"Havaner Lebn Almanach", ten almanacs edited by Sender Meyer Kaplan and Avraham Joseph Dubelman. Havana: "Havaner Lebn", 1945-1958. Yiddish and some Spanish.
The newspaper "Havaner Lebn", published between 1932 and 1960, was the main publication of the Jewish community in Cuba. Starting in 1943, "Havaner Lebn" published an almanac which featured literary works, translated Zionist works, various articles and an abundance of information about the Jewish community. In 1960, following the ascent of the communist regime in Cuba, most of the Jewish businesses that advertised in "Havaner Lebn" were closed and the almanac ceased publication.
This lot comprises the almanacs printed in 1945, 1946, 1948 to 1954 and 1958, which include lists of Jewish institutions, youth movements, and newspapers in Cuba, information about the number of Jewish families living in each of Cuba's districts, works by a variety of Jewish writers active in Cuba (Eliezer Aronovsky, Moshe Tanchum Bar [Berman] and many others), articles about Israel (the 1948 almanac was devoted entirely to the establishment of the State of Israel), and more. The almanacs feature numerous pictures of important events and personalities in the Jewish community, as well as dozens of pages of advertisements for Jewish businesses.
Ten volumes. Number of pages varies. Approx. 22 cm. Good condition. Stains and minor blemishes, mainly to first leaves. Inked stamps to some title pages. Open tears to a few leaves. New bindings, spine gilt-embossed. New endpapers. Missing original wrappers.

"A song of greeting composed by Shlomo Mandelkern in honor of the prince most honest among men, righteous in all his ways and gracious in all his works, Sir Moses Montefiore, on his arrival to Petersburg […] to face the lord of all the country of Russia, the emperor Alexander II". St. Petersburg: "A. Zederbaum and Dr. A.Y. Goldenblum" press, 1872.
A poster printed for the visit of Moses Montefiore in St. Petersburg, where he came to meet with Tsar Alexander II. The poster features a poem of twenty-six stanzas by Shlomo Mandelkern (1846-1902), philologist, writer and scholar, known mainly as the author of an exhaustive bible concordance. The number of stanzas of the poem is equal to the number of years that had passed since Montefiore's previous visit to Russia and his audience with Tsar Nicholas I. With silver endless knot border and Montefiore's portrait.
In the poem, Mandelkern describes the improved conditions of the Jews of Russia, who experienced prosperity under the rule of Tsar Alexander II, and the favorable change since the days of Tsar Nicholas I. Unlike his father, Nicholas I, remembered in the history of Russian Jewry as a notorious tyrant, Alexander II wanted to encourage the Russification of his Jewish subjects peacefully. He rescinded the Cantonist decree, permitted Jews to settle, under certain conditions, outside the Pale of Settlement and enabled them to study in institutions of higher education.
In his poem, Mandelkern calls the Tsar "a wise merciful king" and states that thanks to him "new days have come upon the Jews of Russia". Appealing to Montefiore, Mandelkern requests that when he sees the Emperor and appeals for the persecuted Jews of Romania, he should not forget to thank him for all the favors he bestowed on his Jewish subjects.
In his memoir, Montefiore recalls that when he first visited St. Petersburg and met with Tsar Nicholas I, Jews were not even permitted to spend the night in the city. Twenty-six years later, Montefiore found a thriving Jewish community with 12,000 members and was impressed by the economic success and intellectual prosperity of the community, which were achieved in the few years it had to take roots in the city.
49.5X64 cm. Good-fair condition. Long tears along the fold lines, some of them reinforced with tape on verso. Minute open tears to margins. Stains. A strip of paper glued to the right margin of the poster.
Literature: Moses Montefiore, by Paul Goodman. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1925.
See previous item.

Diskuhrs, gheltin tsvishn yehudim in shif fun itret nokh Amsterdam, a periodical "in defence of the new congregation in Amsterdam". [Amsterdam: Yochanan Levy Rofeh, 1797-1798]. Yiddish. 24 booklets (no additional booklets were printed).
"Diskuhrs", a bound volume containing 24 satiric-humorous booklets published on behalf of the Adat Yeshurun congregation – the new congregation in Amsterdam.
After the occupation of Holland by the French in 1795, a group of intellectual Jews founded a new congregation named Adat Yeshurun that introduced aesthetic changes to prayers and to customs inspired by the Sephardi congregation. A dispute took place between the old and new congregations accompanied by mutual accusations. During this dispute each of the congregations published booklets against the other – the booklets offered here, on behalf of the new congregation, and the booklets "Diskuhrs vegn di naye kehila in Amsterdam" on behalf of the old congregation.
The "Diskuhrs" booklets are considered the first Yiddish periodicals. For more information, see: "The 'Diskuhrs' of the old and new congregation in Amsterdam" by Joseph Melkman, in: Michmane Yosef, Jerusalem, 1994. pp. 135-143.
24 booklets (varying number of pages; 4-8 pages per booklets), 17.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, creases and folds. Inked stamps on the first page. Small tears to margins. Blemishes and tears to binding (parts of the spine are missing). Front board detached.

28 decrees, regulations, proclamations and publications concerning Italian Jewry. Mantua, Rome, Ancona, Monferrato and elsewhere, 16th to 18th century. Italian (one item in Latin).
Including: · A proclamations issued by Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua, forbidding the baptism of Jewish children. 1588. · Charter of protection to Mantuan Jews, issued by Francesco II, Duke of Mantua, listing the punishments for breaking the law. 1612. · The last privilege granted to the Jews of Mantua, issued by Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor. 1791. · Charter of protection to the Jews of Reggio Emilia. 1662. · And more.
Enclosed: a booklet of regulations issued by the Jewish community of Vercelli (1859); a booklet with a memorial poem for Rabbi Mordechai Mortara of Mantua, in Hebrew and Italian, by his disciple Donato Modena (1894).
Size and condition vary. Good overall condition.
From the estate of Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn.

Regolamento stabilito per l'università degli ebrei di Reggio [Regulations established for the Jewish community of Reggio]. Venice: Guglielmo Zerletti, 1770. Italian and some Hebrew.
Booklet of regulations of the Jewish community of Reggio, North Italy, containing eleven clauses related to the social, commercial and economic life of the community.
The booklet ends with the excommunication issued by rabbis Israel Benjamin Basan and Shimshon Chaim Nachmani against any member of the community who will disobey the regulations: "Any man or woman who will intentionally disobey the rules in this book […] will be excommunicated and a serpent shall bite him, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him […]".
XIII pp, 22 cm. Good condition. Fold lines and minor creases. Marginal tear to last leaf, marginal open tear to title page (not affecting text). Bound with a string in new wrappers (stains to wrappers).
Not recorded in OCLC.
From the estate of Prof. Shlomo Simonsohn.