Printed polemical booklet – "Ketov Zot Zikaron BeSefer!" from the "Orthodox Torah-observant community of Khust" against the appointment of the "dayan of Ungvár" R. Yehoshua Grünwald as Rabbi of Khust. [Vynohradiv (Vinogradov, Sevlus): Klein, 1934.] Hebrew and Yiddish.
"Why we have had the Orthodox people… of our community gather and fight an obligatory war against the destroyers of the religion, who conspired… to appoint a rabbi [R. Yehoshua Grünwald] against the Torah and the ordinances and the adjurations of the great men of our time… And we turned to the great rabbis… what to do… Therefore we have separated from this evil community and established a new community here… the 'Orthodox Torah-observant community'".
In 1933, after the passing of the Gaon Av Beit Din of the Edah HaCharedit, R. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, and the appointment of R. Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky to his place, a frantic race began for the Khust rabbinate in Zakarpattia. At first there were three candidates – Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum (who then served as Av Beit Din of Carei); Rebbe Yaakov Yechizkiyahu Grünwald, the Vayaged Yaakov of Pupa [son of the Arugat HaBosem who formerly served as Av Beit Din of Khust], and his nephew R. Yehoshua Grünwald, the dayan of Ungvár (Uzhhorod), author of Chesed Yehoshua.
In the elections that were held in Tamuz 1934, R. Yehoshua won the support of the majority of the community, and on Rosh HaShanah eve, 1934 he began to serve as Rabbi of Khust [on p. 15 of the booklet is a photograph from the day of his arrival in Khust, surrounded by many policemen to keep him safe]. The supporters of his uncle, the Vayaged Yaakov of Pupa, refused to accept R. Yehoshua Grünwald's appointment as Rabbi of Khust and separated from the city's central Orthodox community and established a separate community called the "Orthodox Torah-observant community", and in order to be recognized by the secular authorities, they registered as a Neolog community.
The present booklet was printed by the independent seceding community headed by the Vayaged Yaakov of Pupa, in which the heads of the community recount the history of the controversy, the claims and reasons supporting their side, and the approbations and responsa of rabbis and rebbes supporting them: Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar; R. Shaul Brach of Nitra, Av Beit Din of Košice; R. Yitzchak Tzvi Amsel, Av Beit Din of Zborov; R. Asher Lemel Segal Spitzer, Av Beit Din of Kirchdorf; R. Yehoshua Buxbaum, Av Beit Din of Galanta; R. Shmuel David Ungar, Av Beit Din of Nitra; Rebbe Moshe David Teitelbaum, Av Beit Din of Magyarlápos (Târgu Lăpuș); R. Yehudah Segal Rosner, Av Beit Din of Săcueni; and more.
Against the present booklet, the central Khust community published the booklet "Kosht Divrei Emet – Response to the Allegations" (Munkacs, 1935), containing letters of rabbis and rebbes supporting R. Yehoshua Grünwald, led by the Minchat Elazar of Munkacs.
[2], 3-32 pages. 21 cm. Fair condition. Stains and wear. Marginal tears and holes; open tears lightly affecting text on last pages. Disconnected pages. Missing back cover [containing the place of printing and name of the printer – see Bibliography of the Hebrew Book Project].
Rare. To the best of our knowledge, has not been offered for sale at auction.
