Letter from Samuel S. Oppenheim to Isaac Leeser;October 09, 1860

Title: Letter from Samuel S. Oppenheim to Isaac Leeser;October 09, 1860
Author: Samuel S. Oppenheim
Contributor: Isaac Leeser
Date Created: 9 October 1860
Location(s): London; Philadelphia
Format: Letter. 3 page(s) on 2 sheet(s).; Legal
Type: Letter
Language(s): English
Has Format: https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3v980c0t/manifest.json
Link to Colenda: https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3v980c0t
Physical Characteristics: Manuscript
Is Part Of: The Dropsie College Isaac Leeser Collection at the Penn Libraries
content: London, October 9th 5620.
22 Endsleigh St. Enston Sqre.
Revrd. Isaac Leeser,
Dear Sir
I take the opportunity at this season of the year to write you a few lines wishing you many happy returns of the festivals & that you may be spared many more years to defend Ancient Orthodox Judaism in America, against the Anti Jewish doctrines of the new lights. I receive regularly your Occident, & feel the same pleasure in reading it that I always did in Cincinnati, Mr Lewis Nathan, 10 Finsbury Circus, requests me to say he wishes to become a subscriber, that gentleman is one of the Parnassim of the Great Synagogue, [The Synagogues here are all conducted on Orthodox principles with the exception of the Margaret St. one, & that I am told does not increase its number of members very rapidly, if at all. The branch places of worship of the Great & Portuguese Synagogues, in a great measure having checked it, as formerly numbers attended there who could not walk the distance to the City Synagogues; They have just reopened it with an Organ, like all new customs introduced into Jewish Worship, as established by our Sages, they must have after a certain time a change, hence the introduction of the Organ. The Portland St. Synagogue a branch of the Great, divide the morning Service, from the Reading of the Law, Additional Service & Sermon, on Sabbath & holidays with the exception of the

New Year & Day of Atonement. The prayers for rain & dew have also been curtailed in that Synagogue by the Sanction of Dr. Adler the Chief Rabbi, but none of the other Peyatim are abolished, the Second service commences at ½ past 10 Oclock, it is true this division makes a great many attend service which never used, but at the first service the Synagogue is almost deserted there being hardly more than Minyan attending, so that I believe the rising generation when they grow up will almost forget there is such a service as Shocras, it would be much better to have both services together & commence at 9 O Clock; In the country most of the Congregations are small, I have visited a great many of them, & strange to say whereas in the United States the small congregations increase rapidly, here they diminish. At Manchester besides the orthodox congregation, there is a seceding one the minister of which was formerly minister of an orthodox one but he having had a misunderstanding with the members, became a seceder, did the disagreement with the members of his former congregation alter his religious views? I am told a great many attend that Synagogue that never before attended any but would not the minister have been just as soon able to have brought them there by introducing the old Orthodox Portuguese Minhag, instead of the Margaret St. Prayer Book.
Sussex Hall, the Jews & General Literary & Scientific Institution is about to be closed. The Jews College progresses well & I hope at some future day to see it send forth

some Jewish Divines.
In concluding this letter I must say the Great Synagogue has a very grand & Solemn appearance on the Day of Atonement, there is something in it that makes a person feel devout on entering & without any organ to occasion those feelings. There was only one person wanted & that was our respected Chief Rabbi who was absent being in ill health & ordered to the sea sick but I am glad to say he is fast recovering, the Revd. Mr. Ascher the Reader, performed the services in the same impressive way that he used ten years ago when I heard him. I must now conclude giving you my best wishes & hoping to hear from you,
I am your's
truly
Saml. S. Oppenheim.
Identifier: LSDCBx9FF16_13
Date: 1860-10-09

Part of Letter from Samuel S. Oppenheim to Isaac Leeser;October 09, 1860

Samuel S. Oppenheim, “Letter from Samuel S. Oppenheim to Isaac Leeser;October 09, 1860”, 1860-10-09, Isaac Leeser Digital Repository, accessed September 7, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/leeser/item/69295