A letter by the heads of the Karlsburg community, concerning the management of the city's charity funds. Signed by them and by the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Freidman. February 1853.
Rabbi Avraham Friedman (d. 1879) served as Rabbi of the Shimanda community, next to Arad, in the 1830s. In 1834, the Chatam Sofer sent him a responsum instructing him not to allow a yevama to marry in opposition of Torah law (Chatam Sofer Responsa, Even HaEzer 2, Siman 82). The Chatam Sofer calls Rabbi Friedman "My Friend", "Great in Torah Knowledge" yet he attacks him strongly "not to find an excuse to publicly transgress the words of Torah, G-d forbid". After the passing of the Mareh Yechezkel in 1845, he was elected, through government intervention, as Rabbi of Karlsburg and General Rabbi of the Transylvania district. Most of the Charedi rabbis of the area did not cooperate with him and when Rabbi Hillel Lichtenstein was elected as Rabbi of Klausenburg, Rabbi Friedman cancelled his election. With his passing, the office of "General Rabbi" was cancelled in Transylvania. (See Persons in the Chatam Sofer's Responsa, page 29; Chachmei Transylvania, pages 189-190).
Yiddish-Deitsch.
34 cm. Good-fair condition, folding marks, minor damage at top of leaf.