"Words of Peace and Truth" – French Edition – Berlin, 1782

"Words of Peace and Truth" – French Edition – Berlin, 1782
Instruction Salutaire Adressée aux Communautés Juives, qui Habitent Paisiblement les Villes de la Domination du Grand Empereur Joseph II, by Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely. Berlin, 1782. French.
"Words of Peace and Truth", written following the issue of the Patent of Toleration by Emperor Joseph II (1781), advocated a reform in Jewish education in the spirit of Enlightenment. According to the manifest, Jewish children should be educated in secular subjects such as history, geography, ethics, mathematics and astronomy.
The manifest was first published in 1782, in Hebrew. That same year, it was translated into French and distributed among the Jewish communities of France. The translator was presumably Berr Isaac Berr (1744-1828), a leader of the Jewish community of Lorraine and member of the Grand Sanhedrin of Napoleon.
[2], 86 pp, approx. 16 cm. Good condition. Stains. Minor blemishes. Handwritten notation on verso of first title page (blank). Leather covered boards, worn and damaged; spine partly lacking.
Not recorded in NLI. One copy in OCLC.
See: Tradition and Revolution, Jewish Culture in Early Modern France (Hebrew), by Jay R. Berkovitz, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 2007), p. 153.