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Elizabeth, Charlotte : JUDAH’S LION [THE FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ZIONIST NOVEL]

New York; M. W. Dodd, 1843

Publishers cloth. 16mo. 406 pages. 16 cm. First edition. Added title page, engraved. Singerman 0832. This novel is considered to be the first English language ‘Zionist Novel’ (it predates George Eliot’s ‘Daniel Deronda’ by thirty years) ; the story concerns the return of an English Jew (Alick) to the Holy Land; it binds together English and Jewish history. This was the last novel the author wrote. Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790-1846) wrote on the plight of English factory workers, was well known in her time for her novels and her Orange-Protestant essays and poems, was passionate about gardening, a pioneer of deaf education, and also wrote children’s stories. In her later years she defended the rights of Judaism, and in her last three years was a close friend of Moses Montefiore, owing to her fundraising on behalf of the Jews of Mogador in 1844 (she raised the most money of anyone for the Jewish community in the besieged Moroccan coastal city) , her public protest against the policies of Tsar Nicholas I towards Jews, and her 1844 letter to the Bishop of Jerusalem, entitled ‘Israel’s Ordinances. ’ “As Tonna’s health deteriorated rapidly, the Montefiores became devoted friends. When she set out on her final journey to Ramsgate from London, it was Montefiore who bade her farewell at the train station and handed her a basket of grapes. “ (Pg. 215; ‘Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero’; by Abigail Green) . Her work, "Days of Old, ’ by Charlotte Elizabeth (Mrs. Tonner) ” was part of the sixth volume published by the American Jewish Publication Society in 1847 (Jewish Miscellany no. VI; which also includes two works by Isaac Leeser, “Rachel Levi, A Tale” and “The Jews and Their Religion”) , two years after the society was founded by Isaac Leeser (EJ 1906; American Jewish Publication Society) . Bound in black cloth with gilt title on spine. Subjects: Jews - Fiction. Fiction (English) . OCLC lists 20 copies. The last copy offered at auction was over 30 years ago in 1987. Previous owners inscription on first two endpages, edge wear and light soiling to cloth, very light foxing throughout; overall very clean and fresh. Very good condition. (AMR-39-31-D)xx, Broadway Books 2/13

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