(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Eckman, Julius (1805-74). Autograph Letter Signed written to Isaac Leeser, in English and few words in Hebrew.
Julius Eckman was the founder and editor of The Weekly Gleaner, the first Jewish newspaper on the West Coast. He writes Leeser, editor to editor, explaining that he meant no injury by calling him “unpractical [sic]” in the pages of the Gleaner - he is “unpractical” himself! The letter goes on to contain the mysterious remark that "Henry does mischief great mischief" presumably referring to Henry A. Henry, a fellow-rabbi in San Francisco (see Lot ***). Eckman closes by complaining about the dissolute behavior of some Jews in California, referring to a court case, and “a similar scandal at San Diego.” He wishes that “our people must learn to understand what liberty means - they must learn to obey authority” and then paraphrases Exodus 32:25 in Hebrew.
Ruled paper. One page. 4to.
San Francisco: 31st October 1859
What had happened in San Francisco and San Diego was that Jews had been served in the synagogue with a subpoena to appear before a Grand Jury on Yom Kippur and give testimony. In the San Diego case there had been exactly ten men for the minyan. The men refused to leave and had been found in contempt of court. Eckman thought this disobedience to authority was a misunderstanding of liberty and made Jews look bad - they should have gone to court and done their dutt as upstanding citizens.===If Eckman had a point, Leeser took the opposite stance: “The editor of the Gleaner seems to take the thing very coolly, as though it was a matter of course that a popular government could have no other effects than popular injustice… we will yield to no man in respect for the law of the land and its expounders; but there is something due also to the rights of conscience for Israelites no less than their gentile neighbors.” Leeser, like other correspondence he had received on the matter, believed that the application of the law showed disrespect to the Jews and should have waited until after the holy day as they would have certainly done with Christians at prayer in church on the holiest day of the calendar.===It can be suggested that the stances of these two men corresponded with their degree of Americanization. Leeser had resided in America for twenty years longer. Leeser’s English was perfect, Eckman’s contained mistakes and was very Germanic. For the perspective of The Occident on the circumstances of this letter, see The Occident Vol. 17:39, December 22, 1859, pp. 229-230.===Prussian-born, Julius Eckman emigrated to America in 1846 and became a pioneering rabbi in the Pacific West however he opposed reforms which his congregation wished him to implement. He did succeed in establishing a Hebrew school in San Francisco called Hephtsi-Bah. The traveler Benjamin II visited the school and reported on it. See I.J. Benjamin, Three Years in America, 1859-1862 (JPS, 1956) pp. 230-31.