Handwritten leaf - "Mechaa Geluya" - relating to the orphans of the Jews killed during the Kishinev Pogroms, who were expected to arrive in Jerusalem, protesting the possibility that they would receive a secular education. The leaf is signed by 28 Jerusalemite Torah scholars. Jerusalem, Av 1903.
Call to community heads and rabbis abroad in regard to the children of the Jews murdered during the Kishinev Pogroms. The orphans were expected to arrive in Eretz Israel and there was concern that those who were in charge of their immigration would send them to secular schools.
"…We can say that the fate of the parents who were murdered sanctifying G-d’s name is better than that of the orphans who will G-d forbid fall into heresy… We beseech you, dismiss these ‘good-doers’. There is no lack of G-d fearing activists to choose from. Discharge the previous activists… writing and signing for the sake of the holiness of the Land lest it be desecrated…".
The 28 signatories include: R. "Binyamin Zeev Rabbi of Mazyr"; R. "Nachum son of R. Yitzchak David of Lomza" (R. Nachum Rothman, brother-in-law of R. Eliyahu Lopian); R. "Shalom Leib Eisenbach"; R. "Shlomo son of R. D.S.", and others.
[1] leaf. 29 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear to margins.