Six leaves from the Pinkas of regulations of the minyan of the "holy society… of glaziers". Lviv, [ca. 1853-1863].
Leaves from the Pinkas of the glaziers' society in Lviv, written in calligraphic square script. On the final leaf, a transcript (vocalized) of the approbation to the society's regulations, accorded in "the middle of the month of Sivan" 1853, with the transcribed signatures of R. "Binyamin Ellenberg Rabbi of Bokshevitz" and R. "Avraham Shapiro dayan of Lviv". From this approbation in Sivan 1853, it emerges that the society was founded several years earlier, upon the instructions of the rabbi of the city, R. Simcha Natan Ellenberg. A declaration from 1863 reaffirming the regulations of the society and signed by the society members is recorded on p. 1b.
In the mid-19th century in Lviv – largest Jewish metropolis in Eastern Galicia, each profession established itself as an independent society, wherein the members committed to study and pray together. The societies were organized at the initiative of the rabbis of the city, in order to bolster the spiritual and social state of the thousands of workers in the city, which had developed into a big industrial center. Dozens of minyanim and kloizelach (small synagogues) were thus established, for the various groups of tradesmen. Besod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv (by Ze'ev Fisher-Shein, Tel Aviv, 1969) documents the various synagogues that the city boasted, including synagogues for waiters and musicians, for the society of print workers and bookbinders of the large printing firms in the city, for textile merchants, porters and delivery companies, school teachers, barbers, cobblers, tailors, hatmakers, carpenters, stockbrokers, and others tradesmen.
This Pinkas reveals that the glaziers' society in Lviv did not have their own synagogue, yet they committed to participating in set minyanim in the large and old synagogues within and outside the city walls (two renowned areas in Lviv. Regarding these synagogues, see BeSod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv). The regulations disclose that the society members agreed to sit together in the same area of the synagogue, and those who would come to pray on a regular basis would be entitled to be called up to the Torah reading at least once a month. Also specified in the Pinkas are the conventions of mutual assistance between the society members – participation in each other's joyous occasions, visiting the sick and burying the dead.
In BeSod Yesharim VeEdah – Lviv, Ze'ev Fisher-Shein relates that these organizations of tradesmen were initiated by the Shoel UMeshiv, rabbi of the city: "…the renowned Torah scholar R. Yosef Shaul Nathansohn, encouraged and assisted in the establishment of many synagogues in his city, with fatherly devotion… he cared for the spiritual situation of the tradesmen... He organized them, the various tradesmen – each trade separately – and toiled to set them up with synagogues for Torah study and prayer, to instill in them ethics and fear of G-d, to educate them to Mitzvot and good deeds" (BeSod Yesharim VeEdah, p. 15). This Pinkas documents the organization of a group of tradesmen as a society already in 1853, during the tenure of the previous rabbi, R. Simcha Natan Ellenberg, who served as rabbi of the city until the appointment of the Shoel UMeshiv in 1857. His son, R. Binyamin Ellenberg Rabbi of Bokshevitz (Bukachivtsi), a signatory on the approbation to the regulations of this society, relocated to Lviv in 1850, in order to assist his elderly father in his rabbinical duties. After R. Binyamin's untimely passing in 1856, his father R. Simcha Natan left the rabbinate and summoned the Shoel UMeshiv to come serve in his place as rabbi of the city. R. Simcha Natan himself passed away on Simchat Torah 1858 (see: Wunder, Encyclopedia LeChachmei Galicia, I, pp. 214-218).
[6] leaves. 38 cm. Thick paper. Fair condition. Stains. Large open tears to corners, with some loss of text. New leather binding.

Handwritten ledger, recording births, circumcisions and marriages in the Jewish community of Montreal, Canada. 1918. English and French, with some Yiddish (signatures of Jews who couldn't sign in English – in such cases it is noted at the end of the entry that so-and-so signed in Yiddish).
The ledger includes 36 long entries (in English), each on its own page, recording births during the years 1900-1908 and marriages during 1918 of members in the United Orthodox Congregations of Montreal. Each entry is signed by the couple (in the marriage records) or the parent (in the birth records), by witnesses and by the chief rabbi of the United Orthodox Congregations of Montreal, R. Simon Glazer. The entries recording births of boys include details related to circumcision, such as the name of the mohel and the name of the rabbi who performed the naming ceremony.
On the first page, a printed form (in French), filled-in by hand (in English and French), stating the purpose of the ledger and that it was presented by "Rev. Simon Glazer, Chief Rabbi of the United Congregations".
R. Simon Glazer (1878-1938), a prominent Orthodox rabbi in the United States and Canada in the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Erzvilik (Eržvilkas), Lithuania, studied in a number of Lithuanian yeshivot and was rabbinically ordained by R. Alexander Moshe Lapidot. In order to avoid conscription to the army, he escaped to Eretz Israel, and shortly thereafter (in ca. 1897) moved to the United States. R. Glazer served as rabbi in many congregations in the United States and Canada, including the United Orthodox Congregations of Montreal (1907-1918). He was one of the founders and heads of the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America and of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis, and was instrumental in lobbying for the Balfour Declaration, leading to its endorsement by the United States Congress in 1922.
[100] leaves (37 written pages, the rest remain blank). Approx. 35 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. Several loose leaves. Original binding, damaged.

Large volume, Pinkas Hazkarat Neshamot (memorial book) of the Chevra Kadisha in the Raab community (Győr, Hungary), 1947.
Pinkas in calligraphic script from various writers. On the first leaf: "This Pinkas was produced by the Chevra Kadisha of the Raab community in 1947". On the second and third leaf, Mi Sheberach and El Maleh Rachamim in very large letters. The next leaves contain lists of people who passed away. Many of the lists comprise the names of parents alongside many of their descendants – presumably a documentation of entire families who perished in the Holocaust.
(Interestingly, in one of the long lists of names from one family, a strip of paper was pasted over one name in the middle of the list – presumably, the person who was assumed to have perished reappeared, and his name was therefore deleted from the list).
Raab (as it was known amongst the Jews; presently: Győr) was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Hungary, recorded already in the 15th century. In the beginning of May 1944, the Jews of in a ghetto, and in June, deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp. In 1946, after the war, several hundred refugees from the city and the surroundings reinstated the community, and R. Akiva Eisenberg was appointed to serve as their rabbi. Following the anti-Soviet Hungarian revolution in 1956, many emigrated, and today only a handful of Jews remain there (Kehillot Hungaria, pp. 100-101).
Large volume, 41 cm. 24 written leaves (and dozens more blank leaves). Thick paper. Good condition. Stains. New binding.