Rabbi Arnold Fischel Writes to Rabbi Sabato Morais About a Lecture on International Jewry

Here Rabbi Fischel, leader of New York’s Shearith Israel Congregation and the first known chronicler of American-Jewish history, writes to another leading rabbi and educator, Philadelphia’s Rabbi Morais, about a lecturer "on the present condition of Jews in Civilised Countries,” who requires information on the “social and political position” of Jews in Rabbi Morais’ native Italy.
 
My friend, Mr. R. di Cordova, is planning a lecture "on the present condition of Jews in Civilised Countries" in which he intends to give a truthful account of their social and political position in Europe as well as in America. As he himself has not had an opportunity of hearing what their condition is in Italy, you will confer a personal favor on me by affording him the required information in regard to your country.
 
It seems likely that the “R. di Cordova” being accommodated was in fact the popular Jewish lecturer, Raphael de Cordova – who soon afterward would, like Fischel, be active in the Union cause.

Autograph Letter Signed (“A. Fischel”), 1 page, octavo, New York, June 1860. To Rabbi Sabato Morais in Philadelphia.