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Mayer Sulzberger Collection
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Archives at the Library of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies [Contact Us]420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106-3703
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Archives at the Library of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Mayer Sulzberger was born in Heidelsheim, Baden (Germany) on June 22, 1843. In Germany, Sulzberger's father Abraham was a hazan (cantor), shohet (kosher butcher) and teacher. After the family arrived in the United States, Abraham was authorized to work as a shohet by Rabbi Abraham Rice of Baltimore. Abraham also was one of the founders of Philadelphia's Jewish Hospital. The Sulzberger family boasted several generations of rabbinical scholars. Sophie Einstein, Mayer's mother, was an ancestor of Albert Einstein. Mayer was one of six children, four sons and two daughters: Solomon, Fanny, Joseph, Jacob, Rebecca (and Mayer). According to a family genealogy found at the end of the Sulzberger family Bible contained in this collection, Mayer also had another brother who died shortly after birth. More family information is contained in a detailed genealogical memorandum, prepared by Sulzberger' cousin Cyrus Adler in 1927:
The Sulzberger family derived its name from the town of Sulzburg, near Ratisbon, in the Bavarian Palatinate. The first known member of the family was Eleazar Sussman Sulzberger, who flourished about 1600. His great-grandson, Ezra Judah Jacob Sulzberger, who died in 1762, was a rabbi and a leading citizen of the town, and established there a charitable institution which still exists [for the memorandum, see the Adler collection in the Institute's archives].
Additional genealogical information, including a family tree, "...based on information which (Judge Mayer) Sulzberger secured upon his visits to Germany by examination of records there (see cover letter of the Adler memorandum)," was published in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1902).
The family emigrated to the United States in 1849 following the upheaval of the Revolution of 1848 which swept Europe at that time. Alexander Marx, the librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a friend of Sulzberger, records in a biographical essay that "Mayer Sulzberger retained a vivid recollection of events preceding (emigration), when the cry, 'Die Juden mussen aus dem wald,' and the Hep! Hep! of the mob made life uncertain and when Prussian soldiers who came to suppress the uprising were stationed in his father's house and befriended the children."
Joseph Sulzberger, one of Mayer's brothers, related the story of the family's journey to the United States to their aforementioned cousin, Cyrus Adler. According to this account, found in the Adler collection, Abraham Sulzberger led his family on a months-long trek across Germany and France in a wagon. The Sulzbergers eventually reached the port city of Havre in France where they boarded a transatlantic steamer, the Splendide, for a forty-two day crossing. The family arrived in the United States in August of 1849. The Sulzbergers settled in Philadelphia where they joined Mayer's paternal uncle Leopold Sulzberger, who had emigrated to Philadelphia from Germany eleven years earlier in 1838.
Sulzberger attended the Central High School of Philadelphia beginning in 1855 and graduated with an A.B. in 1859. He was awarded an A.M. from the same institution in 1864. Sulzberger received his Jewish education principally from his father. He also benefited from the tutelage of Professor Solomon Eppinger as well as the Reverends Isaac Leeser and Sabato Morais, the successive ministers of Philadelphia's oldest and most prestigious Jewish congregation -- the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Mikveh Israel. According to one account, Sulzberger could read Hebrew at the age of three and was a lover of books since at least that time. Sulzberger spoke fluently at least five languages (English, French, German, Hebrew and Yiddish) and probably was able to read several others such as Akkadian, Arabic, and certainly Aramaic. Sulzberger was thoroughly versed in the literatures of the ancient near east and later antiquity and wrote several imaginative works on ancient Biblical law, including studies of such topics as the status of labor and homicide in the Hebrew Bible.
After graduating from the public high school in 1859, Sulzberger attended Crittenden's business college in Philadelphia, and enjoyed a brief career as a bookkeeper. There appears to have been some debate about Sulzberger's ultimate career path. According to Moshe Davis, "Leeser was anxious that Mayer turn to a rabbinical career, but Abraham Sulzberger guided his son to the study of law." In 1862, Sulzberger apprenticed in the law office of Moses Aaron Dropsie, a prominent Philadelphia Jewish attorney. He began studying for the Pennsylvania bar during his apprenticeship and was admitted on September 16, 1865.
In 1876, Sulzberger opened his own law office. He continued working as a lawyer until 1895 at which time he was elected to serve as presiding Judge of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Number 2, following his unanimous nomination on the Republican ticket in November of 1894. Moshe Davis records that Sulzberger thus became the "first Jew to hold judicial office in Pennsylvania." In 1902, Sulzberger became President Judge, a title and post he held until his voluntary retirement in 1915, at the age of seventy-two, to devote his final years, according to his friend Alexander Marx, to Jewish scholarship. While in retirement, Sulzberger still found time to work on the committee to revise the Pennsylvania Constitution during the administration of Governor Sproul.
Sulzberger was a life-long Republican, a member of the Union League who followed in the tradition of the Republican party's founder, Abraham Lincoln. He was active in Republican politics on both the state and national level. Sulzberger's name was floated as a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, but nothing came of it. In 1909, Sulzberger declined the offer of an appointment by President Taft to become the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. Earlier in his life, he had similarly declined an offer from President Benjamin Harrison to become the U.S. Minister to Turkey. Sulzberger, the "Sage of Girard Avenue," was a devoted Philadelphian who enjoyed taking walks in his adopted native city, a life-long bachelor who preferred a good cigar and time to read to the overseas appointments offered him.
In addition to his professional and public careers as lawyer and judge, Sulzberger was active in multiple civic, religious, and charitable organizations. He was renowned for his sweeping erudition and great, though often acid, sense of humor and was highly respected as a leading public figure and maecenas. Sulzberger played a central role in founding or supporting many important special collections of Jewish rarities. He made frequent donations of artifacts and manuscripts to both the Library and Museum of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Dropsie College. Alexander Marx dubbed Sulzberger "the father of Jewish libraries in America."
Sulzberger, as executor of Moses Dropsie's estate, was the organizing force behind the creation of Dropsie College, the world's first and only non-denominational graduate program exclusively devoted to Jewish Studies. He served as the original chairman of the Board of Governors of the College, and contrary to what has been recorded in almost all later reports, he was also the original president of the College at the time of its incorporation. Shortly thereafter, Sulzberger did step down to make room for the appointment of Cyrus Adler in 1907 as the first functioning president.
Throughout his life, Sulzberger actively attended to the development of higher Jewish education and Jewish culture in the United States. By the age of 21, Sulzberger was already serving as the secretary of the incipient movement to found (and later served as the secretary of the Board of Trustees of) Maimonides College in Philadelphia (1867-1873), the so-called first "American Jewish Theological Seminary." Sulzberger was a member of the Board of Officers of the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia from 1866-1880, vice-president the following year (1880-81), and taught for the Society during his legal apprenticeship in the 1860's. After his mentor Leeser's death in 1868, Sulzberger fulfilled a promise to his beloved teacher that he would edit The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, Leeser's life's work, for at least one year. Sulzberger faithfully executed the promise, maintaining the publication of the journal for exactly that period of time, finally ending the monthly's sixteen years of continuous publication in April of 1869.
Sulzberger also served as the first President of the Young Men's Hebrew Association (1875-1878; 1885-1890); first Secretary of the Jewish Hospital Association (1865) (and Vice-president from 1888 until his death); original trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund; member, chairman of its publication committee, and honorary chairman of the Jewish Publication Society (Sulzberger declined the presidency that was offered to him); first president of the American Jewish Committee (1906-1912). In 1913, Sulzberger was honored by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with a D.H.L. (Doctor of Hebrew Literature). Sulzberger also was awarded the honorary degree of "doctor of laws" by both the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia in 1896 and by Temple University in 1916.
Mayer Sulzberger has been variously memorialized as the "Dean of American Jewry," "the Sage of Girard Avenue," and the "Grand Old Man of America." In his day, Sulzberger was one of the most influential figures in the Jewish and wider American community and known throughout the Jewish world for his sagacity and generosity. Surprisingly, no monograph-length, systematic treatment of Mayer Sulzberger's life has yet been produced.
There are several probable reasons for this lacunae. The primary sources that document his life have been inaccessible for decades. American Jewish History itself has only recently begun to occupy more of a center stage in Jewish historiography. Also, Sulzberger's life and the historical eras he lived through in many ways were eclipsed by the rise of the Eastern European Jewish cultural presence that developed in the United States (and mainly concentrated in New York) after 1881, and certainly as it flourished after Sulzberger's death in 1923. As New York ascended, Philadelphia declined.
While explanations for the scholarly neglect of this pivotal figure are open to speculation, it can be said with some assurance that Sulzberger, like each of the fascinating yet relatively unstudied figures Solomon Solis-Cohen aptly termed "The Philadelphia Group," merits further scrutiny. Sulzberger's interests and contributions transcended the merely parochial. He was a celebrated jurist whose belief in judicial activism presaged the philosophy of legal interpretation that dominated the bench of the United States Supreme Court under Oliver Wendell Holmes, Benjamin Cardozo and Louis Brandeis.
In his useful summary study of Sulzberger's legal thought, Louis E. Levinthal characterizes Sulzberger as a "...a sterling humanist...(who) considered law not as something fixed and immutable, but as a living growing organism." Sulzberger belonged to the generation that pioneered modern legal activism in American jurisprudence. Levinthal explains, for example, that Sulzberger regarded the doctrine of "stare decisis," the common law principle which gives binding authority to judicial precedent, as ill-conceived and instead viewed judicial precedents as, in Sulzberger's words, "more or less tentative hypotheses."
Sulzberger's legal writings provide broad insight into his overall thinking about the relationship between the individual and society. As Levinthal explains: "(W)henever he scented a conflict between the will of the individual and the general welfare of the community, he compelled the former to subordinate itself to the latter," thereby dissenting, as Levinthal notes, from the dominant Hegelian conception of the paramount needs of the free will of the individual vis-a-vis society.
Perhaps the clearest (and earliest programmatic expression) of Sulzberger's general concerns is found in his various contributions to The Occident. Although Sulzberger was only in his twenties when he began writing for and then editing the monthly, the subjects he chose to write about and the opinions he expressed there, particularly in his editorials, consistently recur throughout his later writings. Even his translation of Azariah de Rossi's dictionary of Hebrew authors, appearing over the course of twenty-four separate issues, can be read almost as a blueprint for Sulzberger's construction of his future library.
The substantive positions Sulzberger espoused in The Occident concerning Jewish life in the United States provide a clear guide for interpreting his later achievements. Sulzberger saw no conflict between his Jewish identity and his devout, patriotic belief in his American citizenship. Like Leeser and Morais before him, Sulzberger combined in his person those qualities that in many ways have come to characterize the unique, integrative blending of the Jewish and American experiences. In Jewish history, Sulzberger perceived the enlightened principles that inspired the American democratic form of government and life. In American history, he identified (eg., in the figure of Roger Williams) a nation founded on the basis of religious freedom and toleration. Similarly, and again like Leeser and Morais before him, his mission to lobby the United States government on behalf of Jews suffering persecution in foreign lands was as much an assertion of his American citizenship as it was a defense of the Jewish people with whom he felt such a close kinship. Sulzberger belonged to a patrician, aristocratic class of American Jews that saw in the manifold activities of citizenship, both professional and philanthropic, the realization of traditional Jewish values which were believed to be inherently compatible with American ideals of law and justice, freedom and democracy. Sulzberger, although essentially a private person, thus labored as a public Jew and a public American.
Sulzberger died on April 20, 1923 at the age of 81. The outpouring of grief recorded at that time is only rivaled by the lack of attention that has been paid to him subsequently.
A preliminary, alphabetized list of the many organizations with which Sulzberger was affiliated is appended here:
American Institute of Archeology
American Jewish Committee (founder, first president, member of the executive committee)
American Jewish Historical Society (original member)
American Jewish Relief Committee
American Oriental Society
American Philosophical Society (member)
Bar Association of Philadelphia (member)
Baron de Hirsch Fund (trustee; helped establish agriculture colonies in Woodbine and Carmel Colony, New Jersey to aid new immigrants fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe).
B'nai Brith
Board of Judges of Philadelphia (member)
Commission to review the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (member)
Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning (Life member and original chairman of the Board of Governors, original president at time of incorporation)
Federation of Jewish Charities of Philadelphia
Gratz College (trustee)
Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Independent Order Brith Sholom of Philadelphia
Jewish Exponent (member of the board of directors)
Jefferson Medical College (trustee, honorary doctor of laws)
Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia (vice-president beginning in 1880).
Jewish Publication Society of Philadelphia (founder, honorary chairman)
Jewish Relief Society (secretary)
Jewish Theological Seminary of America (supporter and "life director")
Jewish Territorial Organization (member)
Joint Distribution Committee
Joint Land Commission on Panama
Kai Psi Fraternity (member?)
Lawyer's Committee of the Liberty Organization of the Third Federal Reserve District (member).
Maimonides College
Menorah Journal (Board of Consulting editors)
Mercantile Club
Mikveh Israel Congregation
Mutual Benefit Company of Philadelphia (counsellor)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (contributor)
Oriental Club of Philadelphia (founder)
Philadelphia Board of City Trusts
Philadelphia Society for the Extension of University Teaching (member of the council)
Rodeph Shalom Congregation (lecturer)
Society of Biblical Literature
Temple University (honorary doctor of laws)
The Triplets (a dining club)
Union League
Young Men's Hebrew Association (founder, President)
The Sulzberger collection spans the years 1857 to 1923. The bulk of the collection is concentrated after 1900, although there is a fair amount of legal and personal material dating from the nineteenth century. The collection provides access to several of the vast networks of relationships and projects, both Jewish and non-Jewish, in which Sulzberger was involved during his life-time, including important documents relating to the bequest of Moses Aaron Dropsie and the founding of Dropsie College. One particular item of interest is an undated petition addressed to Governor Pennypacker (including an appended autographic treasure) to appoint Judge Sulzberger to the (Pennsylvania?) Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the collection contains numerous gaps in the documentation of Sulzberger's life; study of this collection will provide only the beginnings of a comprehensive portrait. See the bibliography, below, for additional primary sources and comments for future research).
Of particular note is the range of well-known personalities and organizations represented in the correspondence series. Sulzberger maintained an ongoing interest in and involvement with the burgeoning movement of historical Judaism in America (which later crystallized as Conservative Judaism) and corresponded with many of the movement's leading figures such as Cyrus Adler, Louis Ginzberg, Alexander Marx, Solomon Solis-Cohen, and Israel Friedlander, whose letters regularly appear throughout the series. Also noteworthy is Sulzberger's ample correspondence with the Jewish Theological Seminary's second president, Solomon Schechter, published in part by Meir Ben Horin (see bibliography.)
Of potential interest is the American Jewish Committee series, which contains correspondence, clippings, and other documents relating to the condition of Jewish communities around the world, and the AJC's work to lobby the U.S. government on their behalf. Primary sources may be found, for example, which deal with the hotly debated Russian Passport Question concerning the prohibition of those American Jewish citizens who came originally from Russia from freely traveling there; the persecution of Jews in Kishineff, and other reported outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence in Eastern Europe; the consequent calls to abrogate the 1832 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the U.S. and Russia.
Of interest to scholars of the early Zionist period are several reports sent to Sulzberger by Israel Zangwill, the leader of the Jewish Territorial Organization, a group which had proposed the re-settlement of Jews in East Africa and had consequently dispatched several surveys of the region to determine their suitability. In addition, Sulzberger was consulted on the formation of a Jewish Institute of Technology, (what would become the Technion), a school of advanced engineering planned for Haifa. He also received dispatches from the Provisional Executive Committee of General Zionist Affairs, including a copy of the famous dispatch of Lord Arthur Balfour pledging England's support for "the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine (November 2, 1917)."
Of great usefulness for reconstructing a bibliography of Sulzberger's literary efforts is the extensive group of drafts and notes, both handwritten and in typescript, of published and unpublished addresses, occasional lectures, essays and monographs composed by Sulzberger. Several copies, in typescript form, of Sulzberger's published scholarship are to be found, including that of his The Am ha-aretz (1910), The Ancient Hebrew Law of Homicide (1912), The Polity of Ancient Israel (1915), and The Status of Labor in Ancient Israel (published posthumously in 1923). In addition, a published copy of each of these works has been incorporated in the collection.
Sulzberger was an avid, perhaps America's unequaled private collector of rare Hebrew books, manuscripts, and artifacts. Contained in the collection are detailed ledgers listing accessions to his library and related acquisitions. Of particular note in this regard is the extensive correspondence Sulzberger maintained with Alexander Marx (which was recently edited, annotated and published -- see bibliography, Dicker, 1991, below), found in the correspondence series, which documents Sulzberger's foresight and faithful support of the creation of the Jewish Theological Seminary's library.
Researchers of nineteenth century American legal and commercial history may profit from an examination of the legal series which contains records relating to Sulzberger's legal work, the business ventures and interests he often represented, or those in which his family was involved. For example there is a fair amount of material relating to an inventor named Kitsee, and his company, the Mine Safety Company. Sulzberger represented Kitsee and apparently at one time purchased a controlling share of the company. Of related interest to the social and economic historian are the family series and financial series which contain numerous records documenting various Sulzberger businesses and expenditures, particularly during the nineteenth century.
This bibliography, while not exhaustive by any means, introduces the primary and secondary sources of information discovered and/or utilized during the researching and processing of the Sulzberger collection. Primary sources and their locations (holding institutions and/or private collections) are listed here first, followed by a chronologically arranged list of Sulzberger's published and unpublished writings, as well as a preliminary list of works dedicated to Sulzberger. A selected list of secondary sources directly pertaining to Sulzberger is also provided. This bibliography does not include a list of Sulzberger's legal writings and court decisions. A start may be gained from Louis E. Levinthal's study (1926) of Sulzberger's legal writings, from Morse's sketch (1976), as well as from a perusal of the legal series of this collection.
Primary Sources at the Center for Judaic Studies
Cyrus Adler Papers (MS 26)
American Jewish Archives microfilm of the Dropsie Collection Sulzberger Papers (1956) [microfilm and hard copyflow held].
Charles and Mary Cohen Collection: letter from Sulzberger, dated 1877 found in the Mary M. Cohen Red and Blue scrapbook; according to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943), the sculptress Katherine Cohen, sister of Charles and Mary M. Cohen, created a bust of Judge Sulzberger (s.v. Cohen, Katherine).
Dropsie College Board of Governors Minutes (1905--1930).
Sabato Morais Papers: letters from Sulzberger to Morais, December 18, 1887; December 27, 1887.
Mayer Sulzberger Collection (clippings collection relating to Mayer Sulzberger, memoria, etc., assembled at the time of Sulzberger's death by Cyrus Adler, apparently for an intended biography), located in Box 31 of this collection. Many clippings, particularly from the Yiddish press, are highly acidic [see Box 27, FF14-15 for photocopies of some of these clippings]; also, see Box 28, FF19, for clipped reviews of Sulzberger's published writings.
NOTE: Item-level indices do not yet exist for the collections mentioned here, so any of the above notes concerning related materials found in these collections should be regarded as preliminary only.
Interviews
For interviews with Judge Sulzberger, see "Interview on Seventy-eighth Birthday" (1921), Box 20, FF2; see also The American Hebrew, vol. 85, no. 3, Friday, May 21, 1909, pp. 51-52 for another interview with him (I thank Professor David Dalin for calling the latter interview to my attention).
Primary Sources at Other Repositories
American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati) [See Clasper and Dellenbach, Guide to the Holdings of the American Jewish Archives (Cincinnati: AJA, 1979 and above comment regarding the 1956 American Jewish Archives microfilms of the Dropsie College Sulzberger Papers];
American Jewish Committee Archives: Mayer Sulzberger Papers.
American Jewish Historical Society: Abraham Sulzberger Collection, including his passport from Baden, documents certifying him as a shohet.
Congregation Mikveh Israel Archives: Sulzberger Correspondence.
Jewish Theological Seminary: Cyrus Adler Paper, Solomon Schechter Papers, et al..
McGill University, Montreal, Abraham de Sola Papers.
Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center at Temple University: Sulzberger Correspondence in the Julius Greenstone Papers; Mayer Sulzberger's Jewish Publication Society Letterbook.
Rosenbach Museum and Library: Sulzberger Correspondence found in the Rosenbach Company Papers Correspondence Series.
Maxwell Whiteman, Elkins Park, PA, private collection: Mayer Sulzberger Papers -- see Whiteman, "The Philadelphia Group," in ed. Murray Friedman, Jewish Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: 1983), p. 332, note 29: "Two major collections of Sulzberger correspondence--one in the hands of Maxwell Whiteman, acquired through the kindness of Solomon Sulzberger Brav, M.D., and the late Abram S. Berg, grandnephews of Sulzberger, and the other at the Dropsie University [now the Center] where it remained uncatalogued--form a remarkable corpus...").
Monographs by Mayer Sulzberger
Am ha-aretz: The Ancient Hebrew Parliament, a chapter in the constitutional history of ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Julius H. Greenstone, 1910). This work (in conjunction with the following three studies) was delivered as part of an ongoing series of lectures on related issues of Biblical law prepared by Sulzberger and read at Dropsie College, beginning in 1910, and later published.
The Polity of the Ancient Hebrews (Philadelphia: Julius H. Greenstone, 1912). The work was originally delivered as a public lecture in March, 1912 by Sulzberger at Dropsie College. It was first published in the Jewish Quarterly Review, new series, volume III, number 1 (Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1912).
The Ancient Hebrew Law of Homicide (Philadelphia: Julius H. Greenstone. 1915). The work was originally delivered in March and April, 1913 by Sulzberger at Dropsie College, March and April (1913). It was first published in the Jewish Quarterly Review, new series, volume V, number 2 (Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1914).
The Status of Labor in Ancient Israel (1923), parts I-II (two copies), III-IV, reprinted from the Jewish Quarterly Review, new series, volume XIII, number 3 (Philadelphia: The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1923).
Published articles, translations, editorials and addresses by Mayer Sulzberger
Occident and the American Jewish Advocate:
"The Alphabet on the Decalogue-Stone Found Near Newark, Ohio"
vol. no. (), pp. 526-529, signed "M.S.."
"The Talmud and the Crucifixion" (September, 1866; December, 1866; April, 1867).
"Rabbinical Literature in America," (January, 1867).
"Bequests," (February, 1867).
"De Rossi's dictionary of Hebrew Authors" vol. 24, no 12 (March, 1867), pp. 549-; vol. 25, nos. 1-12 (April, 1867 - March, 1868); vol. 26, nos. 1-11 (April, 1868 - February, 1869).
"Reply" to M.R. Miller's "Decisive Suggestions Touching the Crucifixion," vol. 25, no. 1, April (1867), pp. 31-32, signed "M.S.."
"The Late Rev. Isaac Leeser," vol. 26, no. 1 (March, 1868); reprinted as "No better Jew, no purer man: Mayer Sulzberger on Isaac Leeser" in the American Jewish Archives, vol. 21, no. 2 November (1969), pp. 140-148.
Translations by Mayer Sulzberger
"Ancient Laws concerning Jews in England" from De Jure Maritimo et Navali; "or A Treatise of Affairs Maritime and Commerce, copied from the fifth edition (English) of Charles Malloy (London: 1701), appearing in vol. 24 no. ? (), p. 491: "We give below a translation of the Statutum de Judaismo ... It is written in the old law French, wherefore the task of translating it has been difficult and a few errors may have crept in." Signed M.S..
"Excommunication Among the Jews" from J. Weisner, Der Bann in seiner geschtlichen Entwicklungen auf dem Boden des Judenthums (Leipzig: 1864), vol. 26, no. 12 (March, 1869), pp. 556-566.
[Editorials from April, 1868 -- March, 1869 (when Sulzberger succeeded Isaac Leeser as editor of the Occident, for the journal's final year of publication after Leeser's death]:
"Our New Volume," vol 26, no. 1 (April, 1868), pp. 1-5.
"A Jewish Publication Society," vol. 26, no. 2 (May, 1868), pp. 49-56.
"(Against) A Union of Church and State," vol. 26, no. 3 (June, 1868), pp. 97-102.
"The Board of Delegates," vol. 26, no. 4 (July, 1868), pp. 145-147.
"A Synod," vol. 26, no. 5 (August, 1868), pp. 193-200.
"Jewish Journalism," vol. 26, no. 6 (September, 1868), pp. 241-249.
"Maimonides College," vol. 26, no. 7 (October, 1868), pp. 289-296.
"Synagogues," vol. 26, no. 8 (November, 1868), pp. 337-344.
[Moses Aaron Dropsie wrote the December, 1868 editorial, "Reform."]
"Equality," vol. 26, no. 10 (January, 1869), pp. 433-431.
"Apostasy," vol. 26, no. 11 (February, 1869), pp. 481-487.
"Valedictory," vol. 26, no. 12 (March, 1869), pp. 529-534.
Other Published articles by Mayer Sulzberger
Address delivered at the proceedings of a meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, held in New York City, May 4, 1869 (New York: Joseph Davis Printer, 1869).
"Persecution of the Jews in Germany" in Penn Monthly, vol. 12, no. 134 (February, 1881).
"The Persecution of the Jews in Germany" (Letter sent to the editor of the Penn Monthly, dated January 24, 1884).
"Nominations for Public Office" (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Social Science Association, 720 Locust Street, February 10, 1881) ["read at a meeting of the association"].
ibid., reprinted in Penn Monthly, vol. 12, no. 135 (March, 1881).
"Address delivered October 26, 1884, at the Celebration of the One Hundredth Birth-Day of Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart., at the Synagogue Rodef Sholom, Broad Street Philadelphia," (Philadelphia: 1884).
"Address delivered March 3, 1888 at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Hebrew Sunday School of Philadelphia," [delivered at the Academy of Music] (Philadelphia: 1888).
"Speech delivered October 30, 1891 before the Senate of Pennsylvania in Extraordinary Session Against Voting an Address to the Governor for the Removal of Certain Magistrates of Philadelphia," (Harrisburg: Meyers Printing and Publishing House, 1891).
"The Courts of Common Pleas" Address at the Complimentary Dinner to the Hon. M. Russell Thayer, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 4 of the County of Philadelphia at the Lawyers' Club Tuesday Evening March
3, 1896 (Philadelphia: Legal Intelligencer, March 20, 1896), pp. 22-23.
"Encore le siege de Moise," in Revue Etudes Juives, vol. 35-36 (July-September, 1897), pp. 110-11.
"Address delivered April 28, 1898 before the Law Academy of Philadelphia," (Philadelphia: Press of George Dukes, 1898).
"Jewish Literature in America, An Exposition of the Principles and Achievements of the Jewish Publication Society of America," [on the tenth anniversary of the Society] in The Jewish Exponent vol. 27, no. 6, Philadelphia, May 26, 1898, pp. 1ff.
"The Case of Naboth" (July 16, 1898, see clipping held in this collection, Box 18, FF11).
"The Bible for American Jews" ("written for circular distributed in interest of funds to publish new English translation of Bible - 1898") [see Box 24, FF9 for an annotated copy].
"Dutch Religious Tolerance as an Example to the World" in Netherlands Society of Philadelphia Eighth Annual Banquet Hotel Bellevue, January 23, 1899, pp. 13-19.
"Valedictory Address" delivered before the graduating class of the Jefferson Medical College in the Jeffersonian, vol. 1, no. 2 (May, 1899).
Address on Roger Williams and Religious Tolerance in America delivered before the New England Society of Pennsylvania (December 22, 1900) in Twentieth Annual Festival of the New England Society of Pennsylvania at Horticultural Hall
Philadelphia December twenty-second, 1900, pp. 12-26.
"Modern Influences in Jewry. An Address Before the Hebrew Literature Society" reprinted in The Jewish Exponent, vol 37 no. 5 May 22, 1903 (p. 1ff).
"The Practice of the Criminal Law," reprinted from the American Law Register, no. 6 (June, 1903).
"Dr. [Marcus] Jastrow's Influence Upon Judaism" address published in the Jewish Exponent, vol. 38, no. 3, Philadelphia and Baltimore, November 6, 1903, pp. 1ff.
"[Address] Delivered at the Dedication of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1903," in the Jewish Theological Seminary Association Biennial Report, 1902-1904 (New York: 1906), pp. 116-119.
"Letter to Doctor Cyrus Adler..." announcing his donation of books and manuscripts to the Seminary library in ibid., pp.49-50.
"Books and Bookmen" in The Menorah Monthly, vol. 36, no. 1 (January, 1904).
"Interview with Judge Sulzberger" in American Hebrew, vol. 85, no. 3, May 7, 1909, pp. 51-52.
"Politics in a Democracy," a lecture delivered for the Silver Jubilee Year of Temple University in the forum of College Hall of Temple University, Saturday Evening, January 15, 1910.
"Judge Sulzberger's Address" [see Box 19, FF6 -- clipping, from the American Hebrew?, on the Passport Question and in consideration of abrogating the Russian-American Treaty of 1832, delivered before Congress (1911)].
"Termination of the Treaty of 1832 between the United States and Russia. Statement presented at Hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, Monday, December 11, 1911." in publications of the United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1911)
"Joseph Jacobs," in The American Jewish Yearbook, vol. 12, 5677 (1916-17), pp. 68-75.
"Necrology" (for William Hackenburg) in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, no. 28 (1922), pp. 282-284.
"Zionism and Democracy," appeared in The Evening Mail (July 9, 1917) [for a clipping, see Box 24, FF1].
"Wisdom! Strength! Fraternity!" (Philadelphia: The Jewish World, 1923) [citation from Dianne Ashton, The Philadelphia Group: A Guide to Archival and Bibliographic Collections (1993) -- see below, Ashton (1993)].
Unpublished writings and addresses (In this Collection)
"Address delivered at the Cornerstone Laying of the Jewish Hospital, October, 1872 (Jewish Hospital Association)."
"Address delivered before the Y.M.H.A. of Philadelphia, October, 1877."
"Address delivered at dedication of the Mathilde Adler Loeb Dispensary, gift of Mr. & Mrs. Abraham Adler and Mr. August B. Loeb, to the Jewish Hospital Association, August 26th, 1878."
"Nominations for Public Office," "Read at a meeting of the Philadelphia Social Science Association, February 10th, 1881."
"Dedicatory Address - New Building for Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites, at the Jewish Hospital (Jewish Hospital Association, Nov., 1889)."
"Address on the 250th Anniversary of the landing of the Jewish Pilgrim Fathers by M.S." (1894?)
"Address delivered before the Y.M.H.A. of Philadelphia, October, 1896."
"Address delivered May 22, 1898 at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Jewish Publication Society of America."
Works dedicated to Sulzberger
"Remarks Regarding the Memorial Mass = Meeting In Memory of the late renowned Rev. Dr. S. Mandelkern and Rev. A. S. Friedburg held under the auspices of the Aids of Zion, on Sunday, May 11, 1902, ... At the ... Kesher Israel Synagogue (Philadelphia: Published by the Aids of Zion, 1902)
"The Golden Calf versus the American Eagle" by Israel Zangwill, with a dedication to Mayer Sulzberger (1910)
"Letter of Akiba" by Arthur Dembitz, with dedication to Mayer Sulzberger (1920?) [manuscript, see Box 23, FF19).
ha-Kos by Naftali Herz Imber (see below, Silberschlag, 1973, p. 407: "Hebrew title: ha-Kos. It is a paraphrase of 101 quatrains of Omar Khayyam in Fitzgerald's version with a dedication to Mayer Sulzberger....
Otsar ha-temunot (New York: 1909) by Ben Zion Eisenstadt.
The Columbia College MS. of Meghilla, Babylonian Talmud; examined by Max L. Margolis (New York: A. Ginsburg, 1892).
Secondary Sources
For encyclopedia articles on Mayer Sulzberger and/or the Sulzberger family, see:
Jewish Encyclopedia (1905)
National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1927)
Dictionary of American Biography (1928)
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943)
Encyclopedia Judaica (1971)
A serious study of Sulzberger requires a careful perusal of the local and national press between 1860 and 1930, insofar as his name frequently occurs there; the clippings collection contained in over-sized storage III. Box 31 assembled by Cyrus Alder at the time of Sulzberger's death offers one beginning path.
Cyrus Adler, "Sulzberger, Mayer," Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 18 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936, pp. 205-206.
Ashton, Dianne. The Philadelphia Group: A Guide to Archival and Bibliographic Collections (Philadelphia: The Center for American Jewish History in cooperation with the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and Temple University, 1993).
Auerbach, Jerold. Rabbis and Lawyers: The Journey From Torah to Constitution (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990).
Moshe Babin and David C. Kogen, "A Catalogue of the Mayer Sulzberger Papers in Dropsie College," Seminar Project in American Jewish History, prepared under the supervision of Rabbi Moshe Davis for the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1946) [unpublished, held by the Institute].
Norris Stanley Barratt, "Address of Hon. Norris S. Barratt at the John Chambers Memorial Church, 28th and Morris Streets, Philadelphia, Monday, June 7, 1915, upon his unveiling the portrait of Rev. John. Chambers, D.D., presented to the Church as a token of respect to its founder hon. John Wanamaker, Hugh Black, esq. presiding (Lancaster, PA: The New Era Printing Company, 1916).
idem., "Address of Hon. Norris S. Barratt, President Judge, Court of Common Pleas, no. 2, first judicial district of Pennsylvania, Saturday, January 8th, 1916 upon the presentation to that court of the portrait of Honorable Mayer Sulzberger, judge - address of Hampton L. Carson," (Lancaster: New Era Printing, Co., 1916).
Cohen, Naomi W.. Encounter with Emancipation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).
idem., Not Free to Desist: The American Jewish Committee, 1906-1966 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1972).
Davis, Moshe. The Emergence of Conservative Judaism (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1963), pp. 362-65.
Deinard, Ephraim. 'Or me'ir [Or Mayer: catalogue of the old Hebrew Manuscripts and printed books of the library of ... M. Sulzberger] (New York: 1896).
The Mayer Sulzberger-Alexander Marx Correspondence, 1904-1923. Edited and annotated by Herman Dicker (New York: Sepher Hermon Press, 1990).
Dobsevage, George. Mayer Sulzberger: A Biographic Sketch (New York: James T. White and Co., 1916); reprinted from the National Cyclopedia of American Biography.
Isaac M. Fein, "Israel Zangwill and American Jewry," in The American Jewish Historical Quarterly, vol. 60, no. 1 (1970), esp. pp. 16-24.
Fifty Years Work of the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia: 1848-1898. (Philadelphia: Published by the Society, 1899).
Jewish Life in Philadelphia 1830-1940. edited by Murray Friedman (Philadelphia: Ishi Publications, 1983).
Freisel, A.. ha-Tenu'ah ha-tsiyonit be-artzot ha-berit be-shanim 1897-1914 (Tel Aviv: 1970).
ed. Gartner, Lloyd P.. The Correspondence of Mayer Sulzberger and William Howard Taft (Jerusalem; American Academy for Jewish Research, 1980), reprinted from the Jubilee volume of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Proceedings, vols. 46-47 (1979-80).
Meir ben Horin, "Solomon Schechter to Judge Mayer Sulzberger: Part I. Letters from the Pre-Seminary Period (1895-1901) in Jewish Social Studies vol. 25 (1963), pp. 249-286; Part II. Letters from the Seminary Period (1902-1915) in ibid., vol. 27 (1965), pp. 75-102; Supplement to Parts I and II (Notes, Letters and Corrections), in ibid., vol. 30 (1968).
Joseph Jacobs, "Sulzberger," in Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1905), pp. 584-586 [includes a family genealogical tree].
Roland G. Kent, ed. Thirty Years of Oriental Studies Issued in Commemoration of Thirty Years of Activity of The Oriental Club of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: 1918).
Bertram Wallace Korn, "The First American Jewish Theological Seminary: Maimonides College, 1867-1873," in Eventful Years and Experiences (Cincinnati: The American Jewish Archives, 1954)
Louis E. Levinthal, "Judge Mayer Sulzberger" in University of Pennsylvania Law Review, parts one and two in vol. 75 (1926-27), part one, pp. 99-121; part two, pp. 227-46.
Levinthal, Louis E.. Mayer Sulzberger, P.J., with an introduction by Robert von Moschzisker (Philadelphia: 1927); reprinted from the University of Pennsylvania Law Review (1926-27).
Marshall, Louis, Solis-Cohen, Solomon, et al.. Addresses delivered in memory of Mayer Sulzberger, Memorial Day, May 30, 1923. (Philadelphia: Printed at the Jewish Publication Society Press, 1924); reprinted in The American Jewish Yearbook, vol 26, 5685 (1924025), pp. 373-403.
Alexander Marx, "Mayer Sulzberger" in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society vol. ? no. 29 (1929); reprinted in Essays in Jewish Biography (1947), pp. 223-38.
Mrs. Emmanuel Miller, "Abraham de Sola Papers: A Guide to the Microfilm," (Montreal: McGill University Archives, 1970); idem.,
"Dr. Abraham de Sola and the Reverend Meldola de Sola (Additional Papers): A Preliminary Guide," papers borrowed for microfilming from Mrs. G. Mosely (nee Louise de Sola) (Montreal: 1976).
Morais, Henry S.. The Jews of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: The Levytype Company, 1894).
Jeffrey Morse, "Jewish American Judge," in Jewish Social Studies vol. 38 nos. 3-4 Summer-Fall (1976), pp. 203-204. ["American Issue in honor of the American Bicentennial: I. Papers Presented at the annual Meeting of the Conference on Jewish Social Studies Held in conjunction with the Academic Committee of the World Jewish Congress Convened Sunday, April 26, 1976, at the School of International Affairs Columbia University New York City"].
Robert von Moschzisker, "An Address by Hon. Robert von Moschzisker, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Dedication of the Mayer Sulzberger Junior High School, Philadelphia, April 2, 1825," (Philadelphia: 1925).
Jacob Oppenheimer, "A Genealogy of the Sulzberger Family," (unpublished manuscript held at the Institute -- see rare ms. 233).
Radin, Max. The Sulzberger Collection of Soncino Books in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Chicago: Bibliographical Society of America, 1914).
Charles Reznikoff, "Sulzberger, Mayer," in Encyclopedia Judaica, vol 15 (1971), pp. 509-510.
Robinson, Ira. Cyrus Adler: Selected Letters. Two volumes (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).
Simon Rosendale, "Afternoon Session," American Jewish Yearbook vol. 15, 5674 (1913-14), p. 99-100 [volume in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Publication Society].
Sarna, Jonathan. JPS: The Americanization of Jewish Culture, 188-198: A Centennial History of the Jewish Publication Society (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989).
Silberschlag, Eisig. From Renaissance to Renaissance: Hebrew Literature from 1492-1970 (New York: Ktav, 1973).
Solomon Solis-Cohen, "Mayer Sulzberger," in American Jewish Yearbook vol. 26, 5685 (1924-25).
idem, "Mayer Sulzberger," Judaism and Science with Other Addresses (Philadelphia: Privately printed, 1940), pp. 232-245.
idem, "The Philadelphia Group," in ibid., pp. 246-252.
Stern, Malcolm. Americans of Jewish Descent (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1960).
Horace Stern, "Sulzberger, Mayer," in Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 10 (New York: Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., 1943), pp. 100-101.
Whiteman, Maxwell. Mankind and Medicine (Philadelphia: Albert Einstein Medical Center, 1966).
Whiteman, Maxwell. Gentleman in Crisis: The First Century of the Union League of Philadelphia, 1862-1962 (Philadelphia: Union League, 1975).
idem., "The Legacy of Isaac Leeser" in Friedman, ed. Jewish Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Ishi, 1983), pp. 26-47.
idem., "Out of the Sweatshop" in Friedman, op. cit., (1983), pp. 64-79.
idem., "The Fiddlers Rejected: Jewish Immigrant Expression in Philadelphia," in Friedman, op. cit., (1983), pp. 80-98.
idem., "The Philadelphia Group," in Friedman, op. cit. (1983), pp. 163-178.
Israel Zangwill, "Judge Sulzberger," in Speeches, Articles and Letters (London: 1937).
AJC will always stand for the American Jewish Committee
JTS will always stand for the Jewish Theological Seminary
Previous processing of the Sulzberger collection was done in 1946 by Moshe Babin and David C. Kogen as a "Seminar Project in American Jewish History" for the Jewish Theological Seminary under the supervision of Rabbi Moshe Davis. Unfortunately, most of their work was no longer evident by the time of the current processing (see Babin and Kogen report below, bibliography, for details).
In 1956, the American Jewish Archives microfilmed the unprocessed collections of the personal papers of Isaac Leeser, Sabato Morais and Mayer Sulzberger held by Dropsie College. These microfilms reproduce original documents no longer found in these collections. At the same time, the current collections contain documents not reproduced on the microfilms. Taken together, the microfilms and the current collections provide a substantial beginning point for future research. The Center possesses both the microfilms and paper copyflow generated from the microfilms of these collections. Future researchers are urged to consult the 1956 microfilms and/or the copyflow.
The Sulzberger Collection was found in enormous disarray upon initial inspection. In order to fully process the collection, a great deal of detailed reorganizing was required. In several cases, texts were pieced together from fragments scattered throughout the collection. Even as processing progressed, additional groups of papers and other types of materials (such as a cuneiform greeting to Sulzberger created by Professor Edward Chiera) continued to surface, scattered throughout the library's holdings and intermingled among the library's other distinct manuscript collections being identified and inventoried.
As this processing was done, simultaneous inventories of the Center's related holdings were conducted. This resulted in approximately 1.5 linear feet of material being added to the Collection. By the same token, 1.5 Linear feet was removed from the Sulzberger collection, principally to the collection of Moses Aaron Dropsie, whose estate Sulzberger served as executor. Criteria of inclusion or removal generally were based on obvious identifying features such as a name or signature, handwriting analysis, or the content of the material. A number of unidentified handwritten drafts, of various length on a variety of subjects, have been retained, although lacking conclusive identification (albeit, the handwriting often appears to conform to material in the Sulzberger collection as Sulzberger's). These unidentified manuscripts and fragmentary notes form a subseries to series eight (literary productions).
Among this subseries of unidentified materials is a curious group of literary productions written in a hand similar to Sulzberger's, and signed by someone calling himself (or herself?) "Patrick." According to Bertram Korn, in a note to his study of Maimonides College (see below, Korn, 1954, note 72, p. 213), "Patrick" was a pseudonym under which Sabato Morais once published. The "Patrick" materials found among the Sulzberger collection seem to be written in a different hand than that of Morais. No additional evidence has been found to identify the "Patrick" in the Sulzberger collection [see the finding aid to the Sabato Morais Papers, for another rehearsal of this problem].
Rare ms. 66 (New Year's card in Hebrew addressed to Sulzberger).
Rare ms. 233 (genealogy of the Sulzberger Family by Jacob Oppenheim; cuneiform birthday greeting to Sulzberger from Prof. Edward Chiera.
Over-sized materials (literary productions, visuals -- pictures of Mayer Sulzberger, family material, clippings, Sulzberger library records).
Three holograph mss. in German by Samuel Posnanski (New call number MM 3)
Records relating to the disposition of the Sulzberger estate, both that of Mayer and his brother Joseph, are to found in the Center's collection of the Cyrus Adler Papers.
Furness architectural sketch of the Jewish Hospital (1872?); over-sized.
Moses Aaron Dropsie material, found among his estate papers, removed to the Center's Moses Aaron Dropsie collection.
Sulzberger Ledger of Subscribers to The Occident, 1862-1868 (New call number MS 2, Box 10, FF 28a).
People
- Zangwill, Israel
- Schechter, S. (Solomon)
- Friedlaender, Israel
- Ginzberg, Louis
- Marx, Alexander
- Dropsie, Moses A., (Moses Aaron)
- Adler, Cyrus
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Archives at the Library of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
- Finding Aid Author
- Arthur Kiron
- Finding Aid Date
- 1994
- Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.