First Book of Hebrew Poems Printed in the United States
This book has the distinction of being the first book of Hebrew poems and the first Yiddish book printed in the United States. The poems, in Hebrew with facing Yiddish translation, celebrate the Jewish people, the Hebrew language, and America, though they are perhaps more notable for enthusiasm than for literary quality. The short German poem on the title page is spoken, as it were, by a personified “Israel, the Elder:”
O say it to all,
Open and free;
A Jew I am,
And a Jew I will be.
[trans. Abraham Karp]
This book has the distinction of being the first book of Hebrew poems and the first Yiddish book printed in the United States. The poems, in Hebrew with facing Yiddish translation, celebrate the Jewish people, the Hebrew language, and America, though they are perhaps more notable for enthusiasm than for literary quality. The short German poem on the title page is spoken, as it were, by a personified “Israel, the Elder:”<br /><br />
O say it to all,<br />
Open and free;<br />
A Jew I am,<br />
And a Jew I will be.<br /><br />
[trans. Abraham Karp]