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Keter Malkhut (She’erit Yisrael) is the continuation of Joseph ben Gurion ha-Kohen’s (Josippon) popular history of the world from creation to the destruction of the second Temple. The title page has a decorative border and informs that Keter Malkhut was written by R. Menahem Mann ben Solomon ha-Levi Amelander, and is called She’erit Yisrael. The verso of the title page has an introdcution from the printer. Keter Malkhut (She’erit Yisrael) is dated with a chronogram based on She’erit Yisrael. The text, in a single column in Vaybertaytsh, is accompanied by a small number of attractive woodcut. Keter Malkhut (She’erit Yisrael), in 35 chapters, contains, in addition to many legends, a compendium of Jewish history down to Amelander’s time, but is especially valuable for information concerning the settlement and history of the Jews in Holland, particularly in Amsterdam. For the history of the German and Polish Jews there, it is almost the only source of information.
Menahem Mann ben Solomon ha-Levi Amelander (Amlander, d. 1767) was a Hebrew grammarian, publisher, and translator. He lived in Amsterdam and was a student of R. Moses Frankfurter, the dayyan and publisher in Amsterdam, whose Mikra’ot Gedolot edition of the Bible (1724–27) he proofread. In conjunction with his brother-in-law, Eliezer Zussman Roedelsheim, he published a Yiddish translation of the Bible, together with the Hebrew text and a Bible commentary in Yiddish entitled “Maggishei Minhah” (Amsterdam, 1725–29). He also edited the Midrash Tanhuma (ibid., 1733), together with a commentary consisting mainly of lexicographical glosses, and he published a Bible edition with his own notes, other commentaries, and appended to it Sefer ha-Hinnukh (ibid., 1767). His commentary “Lada’at Hokhmah was R. appended to Elijah de Vidas’ Reshit Hokhmah (ibid., 1737), Amelander’s most important work, She’erit Yisra’el, is an addition to the Yiddish translation of Josippon. It is written in Yiddish and continues the historical account of the latter with a short history of the Jews from the destruction of the Temple to the year 1743. Mann’s translation of Josippon with his addition of Sheerit Yisrael is considered his most important work. |