(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)
Jacobs, George (1834-84). Autograph Letter Signed written to the Committee of Congregation Beth El Emeth, in English with some Hebrew.
This letter sets out the views on liturgical reform by George Jacobs, Rabbi of Beth El Emeth in Philadelphia.
Four pages. 4to.
Philadelphia: 20th October 1872
George Jacobs was a Jamaica-born Hazzan with a pulpit at K. K. Beth Shalome in Richmond, VA, before he was offered Isaac Leeser’s position following his death. In this letter we have a unique window not only into the desire for a moderate sort of reform in 19th century America, but also into the possibility of a Sephardic ‘Minhag America’ and how a Sephardic rabbi handled this request.===Jacobs begins by stressing the need for peace, regardless of what the synagogue chooses. He then acknowledges the permissibility in principle of conducting some of the services in the vernacular, dating it to Second Temple times and the development of the Targumim. He also compares that to the contemporary practices in Sephardic congregations, where numerous parts of the service are conducted in Portuguese. Finally, he acknowledges that in their own time, sermons were given in the vernacular, as well as various prayers recited orally in English at events like funerals and weddings. So, writes Jacobs, “What can be done in one instance, can surely be done in another, provided the motives are laudable, and I can conceive of nothing more deserving… than elevating our worship, interesting young & old…”===This permissive inclination must have felt like good news to those who had favored this reform, but then Jacobs drop the bad news - he cannot approve: “Notwithstanding these admissions, I do not think it right or proper that I should assume the grave responsibility of altering our liturgy by a Congregational Resolution or my own unaided judgment.” Jacobs suggests that if the congregation is set on this, they should build a consensus among the Portuguese congregations in America, and in so doing, establish a “stamp of authority for a “Sephardic Minhag of America.”