conduct, the Governor being very much displeased with his & his party' doings did not invite any one of them to a Ball he gave for some Dutch Naval Officers, this has made him more furious, but thank God he cannot injure altho he may annoy, you can form no idea of the trouble I have had to re-arrange the affairs. the Synagogue is under repair, the Burial House will be, the people beg me to pay their taxes. Mr Nathan has consented to leave his Salary & in a little time the Sunday School will be again alone—in spite of the distractions
Pray send me the [?] Volume of the Pentateuch in place of the one that was injured & returned we shall soon require it. The new Laws will go into Government in the Month. I have no time to recapitulate all the insults to Mr Nathan, Mr Bay had a circumcision at his house, he wrote to inform me & stated that he did not require the services of the Minister, insulting him thus publicly. Bay is Naan son in law
I regret to state that my son Moses has been obliged to take his name off of the list of subscribers to the Occident for the ensuing Year, business having gone bad with him, 3d [?] Naan refused to pay his tax yesterday. I will not enforce it by law as I am determined to do the opposite of that which he & party desire. I will be moderate & put up with their opposition as far as I can without creating more bad feeling, it is awful to live among such bad spirits;–you can suppose that neither himself for any of his party of 10 came to the Synagogue, they cannot be accused of having done often previously–
With best wishes I am My Dr Sir
Yours truly
A Wolff

Revd Mr Leeser
Philada

Identifier

LSDCBx1FF4_1

Date

1847-07-02