Subject: Epitaphs

Newspaper clipping from the March 6, 1789, issue of the New-York Daily Gazette. Features a substantial elegiac poem (an epitaph) for Jacob Rodriguez Rivera (1717-1789) of Newport, Rhode Island. This may be the first published epitaph for an American Jew. The clipping also includes a couple of advertisements by Isaac Moses. Four pages in total.

A beautifully executed manuscript copy (ca. 1860-1870) of the inscription on the 1719 tombstone of Samuel Zanwill (Samuel Levy), one of the earliest Jewish settlers in New York City. According to Rabbi David de Sola Pool's "Portraits Etched in Stone," the inscription is actually from the tombstone of Samuel Levy, and Zanwill was his familiar Jewish name. Levy was a President of the Synagogue and a Constable of the City. This manuscript is accompanied by a companion manuscript of his brother Moses Levy's tombstone. The creator and purpose of these manuscripts remain unknown.