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Rare copy of the appeal for aid after the devastating earthquake that occurred in Safed and Tiberius in 1837. On January 1, 1837 an earthquake took place that devastated the city. More than 4,000 Jews in Safed and 1,000 non-Jews died, killed in the earthquake. In addition to the deaths, many others suffered injuries and loss of limbs. A majority of those who died were buried alive in their dwellings. Among those who died were four hundred members of the Kolel Hasidim. In addition there were deaths and damage in Tiberius. In the latter location, R. Hayyim Nissim Abulafia was saved but his leg was broken.
The Kol Korei consists of four letters. The first letters are from are from R. Israel, mashgiah of the Kolel ha-Perushim in Erez Israel, the second from R. Aryeh ben Yerahmiel of the Kolel ha-Perushim in Jerusalem, and the third from R. Raphael Isaac Alfandari, Sephardi Tahor. All the letters are to R. Zevi Hirsch Lahrin in Amsterdam, describing the devestation. They write that the Erez ha-Hayyim in now one large cemetery. The last letter, by R. Lahrin, and also signed by R. Abraham ben Aharon Prinz, R. Zalman ben Judah Ber Robens, and R. Jacob Meir ben Abraham Moses Lahrin, is addressed to the Ashkenazic communities of The Netherlands, Germany, England, France, Prussia, Denmark-Sweden, all communities of North America, and Suriname, concerns the raising and distribution of funds. It describes the monies raised and the locations in which that the appeals were made. The letters are set in a single column in rabbinic type.
A consequence of the earthquake which destroyed much of Safed and caused such heavy casualties was that many of the surviving rabbinical students went to Hebron
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