6 - Sabato Morais, ‘A Sermon on the National Fast-Day’, 30 April 1863, Philadelphia

Summary

SABATO MORAIS was born in 1823 at Livorno, a port city in the Italian duchy of Tuscany; his father's family had Portuguese converso roots. He received a broad education from tutors in both classical Jewish texts and European literatures, leading to private ordination, though without a formal advanced degree. His parents also instilled in him a commitment to republican ideals and the movement for Italian national unification (sentiments reflected in the sermon reproduced below). He emigrated to London in 1845 and was affiliated with the Bevis Marks Synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation; during his years in London he established relationships with Sir Moses Montefiore (also born in Livorno) and the Italian expatriate Giuseppe Mazzini. In 1851 he left London for America, where he was elected minister of the Sephardi Mikveh Israel synagogue of Philadelphia, a position he held until his death in 1897; his funeral was the largest such public event held for an American Jewish leader in the nineteenth century.

Liberal in politics, conservative (though by no means fundamentalist) in religious sentiment, Morais represented middle ground between the innovations of the reformers and the narrowness of some of the traditionalists. His ministry reflected a melding of American, Italian, and Jewish identities, a synthesis of Jewish sources, wide cultural reading, and deep social concerns not only for the welfare of fellow Jews but for the oppressed in the broader community in what has been called a ‘rabbinic–humanist’ outlook.

Preaching was an important component of his ministry. A New York Times tribute near the end of his career said, ‘In the pulpit he has a singular gift of eloquence, his words flowing sweetly and melodiously, and his arguments being earnestly convincing.’ Nor was the impact of his sermons limited to his listeners. Apparently relishing publicity, Morais regularly sent the texts of his sermons to Philadelphia newspapers and to the Jewish press; Bertram W. Korn wrote that ‘More of his sermons were printed in the daily press than any other American rabbi’s.’ An American citizen from 1854, Morais frequently ex - pressed his pro-Union, republican sympathies from the pulpit, especially on the occasions of national fast and prayer or thanksgiving proclaimed by the government.