Placard Printed on Behalf of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spector Opposing the Establishment of the Machzike Hadath ...

Placard Printed on Behalf of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spector Opposing the Establishment of the Machzike Hadath Society in London. Kovno, 1892

"I was very, very alarmed, and shocked and pained ... that one society of emigrants from Poland and Russia named Machzike Hadath, in London, wants to separate itself and become a separate faction, with its own rabbi, ritual slaughterers and butchers; to be its own separate community." Placard printed in Yiddish and Hebrew, in which Rabbi Yitzchok Elchonon Spector, Av Beit Din of Kovno, opposes the Machzike Hadath community which separated from the Jewish community in London and established its own independent community. Kovno, 24th of Cheshvan, 1892.

Description: [1] leaf, paper. 20x26 cm.

Background: The Machzike Hadath community is one of the oldest independent ultra-Orthodox communities in London. It is famed for the prominent rabbis who have headed it. The community was founded in 1891, in the East End of London, England. In 1893, it joined with another congregation, the "Kehilath Machzike Shomrei Shabbos." In 1898, the community purchased a former church on Brick Lane to serve as its synagogue. This was made possible by the large waves of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to this area. The congregation comprised of Ashkenazic Jews who maintained the prayer text of Lithuanian Jewry. The community's first rabbi was Rabbi Avraham Abba Werner. Later other famed rabbis served the community, including Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, who was invited to head the community because he was caught in Switzerland during the First World War, and could not return to the Land of Israel. Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky served as rabbi in 1932, after he left the Soviet Union. The current rabbi of the community is Rabbi Chaim Zundel Pearlman.

Condition: Fine, except aging stains.