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Broadsheet from ha-Gaon, ha-Zaddik, Admor of Belz, announcing that the Haredei community has been granted the right to separate from Hiloini (secular) organizations. The text begins, Good tidings have reached our ears, that you have been given permission by the government to separate from the hilonim, to arrange a holy community in accordance with the Torah. Everyone whose heart is touched by fear of the Lord should participate and separate from the Hiloni organizations, joining with the holy community of Anshei Year’im.
The broadsheet is signed by R. Aaron of Belz. R. Aaron ben Issachar Dov (1880-1957) lived an ascetic life and instituted a lengthy order of prayers. On the outbreak of World War II, R. Aaron escaped to Sokol and then to Przemysl where 33 members of his family were murdered. After confinement in the ghettos of Vizhnitsa, Cracow, and Bochnia, he was sent to Kaschau (now Kosice), then in Hungary, at the end of 1942 and subsequently to Budapest. In 1944 he managed to reach Erez Israel. There he revised his political views and directed his followers to support the Agudat Israel. He established yeshivot and battei midrash throughout the country. His home in Tel Aviv became the new center for the followers of Belz Hasidism throughout the world. His grave is a place of pilgrimage where many gather on the anniversary of his death.
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