Page:Richard Cumberland (1919).djvu/11

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PREFACE

This little book is the outcome of a revival of interest in the works of Richard Cumberland, stimulated by the production of his famous play, “The Jew,” by the Confirmants Club of the Bronx Free Synagogue, New York, on the evening of June 15th, 1919. Soon after, the author was requested by the “Jewish Daily News” of New York to prepare for publication a version of “The Jew” for use among similar groups throughout the country. I then undertook a study of the life and Jewish associations of Cumberland, making it a point to employ the original sources which the libraries of Columbia University and New York City amply afforded. No particular article on the Jewish references in Cumberland came to my

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