A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue

Judah Monis

1735

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Printed page with English and two Hebrew sentences near top and bottom of page. — *A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue* was the first Hebrew-language manual printed in North America. Its author Judah Monis, knowing that all undergraduates at Harvard University were required to learn Hebrew, presented his Hebrew grammar textbook to the university authorities. Two years later, in 1722, he was appointed as the university’s first full-time Hebrew teacher. At first, Monis’s students were required to copy his textbook by hand—this could take up to a month—and one such handwritten copy has survived. However, Monis requested that the university authorities print the work and Hebrew type was imported from London for this purpose. In 1732, a thousand copies were published. Hebrew was not a particularly popular course, and by the time of his retirement in 1760, Monis was teaching only once a week.

Credits

Judah Monis, Dickdook leshon gnebreet (A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue). Cambridge, MA: 1735.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue

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Creator Bio

Judah Monis

1683–1764

Judah Monis was the first college instructor of the Hebrew language in North America. Descended from Portuguese New Christians who returned to Judaism, he was born in Italy and studied in yeshivas in Leghorn (Livorno) and Amsterdam. Around 1715 he left for America. In New York, he became a merchant and offered Hebrew instruction to Christians and Jews. He then moved to Boston. Appointed Harvard University’s first full-time Hebrew teacher, he publicly converted to Christianity in order to meet the university regulations, although many voiced doubts concerning his religious convictions. In addition to A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue, he also wrote works defending his conversion to Christianity.