Letter from Voorsanger, Jacob to Morais, Sabato. Houston, TX; Mar 1883
- Title
- Letter from Voorsanger, Jacob to Morais, Sabato. Houston, TX; Mar 1883
- Date Created
- 6 March 1883
- Format
- 4 pages on 4 sheets
- Language(s)
- English
- Source
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Sabato Morais Collection, Box 3, Folder 4
- Has Format
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3n873k05/manifest.json
- Link to Colenda
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3n873k05
- Provenance
- Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.
- Is Format Of
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx3FF4_25.xml
- content
-
JACOB VOORSANGER,
Box 319.
Houston, Texas, March 6 1883
Rev. S. Morais
Rev. & Dear Sir
I owe you an answer to your delightful letter of Jan. 27. I have been sick again, and this, in addition to a want of time I must plead as an excuse for not replying sooner. The [?] treacherous climate of this southern country has more than once laid me prostrate, but I never suffered such agonies as I did this time, I had been away, preaching in the country. The day I was gone the thermometer fell from 90° to zero, and the result was that I came home with a severe cold which settled itself into a malignant affection of the throat. Had I been a boy, the physician would not have hesitated to call it diphtheria, but as I am a big, strong man it was merely a "sore throat" though for a whole night I could not barely breathe, and the strongest acids could not reduce the swelling, so that my tonsils had to be burned. I am now at work again, but the open air is forbidden me for some time.
JACOB VOORSANGER
Box 319.
Houston, Texas,___188
I am informed, that inquiries have been made of you by the Denver Hebrew congregation concerning my standing & character. The information comes from a private source, and whilst I flatter myself with knowing what your answer has been in the event of such inquiries having been made, I deem it just to inform you, that such inquiries are being made without my knowledge, as I have not been and am not now a candidate for the position of minister in the Denver congregation. There has been some correspondence between myself and the secretary of that congregation, the tenor of said correspondence being an inquiry as to under what conditions I might be induced to apply. I have answered that, in case the position affords one a larger field of usefulness than I occupy at present, it must seek me, and that if the Denver brethren really want me they know where to find me. I was fearful of transgressing [Hebrew] knowing that Dr. Elkin is the incumbent. It seems, how,ever, that inspite of my peremptory refusal the officers of the congregation made inquiries
JACOB VOORSANGER
Box 319.
(3
Houston, Texas,___188
concerning me, but I have heard nothing since,
I am truly glad you approve of my contem,plated publication of Al's life and works. In one point only I differ from you, namely, that I am not satisfied in my own mind that M. was not in some measure to blame for the desertion of his children [Hebrew]. M. was a pious Hebrew, a truly religious man, else he could never have ac,complished what he did, but how must we account for his daughters becoming Catholics and his son Abraham raising his children as Cath protestants? I have often suspected--to what extent I am right I do not know--that Lessing's picture of Nathan, a Jew, educating a foundling child, Recha, in no religion whatever, except teaching her the belief in one God, was a mere reproduction of M's homelife. Abraham Mendelssohn wrote to his daughter Fanny on the day of the latter's confirmation, that "she had now satisfied all social claims upon her." Was that expression of Moses' son an echo of the philosophical teachings of the circle that visited his father? It was surely not the out,
JACOB VOORSANGER
Box 319.
Houston, Texas,___188
(4
coming of his Jewish education. In reading over the lives of Mendelssohn's children, one expression in particular gave me much pain. When Moses' granddaughter, Deborah Dirichlet, Daughter of Abraham, visited Rome, she expressed, in a letter to her sister Fanny, her disgust of the gorgeous pomp of Catholic worship, by stating, that when seeing all this nonsense "she knew how much protestant blood she had in her veins"! And this lady was a pure Jewess, because her father Abraham, Al. and her mother Leah Solomon, were both Jews, well, perhaps it will never be known to what extent Moses Al. is himself answerable for the change of faith in his children. It is best to say nothing of it, and in my book I will make but passing mention of the descendants of the "Sage of Dessau" who are, with few exceptions, lost to Judaism.
I will write to my colleagues concerning the remittances. Your rebuke of Miss. E. L. was excellent. Awaiting reply I am truly yours Jacob Voorsanger. - Identifier
- p3n873k05
- identifier
- SMBx3FF4_25
Part of Letter from Voorsanger, Jacob to Morais, Sabato. Houston, TX; Mar 1883
Voorsanger, Jacob and Morais, Sabato, “Letter from Voorsanger, Jacob to Morais, Sabato. Houston, TX; Mar 1883”, Sabato Morais Digital Repository, accessed September 19, 2024, https://judaicadhpenn.org/legacyprojects/s/morais/item/90731