Subject: Excommunication

A three-page letter written by Solomon Nunes Carvalho on May 26, 1852, from Charleston, South Carolina, to Reverend Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Carvalho details public disputes within the Shearit Israel congregation concerning the role of Reverend Ellis Lyons and the excommunication of Dr. E. (possibly Eckman). The letter offers insight into internal conflicts and personalities within the Shearit Israel congregation and the unusual use of excommunication in American Jewish communities at that time.