Huge collection of over 360 letters from rabbis and emissaries, tzedakah collectors and philanthropists from around the world: Europe, Russia (including from the northernmost Jewish communities in Siberia, Lapland, Finland and elsewhere), the United States and Canada, England and South Africa, and various other countries. [Ca. 1880s-1910s].
Most of the letters in the present collection were addressed to R. Shmuel Salant, Rabbi of Jerusalem, and the Vaad HaKlali in Jerusalem. Some are also addressed to other rabbis who assisted him in administrating the city's tzedakah funds: R. Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim (the Aderet); R. Yitzchak Blazer, the Rabbi of St. Petersburg; R. Chaim Berlin, the Rabbi of Moscow; R. Dov Ber Abramowitz, and other rabbis and Torah scholars of the Vaad HaKlali and other institutions in the city.
R. Shmuel Salant (1816-1909), immigrated from Salant to Eretz Israel in 1841 to serve as posek and rabbi of the Perushim community of disciples of the Vilna Gaon in Jerusalem. His father-in-law R. Yosef Zundel Salant immigrated to Jerusalem in the same period.
In his capacity as rabbi of Jerusalem, a position he held for close to seventy years, he founded the educational and charitable institutions in the city, established the Beit Din and strengthened the Ashkenazi community. He was renowned for his brilliance and pragmatic approach to halachic ruling and in running communal matters in Jerusalem and worldwide.
Over 360 letters. Varying size and condition. The collection has not been thoroughly examined, and is being sold as is.
