Shimu Elei Geonei Eretz – lithograph of a letter from the Adat Shalom community in Košice, of R. Avraham Abele Katz Selenfreund. copyings of halachic rulings and letters of rabbis of Hungary and the region. [Košice, 1872].

Historical documentation from the schism in Hungarian Jewry, after the Congress of 1869. The Austro-Hungarian authorities then approved the establishment of independent Orthodox, Neolog (Reform) and Status Quo communities uncommitted to reform or orthodoxy. The leading Orthodox Hungarian rabbis, headed by the Ktav Sofer, R. Yehudah Aszod and Maharam Schick fiercely opposed the Status Quo communities and forbade participation in them, considering anyone not joining the Orthodox to belong to the Neologs and ruling their shechitah forbidden.

The Košice community, headed by R. Avraham Abele HaKohen Selenfreund (1807-1872, author of Pnei Avraham, son-in-law of R. Elazar Löw, author of Shemen Rokeach), was subject to that ruling, although the community members were Torah observant. The present booklet is a copying of that halachic ruling, countered with copies of letters by their distinguished supporters.

The present booklet includes letters from the community members, a halachic ruling sent to them with an ultimatum to join the Orthodox or else be considered apostates (signed by a Beit Din consisting of R. David Leib Silberstein, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Rabbi of Sobrance, and R. Shimon Yehudah Fonfeder), and letters of leading rabbis who supported the Košice community (R. Meir Perls, Rabbi of Carei; R. Binyamin Ze'ev Mendelbaum, Rabbi of Satmar and the region; R. Koppel Friedman Horowitz, Rabbi of Nyíregyháza and the region; and R. Avraham Yitzchak Glick, Rabbi of Tolcsva), as well as a list of other supporters whose letters were not included due to printing costs (including R. Yitzchak Meir of Warsaw, the Chidushei HaRim; R. Shlomo Zalman Ullman, author of Yeriot Shlomo; R. Chaim Halberstam, Rabbi of Sanz; and others).

On first blank page, postmarks and remains of postage stamp, with handwritten inscription of address in German, addressed to Chief Rabbi of Holleschau, Moravia (Holešov, Czech Republic), adding that further material would be added later.

The present booklet is mentioned in an 1872 responsum of Maharam Schick (Orach Chaim 307), apparently addressed to one of the rabbis who wrote a letter printed in the present booklet, opposing the Status Quo party.

[1 blank page], 7 pages, 36 pages. Fair-good condition. Stains and folding marks. Minor tears to folds. Unbound.