Among the items that auction house Kestenbaum and Company plans to sell on Nov. 18 are an uncut copy of the Maryland “Jew Bill,” the first “comprehensive” mahzor set printed in America, the first kosher cookbook in English and the late 16th century papal order to destroy the Talmud—items which range in estimated cost from a few thousand dollars to $30,000 each.

In Maryland, a “protracted struggle” sought to afford political equality to Jews, according to the auction house.

“Maryland’s first constitution, passed in 1776, retained a colonial statute requiring all public servants to invoke a Christological oath. Not only were governmental officials and members of the legislature considered public servants, but so were lawyers, military officers and jurors,” it stated. “Thus, a Jew was depri

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