Americana: The First Reform Machzor Printed in the United States. Cincinnati, 1866. Edited by Isaac Mayer Wise. ...

Americana: The First Reform Machzor Printed in the United States. Cincinnati, 1866. Edited by Isaac Mayer Wise. First Edition.

"The Divine Service of American Israelites for the New Year", edited by Isaac Mayer Wise. Cincinnati: Bloch & Co., 1866. First edition.

With texts in Hebrew, English and German.

The first Reform machzor ever printed in the United States. This Rosh Hashanah machzor, a landmark in the development of American Reform liturgy, was arranged by the famous and highly influential spiritual leader, Isaac Mayer Wise.

Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900) was widely regarded during his lifetime as the most prominent Reform rabbi of his era in the United States. A prolific writer, organizer, and advocate, he served as rabbi of Congregation B'nai Yeshurun in Cincinnati for nearly 50 years. Creating a Reform Machzor – the very first of its kind in the United States – was part of Wise's mission to unite Jewish American congregations under a single, universal and liberal prayer book. His holiday prayer book followed in the footsteps of the first daily American Reform prayer book which Wise compiled and published nine years earlier, in 1857.

212 pp., 16.5 cm. Very good condition. Gilded pages. Small tear on title page, not affecting text. Partially detached from covers. Original (?) dark green binding with gold-embossed designs on both covers. Wear on corners, damage to lower spine.