Collection of over 60 letters sent to R. Shmuel Salant by rabbis, tzedakah collectors, emissaries and philanthropists from England, South Africa, Australia and various countries in the British Empire. [Ca. 1880s-1900s].
The letters were sent to R. Shmuel Salant, Rabbi of Jerusalem. Some are also addressed to other rabbis who assisted him in managing the tzedakah funds in the city: R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the Aderet); R. Yitzchak Blazer, the Rabbi of St. Petersburg; R. Chaim Berlin, the Rabbi of Moscow; and additional rabbis and tzedakah collectors directing the Vaad HaKlali and other institutions in the city.
The authors of the letters include Yaakov Chaim son of R. Eliezer HaLevi (secretary of Montefiore); R. Eliyahu son of R. Shlomo Yaakov, a rabbi in Manchester; R. Moshe Avigdor Chaikin, Rabbi of the United Synagogue in London; R. Yoel HaLevi Herzog, a rabbi in Leeds (2 letters); R. Mordechai Yitzchak HaLevi Epstein, Rabbi of Sheffield; R. Aharon Leib Newman of Jerusalem, maggid in the Torah society in London; R. Yaakov Dov Ber son of Meir Moshe Lenzer, prayer leader of Mikveh Yisrael synagogue in Melbourne; R. Yehoshua Meir Reifman of Pretoria, South Africa; R. Aryeh Tzvi son of R. Moshe Fishel Isaacs, prayer leader and maggid of Kimberly, South Africa; the emissary R. Yosef HaLevi Horowitz of Johannesburg (4 interesting letters); R. Menachem Mendel Wolpert of Johannesburg (3 letters), and many more authors.
R. Shmuel Salant (1816-1909), immigrated from Salant to Eretz Israel in 1841 to serve as posek and rabbi of the Perushim community of disciples of the Vilna Gaon in Jerusalem. His father-in-law R. Yosef Zundel Salant immigrated to Jerusalem in the same period. In his capacity as rabbi of Jerusalem, a position he held for close to seventy years, he founded the educational and charitable institutions in the city, established the Beit Din and strengthened the Ashkenazi community. He was renowned for his brilliance and practical approach to halachic ruling and in running communal matters in Jerusalem and worldwide.
63 letters. Varying size and condition.
