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Sabato Morais 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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Sabato Morais was born on April 13, 1823 to Samuel and Bonina Morais in the northern Italian city of Leghorn (Livorno), in the grand duchy of Tuscany. Morais was the third of nine children, seven daughters and the older of the two sons. The Morais family descended from Portuguese Marranos. Morais' mother, Bonina Wolf, was of German-Ashkenazic descent. Morais' father, a man of limited means, was an ardent Republican and a proud supporter of the cause of Italian nationalism, for which he was once imprisoned. Morais' mother is reputed to have been a woman of great piety, from whom Morais is said to have gained a devotion to Jewish tradition. Among his siblings, it is known that Morais' sister Virginia married Dr. Caesare Lunel Bey, the Attorney General of Egypt. Morais' brother's name was Leone, and several other family members' names, including those of several of his sisters and their children, appear scattered throughout the correspondence (written in Italian) found in the collection.
Morais received rabbinical training from the Chief Rabbi of Leghorn, Abraham Baruch Piperno, as well as from Rabbi Abraham Curiat, Rabbi Isaac Alveranga, and Rabbi Angiolo Funaro. In 1845, Morais was presented with a rabbinical ordination, signed by the first three aforementioned rabbis. Morais himself preferred not to be addressed by the title "rabbi" -- his degree, some have argued, was only a teaching certificate. In addition to his rabbinical training, Morais also studied Semitics with Professor Salvatore De Benedetti, of the University of Pisa and was thoroughly versed in the full range of the broader European cultural and intellectual heritage.
From an early age, Morais felt impelled to earn a livelihood due to the financial situation of his family. In 1845, at the age of 22, Morais chose to leave Italy and his studies for London to seek the position of "Second Reader" at the largest Sephardic congregation in London, "Sha'are Shamayim" at Bevis Marks. While failing initially to secure the position, primarily because of his lack of fluency with English, Morais would return to London the following year to work as the Master of the same Congregation's Orphan's School, a post he held through 1850.
In addition to his work as Hebrew instructor at the Orphans school, Morais privately tutored Hebrew and Italian, while also working diligently to acquire a mastery of the English language for himself. During his five years in London, Morais was befriended by the famous Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore, who was (like Morais) a native of Leghorn in Italy. Morais also claims to have "pressed the hand" of Giuseppe (Joseph) Mazzini, the exiled Italian nationalist, and according to one account helped Mazzini return surreptitiously to Italy by lending him his passport.
In 1851, after some hesitation, Morais left London for the United States to apply for the position of Hazan (Cantor and Reader) at Philadelphia's oldest and one of America's most prestigious congregations, the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Mikveh Israel. Morais arrived in New York on March 14, 1851 and in Philadelphia three days later. On his birthday, April 13, 1851, Morais was elected Hazan of the Congregation, and sixteen years later on September 18, 1868, he received a life-time contract. In assuming the office of Hazan, Morais succeeded the Rev. Isaac Leeser, the controversial traditionalist, after a vote taken by the board, 20-11. On May 17, 1854, Morais became a United States citizen and the summer of that year returned to Italy for a brief visit, apparently the last time he would travel back to his family and to his native home.
Morais married a school teacher in Philadelphia named Clara Esther Weil the following year in 1855. She gave birth to seven children before her death in 1872, which not only left Morais tremendously bereaved but also burdened with the task of raising the seven children by himself. Morais never was to re-marry. Of the children, Henry Samuel Morais became a founder of the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, a contributing editor to the Philadelphia Jewish Press and an author of two books. Morais' daughter Nina, the oldest child, was a respected literary figure and civic leader, who eventually would move with her husband Emmanuel Cohen from Philadelphia to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Morais' other children were his daughters Rebecca (who married Eugene Lyon), Gentile (who married Hermon Loeb), Esther, and Miriam, and his son Leon. Neither Henry, Leon, Esther, nor Miriam is known to have married.
As a communal and religious leader, Morais played an active role in virtually every civic and charitable cause in the city of Philadelphia and carefully followed the political issues of his day both throughout the United States and around the world. He first gained lasting fame for his outspoken support of President Lincoln during the Civil War -- a stance that later would result in his receiving an honorary membership in the Union League of Philadelphia. Morais maintained his public advocacy of the cause of abolition and the preservation of the Union in the face of tremendous pressures, a one year suspension of his preaching privileges, offers of bribes, and threats of dismissal from the board of his own congregation. Notable among Morais' other controversial stances as minister of Mikveh Israel was his support of the right of women to vote on all congregational issues, a policy which was adopted by vote in 1882.
Morais supported Jewish causes not only in Philadelphia and in the United States but also throughout the world, as evidenced by his participation in the Alliance Israelite Universelle, of which he was vice-president of the Philadelphia chapter. Morais played an active role in responding to the persecution of Jews in Morocco and Romania and spoke out against the notorious abduction of Edgar Mortara, and later of Joseph Coen, Italian Jewish children who were taken from their parents and baptised, with the consent of the Vatican. In 1868, Morais petitioned both the president of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites as well as the United States Secretary of State to appeal to the provisional government in Madrid to revoke the infamous 1492 edict of expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In 1870, following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Morais urged the United States to intervene to prevent the burning of Paris and to negotiate peace.
As a communal leader, Morais is perhaps best remembered for his efforts to re-settle in the United States Russian and other Eastern European Jews fleeing the pogroms which had erupted throughout Eastern Europe beginning in 1881. In 1890, when a strike was declared by the Philadelphia clothing makers union, pitting many of these same immigrants against some of the most prominent members of his own congregation, Morais played an instrumental role in resolving the dispute. Morais was involved in many other types of public battles, including his defense of the principle of the separation of state and religion, and his efforts to combat the Christian missionary movements which were so strong in his day.
Morais was deeply involved in the development of higher Jewish education in the United States. From 1867 through 1873, he was professor of Biblical Exegesis of Maimonides College, the so-called "first American Jewish Theological Seminary," and later served as an examiner for the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati before his eventual break with this central institution of the Reform movement. Morais also tutored children throughout his life, often for little or no remuneration, and regularly taught for the Hebrew Sunday School movement, started by Rebecca Gratz.
Morais is perhaps most famous for his role in founding the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1886), of which he was a member of the executive Board, president of the faculty and of the advisory board, and professor of Bible. Morais not only founded the institution, but also conceived its motto: "To Learn and to Teach, To Observe and To Practise (lilmod u-lelamed lishmor ve-la'asot)" [an Hebrew epigram which had first appeared in America on the cover of Isaac Leeser's journal The Occident and American Jewish Advocate (1843)]. A more complete listing of the various institutions and organizations with which Morais was affiliated is found below.
Morais was a frequent contributor to local and regional newspapers, often championing humanitarian causes such as, for example, the treatment of the Chinese in the West, Native American Indian rights, and the persecution of Armenians. He was called upon regularly to deliver public lectures (in addition to his regular regimen of weekly Synagogue sermons) on a variety of subjects, addressing such topics as the prevention of cruelty to children, the prevention of cruelty to animals, the need to give to the poor and needy, and the improvement of the status of women. Less publicized were his frequent visits to aid the infirmed, the destitute, and the imprisoned.
Morais' literary contributions have not yet been assessed. In his day, he was renowned as a translator and master of Hebrew literature. Of particular note in this regard are Morais' translations from Italian into English (for the first time) of several works of Samuel David Luzzatto (ShaDaL), the famous leader of Italian Jewish learning, including Luzzatto's critical introduction to the Pentateuch. Morais also translated for the first time from Hebrew into English two of the medieval Jewish leader Maimonides' famous epistles: the "Letter to Yemen" and the "Treatise on Resurrection." Shortly before his death, Morais completed an English translation of the Biblical book of Jeremiah for the Jewish Publication Society (during the early stages of its efforts to produce a new translation of the entire Hebrew Bible). Morais's son Henry attests that his father wrote a short commentary on the Book of Esther but no specific bibliographical information about this work has yet been found. Morais' mastery of both English literature and classical Jewish texts is evidenced throughout his many published and unpublished translations and studies.
In addition to his translations and commentaries, Morais composed several biographical and historical studies, many of them dealing with the Jews of Italy. Among his many shorter publications was a study of the history and status of the Ethiopian Jewish community, the so-called Falashah, which was published in the Penn Monthly in April of 1880. Morais also engaged in polemical exchanges on aspects of religious reform which were published in the various newspapers and journals of his day.
Morais' many unpublished sermons and writings, whose publication he opposed during his lifetime, were principally concerned with Biblical and exegetical topics. Morais also composed many explanatory lectures and addresses on post-Biblical Jewish history and theology. He also composed many funeral orations and wrote on contemporary questions of Jewish ritual practices.
Morais died in Philadelphia on November 12, 1897, at the age of 74, after several bouts of illness. He was buried in the Mikveh Israel cemetery located at 10th and Federal St. in Philadelphia.
The following preliminary list, based on information contained in the Morais Papers and in the bibliography provided below, presents all of the organizations in which Morais had either a formal membership or role or an informal but contributing relationship:
Alliance Israelite Universelle (Vice-president, Philadelphia chapter)
American Jewish Historical Society
American Historical Association (elected member)
Association of Jewish Immigrants (appointed to the committee on membership)
Bevis Marks (Master of Hebrew at the Orphans' school)
Carmel Colony (Baron de Hirsch Fund)
Chaplaincy of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Pennsylvania (declined)
Chautauqua System of Education
Doreshe Da'at Society of Philadelphia
Freemasons, Order of (member)
Gratz College (helped to found)
Hebrew Charitable Association
Hebrew Education Society (volunteer instructor)
Hebrew Immigrant Society of Philadelphia
Hebrew Literary Society (first president and lecturer)
Hebrew Sunday School Society (instructor)
Hebrew Union College (examiner)
Hospital and Immigration Society
Hyman Gratz Trust (member of Board of Trustees, ex officio)
Human Freedom League
Indian Rights Association (supporter)
Jeshurun Lodge
Jewish Alliance of America (Treasurer)
Jewish Foster Home (and Orphan Asylum) (founder and board member)
Jewish Hospital Association (member)
Jewish Maternity Association
Jewish Minister's Association (member)
Jewish Publication Society (on the consultation committee)
Jewish Summer School of Atlantic City
Jewish Theological Seminary (founder, president of the faculty and of the advisory board, and member of the executive committee)
Jewish Theological Seminary Association (President)
Literary Association of Philadelphia (honorary member)
Maimonides College (founder and faculty member--Professor of Bible)
Mikveh Israel (Minister, Hazan, superintendent of its congregational school [1892])
Mikveh Israel Association (member and honorary president)
National Council of Jewish Women
National Farm School (Baron de Hirsch Fund)
Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (member)
Rappaport Benevolent Association (member)
Society Esrath Nashim (Helping Women)
The Society for the Extension of University Teaching (elected member)
Southern Hebrew Sunday School (volunteer, lecturer)
Union League of Philadelphia (elected honorary member)
United Hebrew Charities (member and contributor)
United Hebrew Relief Association
Universal Peace Union (officer)
University of Pennsylvania (honorary degree, "Doctor of Laws")
Young Men's Hebrew Association (President "for awhile" and member)
Young Women's Union
American Hebrew
American Israelite
American Jewish Historical Society, Publications
Asmonean
Association Bulletin
Association Review
Boston Traveller
Daily Mercury
Episcopal Register
Evening Herald
Evening Telegraph
Hebrew Standard
Jewish Exponent
Jewish Index
Jewish Messenger
Jewish Record
Jewish Tribune
Ledger and Transcript
Menorah Monthly
Mirror and Keystone
Mose Antologia Israelitica, Corfu
North American and United States Gazette
Occident and American Jewish Advocate (also was a subscriber)
Penn Monthly
Philadelphia Inquirer
Public Ledger
Sunday Dispatch
The Age (Philadelphia)
The Times (New York Times?)
Morais also made charitable contributions, often anonymously, to many other organizations, including Miss Moss' Infant School, and the Touro hospital.
The Morais Papers can be divided roughly in half primarily between correspondence and writings. The earliest materials in the collection date from 1845 and the latest from just before Morais' death in November of 1897. The bulk of the collection is concentrated from after the time when Morais came to the United States in 1851 through 1897, and especially after 1876. The collection contains valuable information on Jewish life in Philadelphia in the second half of the nineteenth century, and provides new insight into Morais' role in the development of the Historical school of nineteenth century Judaism in American (precursor of American Judaism's modern Conservative movement) and the founding of its central institution: the Jewish Theological Seminary, in New York. Morais also maintained a life-long correspondence with family members, friends, and teachers from Italy, whose letters (in Italian) are rich in number and variety.
Several personal items, such as a copy of Morais' will as well as his certificate of membership in the Order of Free Masons, from Italy, are found in the collection. In addition, Morais' ordination discourse written in his own hand as well as his (rabbinical) ordination certificate from Italy are also held; the original ordination certificate, written on parchment and signed by Rabbis Piperno, Curiat and Alveranga, explicitly describes Morais as ordained, employing the language of "semikhah" (ordination).
The collection also contains numerous manuscripts and drafts of Morais' various sermons and lectures. As noted above, Morais was an outspoken supporter of a wide variety of causes such as abolition, (Native American) Indian rights, the protection of the Chinese working in the United States, protection of children and animals, supporter of the improvement of the status of women. Morais also received numerous appeals to help indigent Jewish communities, especially from Palestine.
The current collection has been enhanced by the recent donation of the long-presumed lost "Morais Ledger". This ledger contains perhaps the single most important record of Morais' writings. These articles, personally compiled and annotated by Morais, were in many instances anonymously published and many are not listed in Moshe Davis' selected, annotated bibliography (see: Davis, 1947). Significantly, Morais has signed his name to the articles in the Ledger which he otherwise had submitted anonymously for publication. Morais pasted these articles in this large, bound ledgerbook, numbering over 500 pages, and kept a running table of contents, in which he would record new publications by title, publication, and date. Unfortunately, the Morais Ledger is in very fragile condition and use of this item is restricted; however, the ledger has been scanned in an effort to ease the problem of access and make its contents more widely available. The scans are available at: http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/morais/.
From the Library of Dropsie College.
According to Moshe Davis (1947, p. 60): "The very existence of [Morais'] letters, finely schematized, is a tribute not only to the great historical foresight of Dr. Cyrus Adler, but also to the love and devotion of the pupil for his teacher. It was Dr. [Cyrus] Adler's dream, amidst his busy life, to pause for a brief a moment and inscribe a final poem in the form of a biography to his master. He therefore collected everything and anything he could lay his hands on." Unfortunately, much of Dr. Alder's carefully wrought chronological scheme of arrangement was found disarranged upon initial inspection. Alder's basic organizational principles were sound, however, and have been maintained as possible.
The Morais Papers were microfilmed in 1956 by the American Jewish Archives. These microfilms are significant because they contain reproductions of materials no longer found in the collection, such as Morais' Italian passport (bearing the number 443) which he is said to have loaned to Joseph Mazzinni to enable him to travel from exile in London to Italy. Copies of these microfilms, including copy flow (hard copy) made from these microfilms are held by the Institute. The Morais Papers were also consulted at length by Dr. Moshe Davis whose selected, annotated bibliography of Morais' writings and papers and report on the contents and significance of the original collection was published in 1947 (see: Davis, 1947).
A photographic portrait of Morais (16.5 x 13.5) has been re-located to over-sized storage. The back of the photo-portrait bears the mark of the photographer, F. Gutekunst, 712 Arch St. Philadelphia, and is accompanied by the following inscription:
The Reverend Doctor Sabato Morais
Born at Leghorn, Italy April 13 1823
Died in Philadelphia November 11 1897 Heshvan 17 5658
Minister Congregation Mikveh Israel 1851-1897
Founder of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Presented by Miss Miriam Morais - September 1932
To Sabato Morais Ben Diner
People
- Hart, Abraham
- Leeser, Isaac
- Luzzatto, Isaia
- Luzzatto, Samuel David
- Montefiore, Moses, Sir
- Mortara, Marco
- Benamozegh, Elia
- Piperno, Avraham Barukh
- Funaro, Angiolo
- Veneziani, Emmanuel Felix
- Felsenthal, Bernhard
- Benedetti, Salvatore de
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
- December 1992
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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The Morais Papers are still in relatively good, although fragile condition. Much of the collection was written on paper of good quality which has not decayed much over the last century. Very acidic and fragile documents have been interleaved with acid-free paper. While common sense should suffice, it may be worth emphasizing, nonetheless, that care should be taken in handling all of the material, especially anything marked "*fragile*." Much of the correspondence to Morais from Italy and elsewhere in Europe and Palestine was written on brittle paper and special caution should be taken when handling these letters.
ORDER OF ARRANGEMENT MUST BE MAINTAINED.
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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.