Physical Description

Unrecorded - No copy NLI & other major collections - Manuscript

Detail Description

Appeal in Yiddish for assistance to Ezras Torah, an organization founded in 1915 by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis to provide assistance to rabbinical scholars in war-torn Europe. The proclamation is signed by R. Dr. Hillel Klein and over 200 American and Canadian rabbis.

The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, often called by its Hebrew name, Agudath Harabonim or Agudas Harrabonim ("union of rabbis"), was established in 1901 in the United States and is among the oldest organizations of Orthodox rabbis which could be described as having a Haredi worldview. It had been for many years the principal group for such rabbis, though in recent years it has lost much of its former membership and influence.

The verso contains manuscript homily in Yiddish delivered in 1922 by R. Baruch b. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro (1883-1970)  the spiritual leader of Congregation Machzikay Hadath for almost 40 years. Born in Szmorgan, Lithuania, R. Shapiro was a renowned scholar, who had received ordination at Dvinsk and studied under some of the great rabbinic scholars of Eastern Europe. R. Shapiro fled Russia in 1905, came to the West Coast in 1913, and married Hilda Gershonovitch in Seattle in 1915. He became rabbi of the Herzl Congregation in 1923 and resigned in 1930 when the Congregation decided to become Conservative. With his Orthodox members he founded and served as rabbi of Congregation Machzikay Hadath until his passing.

Hebrew Description

Reference Description