18:31:12
[
Login
]
[
Book List
]
Bidding Information
Lot #
25397
Auction End Date
12/8/2009 12:19:30 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
Title Information
Title (English)
Taharat Yisrael
Title (Hebrew)
טהרת ישראל
Author
[Only Ed.] R. Israel ben Gamliel Feigenbaum
City
Shanghai
Publisher
Ellenberg
Publication Date
1946
Collection Information
Independent Item
This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
Description Information
Physical
Description
Only edition. [1], [1v] 68 pp. quarto 265:195 mm, wide margins, light age staining. A very good copy loose in the original wrappers, chipped.
Detailed
Description
Novellae and explanations of the Rambam on Sefer Taharah by R. Israel ben Gamliel Feigenbaum. Apart from the intrinsic value of this work, Hebrew books printed in Shanghai are in demand because of their rarity and the conditions of their printing. European Jews fleeing Adolf Hitler poured into Shanghai where, even among the large international settlements, they stood out, a distinct community with its own hospitals, theaters, schools and sports leagues. Life wasn't always pleasant. Jewish refugees were later herded into Hongkou ghetto in the city's northeast, where food was scarce and disease rampant. But in Shanghai, unlike much of the world, nearly all the Jews survived the war. Shanghai's role as savior of these souls is the stuff of classic cinema -- indeed, many books and films are being produced to tell a tale that makes Schindler's List pale in comparison. Before and during World War II, some of Shanghai's richest men conspired to save tens of thousands of Jews. Exactly how many is not known, but some historians say Shanghai saved more Jews from the Nazi Holocaust than all Commonwealth countries combined. Among them were hundreds of religious scholars. A wartime chaplain in Shanghai wrote that 500 scholars in Shanghai maintained the nearly 6,000-year tradition of Jewish teaching, making it at that time one of the world's great Jewish cities. Ironically, this remarkable religious community vanished even more rapidly than it took root. When civil war enveloped China, the refugees fled again. By the end of the 1950s, Shanghai's synagogues were shuttered and its Jews gone. The Japanese closed Shanghai to further immigration and after the outbreak of the Pacific war in December 1941 they deported to Shanghai most of the Jews living in Japan or in transit to other countries. Substantial aid was given locally, especially by Sir Victor Sassoon, Horace Kadoorie, and Paul Komor. Additional funds came from abroad. With the outbreak of the Pacific war, the position of all Jews became desperate. Most of them were kept in semi-internment under miserable conditions in the Hongkew district, subject to the whim of the Japanese occupation forces. They had great difficulty in finding employment, and most of their property was confiscated under one pretext or another. Almost all of them left Shanghai after World War II, largely with American help, for Israel, the United States, or other parts of the world. A few elderly people remained to live out their days under the Chinese Communists. Apart from J.J. Sulaiman's Kunteres Seder ha-Dorot (1921), the main period of Hebrew printing in Shanghai was during World War II and immediately after (1940–46), when remnants of Lithuanian yeshivot (Mir, Slobodka), as well as Lubavitch Ḥasidim, found refuge in Shanghai and printed – mostly photostatically – rabbinic, ethical, and ḥasidic works in limited editions for their own use. To the 80 items enumerated by Z. Harkavy (in Ha-Sefer, no. 9, 1961, 52–3; Hashlamot le-Mafte'aḥ ha-Mafteḥot (by S. Shunami, 1966), 3–4) have to be added – at least – the above work by J.J. Sulaiman and S. Elberg's Akedat Treblinka (Yid., 1946). Hebrew newspapers were printed in Shanghai as early as 1904.
Paragraph 2
חידושים וביאורים על הרמב"ם... ספר טהרה, ממני ישראל בלאאמו"ר... גמליאל ע"ה פייגענבוים...
Reference
Description
EJ; http://www.gluckman.com/ShanghaiJewsChina.html; CD-EPI 0157578
Associated Images
2 Images
(Click thumbnail to view full size image)
:
Order
Image
Caption
1
2
Listing Classification
Period
20th Century:
Checked
Location
Other:
China
Subject
Novellae:
Checked
Characteristic
First Editions:
Checked
Language:
Hebrew
Manuscript Type
Kind of Judaica
