Deuxiéme Lettre d'un Rabbin Converti, aux Israélites ses Frères, sur les Motifs de sa Conversion. Les Prophéties Expliquées par les Traditions de la Synagogue.

Paris, l'Auteur, a la Sorbonne; au bureau de la Société Catholique des bons livres, et aux principales librairies eccléslastiques, (1825)-1827.. 1st Edition . Hardcover. .. Crown octavo. Pp. iii, (i blank), 334. Half-title, Author's signature on verso. Text diagram. Footnotes, errata. HARDCOVER, contemporary half cloth and marbled boards, manuscript shelf-label to spine. Small institutional label tipped-in, small stamps. In a very fine fine condition (sporadic foxing). Excellent copy, practically unused. ~ FIRST EDITION. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR "P. L. B. Drach" in ink on verso of half-title ("Propriété de l'Éditeur"). Marrano Paul Louis Bernard Drach (David), (1791, Strasburg - 1868, Rome), a Talmudic scholar, Grand-Rabbi, a well-known converted Jew. In 1823 he renounced Judaism in the presence of Archbishop Quélen, was baptized, and received his first Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation. In 1827 appointed librarian of the Propaganda in Rome, an office he held until his death. Rosenthal, in his "Convertitenbilder" writes: "The conversion of this learned Jew is undoubtedly one of the most important conversions effected by the grace of God during this century in France. It became the source of salvation to many of his coreligionists." Of Drach's numerous writings, "Lettres d'un rabbin converti aux Israélites, ses frères" is the most important. Highly anti-Semitic, it incriminates the Jews as practicioners of ritual murder. "The zeal of these Rabbis goes as far as dedicating to death all those who follow the doctrine of the Trinity, and consequently all Christian Israelites," Drach writes. In his "Harmonie entre l'église et la synagogue" (Paris, 1844) he even asserts that the Jews of Damascus had been responsible for the ritual murder of the Capuchin Fr. Thomas in 1840, and that their guilt had been established beyond doubt. Exceedingly scarce. OCLC records 2 copies only. [Descriptive text Copyright Librarium, The Hague] I-5 OUT