View Auction Listing - Imre Yosher; Jerusalem ha-Beneya

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Bidding Information
Lot #		24059
Auction End Date		7/7/2009 11:31:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Imre Yosher; Jerusalem ha-Beneya

Title (Hebrew)

אמרי יושר; ירושלים הבנוי'

Author

[Only Ed.] R. Gedaliah Silverstone; R. Oshry

City

St. Louis; [New York]

Publisher

Moinester Printing Co.; [Alpha]

Publication Date

1925; 1924

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

Only editions. 32; 85, [2] pp., 228:144 mm., light age and damp staining. Good copies loose in later boards.

Detailed
Description

Two independant works bound together. The first is homilies by R. Gedaliah b. Isiah Meir Silverstone, Chief Rabbi of Washington D.C. He was born in 5631 [1871] in Jasionowka, Poland, where his maternal grandfather was the rabbi. At the age of two, he moved to Sakot, Kovno Province, where his father served as a rabbi. Silverstone studied in the yeshivot in Ruzhany and Telz until 1891, when his father moved his family to Liverpool. Silverstone was appointed the rabbi of the Orthodox Congregation of Belfast in 5661 [1901]. He visited America in 5665 [1905] to sell his books. The following year he decided to settle there because he could not support his large family in England and he was appointed rabbi of the Combined Congregations of Washington, D.C. R. Silverstone, a popular rabbi, was on good terms with his congregants. As opposed to other American rabbis of the period, his publishing endeavors were supported by the community at large and he issued pamphlets of sermons on an almost annual basis. He had little difficulty in attracting benefactors to defray the publishing costs. R. Dov Ber Manischewitz of Cincinnati and Noah [Nathan?] Musher were among his patrons and he repeatedly reported that his works were eagerly sought after by preachers. He generally published only sermons because he knew that most American Jews would not read his more scholarly works and because "many rabbis and sages from other states [or countries?] write to me that my approach to aggadah is the only one that can be used to influence the masses and lure them to their Father in heaven" (Mesamhai Lev, St. Louis 1925, pp. 5-6). A vocal opponent of non-Orthodox synagogues, seminaries and rabbis, his sermons contain many polemical statements. R. Silverstone was a vice president of the Agudath Harabbonim, a director of the Hebrew Sanitarium of Denver and the Hebrew Home for the Aged of Washington, D.C., and a member of B'nai B'rith. He also founded the first talmud torah in Washington, D.C. and many of his sermons refer to the poor state of Jewish education. An active Zionist, Silverstone attended the Sixth Zionist Congress (1903) as a delegate from Belfast. He later sent two of his sons to study in Jerusalem and, after visiting the Land of Israel ca. 1921, he announced that he would soon be immigrating there (Darke be-Kodesh, St. Louis 1922, pp. 4, 6). Though he was unable to carry out his plans right away (Doresh Tov, St. Louis 1923, p. 5), he did visit again within a year, this time together with R. Zevi Hirsch Masliansky. He finally settled in Jaffa by Elul of 1923 and he was invited to preach a number of times at the Neveh Tzedek synagogue. A few months later, however, he was compelled to return to Washington because his wife became ill. Attempts to settle in Safed in 1936 and in Jerusalem in 5698 [1938]-5699 [1939] failed as well and he returned to America each time. He returned once more a few years later, this time remaining until his death in 1944. R. Silverstone was a grandson of R Elijah Abramsky; a nephew of R Hayyim Zevi Hirsch Braude; the father of R. Dr. Harry Silverstone; a cousin of R Zelig Reuben Bengis; and an in-law of R Gershom Ravinson of Cleveland.

The latter volume contains homilies delivered during 1922-24 by R. Hayyim Jehiel b. Isaac Mordecai Oshry (d. 1871), rabbi and preacher. He was born in Kelme, Lithuania, and studied in the yeshivot of his native town (with R. Eliezer Gordon) and Taurage. At the age of fifteen he went to Germany for medical treatment. While there "his language became clear and sharp" and following his return to Lithuania a year later he preached wherever he traveled. R. Oshry immigrated to America via England in 1893. He traveled to various cities as an itinerant preacher until 1894, when he married a woman in Patterson, NJ. Two years later he left Patterson to once again travel as an itinerant preacher. In 1897 he visited Baltimore, which he referred to as the 'Jerusalem of America", and remained there to serve as a rabbi. R. Oshry spoke at Zionist conventions and on behalf of the Jewish Colonial Bank. He was also a proponent of Jewish education and his many volumes of Yiddish sermons contain polemics against Zionists and Socialists for neglecting education. R. Oshry was an early advocate of establishing private schools to teach both religious and secular subjects.

Paragraph 2

דרושים... לימים נוראים ולכל השנה, מאתי הצעיר גדלי' בהרב... מוהרי"מ ז"ל סילווערסטאן החופ"ק וואשינגטאן...

דרושים יקרים, ומאמרים נפלאים, על דרך הבקרת, בדברים העומדים ברומו של עולם היהדות, לפי רוח העת ושאלת הזמן, עם הערות יקרי המציאות מגדולי הראשונים. מאת הרב הדרשן ... ר' חיים יחיאל אשרי ... בן ... מהור"ר יצחק מרדכי אשרי ז"ל ...

הטכסט כולו ביידיש, פרט להערות בשולי העמודים. עם הסכמות ר' משה מרדכי עפשטיין, סלאבאדקא, יח אייר תרפ"ג; ר' יהודה ליב בלאך, טעלז, כו סיון תרפ"ג; ר' זעליג ראובן [בענגיס], קאלווירא ה נשא תרפ"ד; ר' יהודא ליב גארדאן אב"ד לאמזא, באלטימאר, כב אדר תרפ"ב; ר' יחיאל מיכל גאלדבע ראדום, ט אייר [תרפ"-?], ר' ישעיה זאלאטניק, ראדאם, כו אדר-ב תרפ"ב.

Reference
Description

CD-EPI 0154025; 0112437; HPA; EJ

Associated Images

3 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):

Order	Image	Caption
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3

Listing Classification

Period

20th Century:

Checked

Location

America-South America:

Checked

Subject

Homiletics:

Checked

Characteristic

First Editions:		Checked
Language:		Hebrew, Yiddish

Manuscript Type

Kind of Judaica