Historical Proclamation Condemning the Opening of Secular Schools in Jerusalem Signed by the Sephardic Rabbis & Kabbalists of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 1887
Historic Original Proclamation against the Alliance school in Jerusalem.
Strongly-worded original proclamation against the opening of the Alliance Israelite Universelle School in Jerusalem.
The proclamation was signed by over thirty rabbis from the great Sephardic sages of Jerusalem. Among them are righteous and holy Kabbalists including Yeshivat Beit E-l kabbalists: Rishon Letzion Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elyashar, renowned as the Yisa Bracha, and Rabbi Refael Yitzchak Yisrael, Raavad of Jerusalem; kabbalist Rabbi Aharon Moshe Pirera, author of Me’il Kodesh and Bigdei Yesha; kabbalist Rabbi Sasson Behar Moshe, author of Shemen Sasson; Yeshivat Beit E-l; kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Vital who edited Rabbi Chaim Vital’s Sha’ar Hakavanos; kabbalist Rabbi Masaoud Elhadad, Rosh Yeshivah of Beit E-l and author of Simchat Kohein; kabbalist Rabbi Yissachar Asraf; kabbalist Rabbi Nissim Ani; kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Malka author of V’zarach Hashemesh; kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Mizrachi Adani, author of Shalom Yerushalayim; Rabbi Eliezer Papo, author of Damesek Eliezer; and Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Abulafia son of Rabbi Yedidya Refael Abulafia.
The rabbis of Jerusalem viewed the opening of an Alliance school as a critical attack on the pure education of Jewish children and an opportunity to infect them with the winds of the Enlightenment.
In their letter, they mention the opposition of former Jerusalem sages as Rabbi Avraham Gegin, Rabbi Yedidya Refael Abulafia and Rabbi Eliyahu Mani. They likewise virulently condemned Nissim Behar as the legal representative of Alliance Israelite Universelle in Jerusalem.
The rabbis wrote, “…By the might of our holy Torah, we hereby decree and prohibit all residents of Eretz Yisrael to send their sons to any of these secular schools. According to our opinion, it is as if he is sacrificing his son to idol worship…And if, heaven forfend, one shall willingly defy these words, not only shall he no longer be regarded as part of the Jewish community, but we shall not circumcise his son and he shall not be buried by a Jew…”
Jerusalem, 1887. One large leaf. Page size: 34×29 cm. Ink smudges in two places, minor tear with slight damage to one signature.
(Published in the Jerusalem quarterly magazine in 1951, ppgs. 70-72 with minor errors deciphering the signatures.)
List of signatures
First line: Yisa Bracha/Yosef Vital S”T (perhaps
Sephardi
Tahor or
Sayfa
Tava) /Aharon Moshe Pirera S”T/Sasson ben Moshe/Yaakov Matalon S”T/Nissim An”i Y”zu/Mas’ud Elhadad S”T/ Moshe Suzin S”T/ Refael Yitzchak Yisrael.
Second line: Moreinu Yechiel bar Adon S”T/Baruch Pinto/ Moshe Malka.
Third line: Vidal ben Chanoch Ang’el S”T/Machluf Sharvit s”ilat/ Efraim Mirkado Alkalei S”T/A”H Shalom ben Malka S”T/unidentified signature.
Fourth line: Yehoshua Tzion Halevi S”T/Eliezer Papo y”tzo/After having already signed with the agreement of my father Harav Yedidya Refael Abulafia, Chaim Yitzchak Abulafia
S”T/A”H Emanuel Elkash S”T/ A”H Shalom Adani S”T/ Yitzchak Gegin S”T/ Chaim Nissim Baruch S”T/Shalom Bachar Sasson H”yv/A”H B”H Yissachar Asraf Si”t.
Fifth line: Nissim Yisrael Sasson/ Shabtai Ekshotti H”yv/Aharon Einkava H”yv/Nissim Ezra Mandil H”yv/Shimon…
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Any inquiries about this lot?
