Props!

“Lazarus suggests a Miss Gratz, a Jewish philanthropist who allegedly enjoyed Harrington. “Were I a correspondent of Miss Gratz’s, it would give me pleasure to write to her on this subject, but unfortunately for me, it is only through the medium of mutual friends that we are known to each other.”

It appears that Maria Edgeworth was an acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, who wrote “Ivanhoe” and supposedly based his sympathetic Jewish heroine Rebecca on Miss Graetz, who was a famed (and quite beautiful) Jewish philanthropist and founding member of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1819.. After her death Graetz College was named after her.

Thanks for a fun and interesting story!

NICK!!! This is AMAZING!! Thank you so, so much for doing this research. Edgeworth’s “YOU PEOPLE” huffiness is timeless!

Seriously, can’t thank you enough — I really did want to know the answer to the question of who reached out first, and you just answered it. HERO.

–Snarly

You hooked me into doing some supplemental research so, tapping my academic institutional library privileges, here is what I found on pages 21–28 of The Education of the Heart:

Lazarus was the one to reestablish correspondence four years later and it included an apology—not for offending Edgeworth in the previous letter but instead for daring to write again: “[Finishing the memoir of Edgeworth’s late father] is the only apology I can offer for again venturing to address his daughter. ”

In the response, Edgeworth acknowledges not having returned Lazarus’ letter but, “It came to my hands when I was so unhappy I could not write any answer.” Despite this evasion, Edgeworth also admits that Lazarus’ dad’s idea that Edgeworth made Berenice a Christian to promote tolerance for religious intermarriage is a more charitable interpretation than Edgeworth, herself, deserves. So far, so reasonable. But then, “I really should be gratified if I could have any testimony even were it ever so slight from those of your persuasion that they were pleased with my attempt to do them justice. But except from you, my dear Madam, and one or two other individuals in England, I have never heard that any of the Jewish persuasion received Harrington as it was intended [maybe a red flag, no?]. A book or merely a print of any celebrated Jew or Jewess or a *note* expressing their satisfaction with my endeavors or with my intentions would have pleased—I will not say my vanity—but my heart.”

Lazarus writes a gracious response but when it comes to the testimonial, Lazarus suggests a Miss Gratz, a Jewish philanthropist who allegedly enjoyed Harrington. “Were I a correspondent of Miss Gratz’s, it would give me pleasure to write to her on this subject, but unfortunately for me, it is only through the medium of mutual friends that we are known to each other.”

After that is another 300+ pages of correspondence. The staying power of some non-apologies astonish me!