The first twenty three issues of the Jewish Chronicle. Bound together. London, 1841-1842. English and a little Hebrew.
The Jewish Chronicle – the main newspaper of British Jewry – was founded in London in 1841 and is considered the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.
The newspaper was first published by the Jewish bookseller Isaac Vallentine, under the editorship of Rabbi David Meldola and educator Moses Angel; however, it was closed after seven months only due to financial difficulties. Only two years later, in October 1944, the printing of the paper was resumed by a new publisher – Joseph Mitchell, who began a new numbering of the issues (a numbering which continues to this day).
Before us are issues 1-23 of the first, short-lived series of the Jewish Chronicle (in the years 1841-1842), which are considered the rarest issues of the newspaper. The first page of the first issue features an editorial specifying the goals of the newspaper (Religious and moral instruction; local intelligence, historical information and facts, exclusively Jewish; original articles; textbooks). At the end of each issue are pages from two important Hebrew compositions: Passover Haggadah and the Hebrew-Aramaic dictionary "Tzemach David" (the compositions are accompanied by an English translation and presumably were planned to be published fully part by part).
132 [i.e 134] pp + [25] leaves (Haggadah and "Tzemach David"), 31 cm. Good condition. Stains. Tears to the edges of several leaves. Slightly faded binding, with minor blemishes. Tears to the spine and the corners of the binding. Bookplate on the inside front binding.