Friday, December 13, 2013

Foreign sponsors for book publishing: one example Seder Hayom 1967 Casablanca

It is often surprising to see how funding for the publication of Hebrew books was often sought from far-away sponsors, at times without any relation to the content of the book or the author. One famous such example is the Netiv Chaim of R. Nethanel Weil, published in Livorno in 1820.


The book was funded by 4 philanthropists from Gibraltar.

Here is a later example, סדר היום Seder Hayom, a Kabbalistic Liturgical text, it was sponsored by the Sutton family of Aleppo, though it was published in Casablanca, Morocco.


2 comments:

  1. Notice how they give a blessing to the Sutton family in return for them financing the book, "veyahzirem ha-el lemutav" "May G-d direct them back to good". Perhaps this is a vaguely concealed indication that the Suttons were not religious Jews.

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    1. I suspect that the Suttons were jailed at the time, and the phrase ויחזירם האל למוטב is a prayer for them to be released. Notice how it is followed by בניסן נגאלו ובניסן עתידים להגאל.

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