$360,000 Jefferson Letter

NEW YORK — A letter written by former President Thomas Jefferson condemning prejudice against Jews was purchased today for $360,000 by a Manhattan collector.

Jefferson’s one-page letter, sent in 1818 to a Jewish diplomat, was auctioned by Sotheby’s to a collector whose identity was not immediately released. The correspondence was written 42 years after Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and was not printed in any previous editions of his letters.