Printed letter – receipt for a donation to the "Shaarei Chesed General Gemach". Jerusalem, [ca. 1890s]. Printed in blue, red and yellow ink.

Filled in by hand for the donation from Toivah Brecher of Ventspils – signed by the administrators of the Gemach: R. "Meir Meisel"; R. "Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld" and R. "Naftali Tzvi Porush". Elul, 1899.

R. Meir Meisel of Khislavichi (1819-1904), a leader of Torah and charitable institutions in Jerusalem, and a leader of the Belarusian Kollel and administrator of the Etz Chaim yeshiva. Founder of the Diskin orphanage and Shaarei Chesed Gemach.

R. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1849-1932), spiritual leader of Orthodox Jewry in Eretz Israel. Outstanding Torah scholar, a wise and holy man. Disciple of the Ktav Sofer in the Pressburg yeshiva, and of R. Avraham Shag Rabbi of Kobersdorf. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1873 together with his teacher R. Avraham Shag, and was renowned as one of its leading Torah scholars. When R. Yehoshua Leib Diskin immigrated to Jerusalem in 1879, R. Yosef Chaim cleaved to him, becoming his close disciple and head of his Beit Din. In 1919-1921, the independent Edah HaCharedit community was established, and R. Yosef Chaim was appointed its first leader.

R. Naftali Tzvi Porush (1871-1952), son and successor of R. Shlomo Zalman Porush (1852-1898) as administrator of the Shaarei Chesed Gemach. He served as secretary of R. Shmuel Salant and officiated in the institutions he ran, including the Etz Chaim yeshiva and the Bikur Cholim hospital. He also founded several neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

The Shaarei Chesed Gemach was a charity and free loan organization established in Jerusalem in 1870 and still active. The organization established a neighborhood, known to this day as Shaarei Chesed [west of Rechavia].

[1] leaf. 21 cm. Good-fair condition. Wear and open tears, not affecting text.