Front page of Isaac Leeser's The Form of Prayers, According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, Philadelphia: Haswell, Barrington and Haswell, 1837.

Credit: Courtesy of Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia

A prodigious author, Isaac Leeser wrote and published defenses of the Jewish faith, instructional catechisms for children, and translations of the Pentateuch and Torah. In 1843 he founded The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, the first monthly journal in the nation to address Jewish issues, which he continued to write for, edit, and publish until his death in 1868.