Catechism For Jewish Children

Excerpt:

    CHAPTER I
    RELIGION IN GENERAL

    1. What is religion?

    Religion is the knowledge we have of God, and the duties we owe in obedience to His will.

    2. What do you mean by saying, "I believe in God?"

    I believe, that every thing I see around me, the trees, the flowers, the earth, the water, also the sun and the moon, and the thousands of bright stars that shine so beautifully in the sky, were made by the great Creator, whom we call "The Almighty God."

About the Author:
Isaac Leeser (December 12, 1806, Neuenkirchen, in the province of Westphalia, Prussia - February 1, 1868, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American rabbi, author, translator, editor, and publisher; pioneer of the Jewish pulpit in the United States, and founder of the Jewish press of America. He wrote the first Jewish translation of the Bible into English to be published in the United States. He is considered one of the most important American Jewish personalities of the nineteenth century America.

Educated at the gymnasium of Münster, Leeser was well-grounded in Latin, German, and Hebrew. He also studied the Talmud tractates Moed, Bava Metzia, and portions of Kodashim and Bava Batra under Hebrew masters. At the age of seventeen he emigrated to America, arriving at Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1824. His uncle, Zalma Rehiné, a respected merchant in that city, sent Leeser to a private school but after ten weeks the school closed, and for the next five years Leeser was employed in his uncle's counting-room. Although his circumstances were inhospitable for the growth of his Jewish knowledge, Leeser showed his bent by voluntarily assisting the hazzan to teach religion on Saturdays and Sundays and also by defending Judaism in the public press from time to time when it was assailed.