Beschreibung:

LITURGY. Gebeden der Portugeesche Jooden, door een Joodsch Genootschap uit het Hebreeuwsch vertaalt [daily and festival prayerbook of the Dutch Portuguese Jews]. The Hague: Lion Cohen, 1791-93. 4 engraved title-pages; vol. I contains a long list of subscribers with the names of many important Dutch Portuguese Jews. 4 volumes, 8vo, 203 x 119 mm. (8 x 4 5/8 in.), contemporary tree calf, covers with gilt borders incorporating classical palmettes surrounding the gilt coat-of-arms of the De Pinto family, spines worn (a few backstrips partially detached), a few covers nearly detached; extensive marginalia on the endpapers and preliminaries in the first vol. First Dutch translation. J. Meijer, Encyclopaedia Sefardica Neerlandica (Amsterdam 1949-50) pp. 56-57; J. Meijer, "Talmidé Tsadiek. Een Portugees-Joodse vereniging uit het einde der 18e eeuw te 's-Gravenhage 1787-1792," In: Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad (29 August 1947) p. 4. In 1786 a group of young lovers of the Hebrew language in the Hague decided to embark upon the translation into Dutch of the Sephardic daily and festival prayerbook. The "Genootschap," or "Association," as they call themselves in the title, was called "Talmidé Tsadiek," i.e. the pupils of Tsadiek Cohen Belinfante. Tsadiek Cohen Belinfante was born in Amsterdam in 1732, raised in London and came back to the Hague in 1760, where he became a teacher. After his death in 1786 a group of students of his founded the association that bore his name. The translation was primarily an assimilationist attempt to promote the use of the vernacular language among the Jews, similar to Moses Mendelssohn's activities in Germany. (4)