JOSEPH EZEKIEL RAJPURKAR’S PRAYERS OF THE FIVE JEWISH FASTS, 1890 FIRST EDITION, PRINTED IN BOMBAY

(INDIAN JUDAICA—BOMBAY IMPRINT) RAJPURKAR, Joseph Ezekiel. The Prayers of the Five Jewish Fasts. Bombay: “Nirnaya-Sagara” Press, 1890. Octavo, later half red cloth and patterned paper boards. $600.

First edition of this Bombay-printed liturgy, translated into Marathi by Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar, one of the leading Jewish scholars of 19th-century Bombay.

Rajpurkar (18341905), scholar of the Bene Israel community in Bombay, was headmaster of the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution for 40 years. A master of Hebrew as well as of Marathi, the vernacular of Bombay, he translated over 20 works of the Hebrew liturgy and many English works of Jewish interest into Marathi, as with the present liturgical text. With title pages in English and Marathi. Yaari Bombay 116. Owner signature to front wrapper and Marathi title page.

Front and rear wrappers, once bound in, now laid in loose. A very good copy.