Nezer HaRabbanut – certificate of appointment for Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar, invitation to serve as rabbi of the Chassidic community of Klausenburg, signed by six community leaders. Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca). 4th Tammuz [1921].
Large certificate in calligraphic script, within an elaborate, colored border, on high-quality, parchment-like paper, with six signatures of community leaders: "Fried Hillman[?] Head of the Community"; "Shmuel Marmorstein; "Pinchas Friedmann"; "David Liebermann – Secretary"; "Chaim Eliezer Weiss – Treasurer"; "Moshe Hershkovitch – gabbai". With the stamp: "The Autonomous 'Sefard' Orthodox Jewish Community, Cluj".
At the top of the page, the words "Mazal Tov" and "Nezer HaRabbanut" are inscribed in large, colored ornamented letters. The certificate of appointment is written as an acrostic poem, forming the rebbe's name. At the foot of the leaf, an inscription signed by the artist: "Made by me, Yitzchak HaKohen Schwartz".
In this letter, the heads of the Chassidic community in Klausenburg – "Khal Adat HaSefardim", invite Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum to come serve as rabbi of their community. This appointment was not ultimately realized.
The background of this certificate of appointment: In 1878-1923, R. Moshe Shmuel Glasner, author of Dor Revii, descendant of the Chatam Sofer, served as rabbi of the Orthodox community in Klausenburg. R. Glasner was an Orthodox rabbi and Torah scholar, yet he was rejected by the Chassidic communities in the town, for his Zionist views and leadership of the Mizrachi movement. Klausenburg was at that time the stronghold of Zionism in Transylvania, and this generated a schism in the local Orthodox community. The opposing faction, mostly consisting of Sighet Chassidim, wished to establish their own community, though this was forbidden by Austro-Hungarian law. After the end of WWI, when Klausenburg came under Romanian rule, the seceding faction was authorized to organize its own community. Thus, with the support of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar, their spiritual mentor, a large group of Sighet Chassidim broke away from the main community, and founded a new Orthodox community named "Adath HaSefardim (Chassidim who pray with Nusach Sefard) – Klausenburg" (due to legal restrictions, they were compelled to define their community as Status Quo rather than Orthodox). This schism aroused a great controversy involving many rabbis; some supporting it, and others opposing it. On both sides, polemic writings, articles in newspapers and even books were written.
The members of the new community wished their mentor R. Yoel Teitelbaum to come to Klausenburg to serve as rabbi of their community (In 1901 R. Yoel was appointed rabbi in Irshava; since the beginning of WWI, he lived in Satmar). Consequently, they wrote and signed this magnificent certificate of appointment, in which they invite R. Yoel to come serve as rabbi of their community. However, this plan did not materialize. Eventually, in 1926, R. Yoel of Satmar sent them his nephew, R. Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam to serve as rabbi of the new community in Klausenburg (Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam of Klausenburg, founder of the Sanz Chassidic dynasty after the Holocaust, was the son-in-law of Rebbe Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, the Atzei Chaim of Sighet - brother of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar). R. Yoel Teitelbaum returned to serve as rabbi in Irshava in 1922.
[1] leaf. 59.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear. Mounted on paper for reinforcement.