Samuel Johnson to Stephen Sewall, Stratford, England, advocating the teaching of Hebrew. December 7, 1767.

The Study of Hebrew in America

For most American Jews, the Hebrew of the bible and the rabbinic codes added up to a holy tongue. And not only for Jews. In 1911 an aged Christian minister enrolled in a Hebrew course at the Hebrew Union College; he wanted to be able to speak to God when he entered Heaven. Hebrew had been cultivated in North America ever since the early 1600s, and all through the nineteenth century Jewish writers of prose and poetry employed this classical tongue.