Historic Archive of Rabbi Ahron Shlomo Elberg. 1920s-Establishment of the State

Historic Archive of Rabbi Ahron Shlomo Elberg. 1920s-Establishment of the State
Large, personal historic archive of Rabbi Ahron Shlomo Elberg, parnes in the Kutno community and leader of the Mizrachi movement. Kutno and Palestine, 1920s through the establishment of Israel. Rabbi Ahron Shlomo Elberg (1882- ?) was a prominent figure in Kutno, Poland and then Palestine. He was a disciple of R’ Yehoshua’le, the “Ba’al HaYeshuot” whom he greatly admired, and he studied together with Nachum Sokolov. He was a public activist and an importer, importing grain from Poland to Germany. He was a leader of the Mizrachi movement and the first community parnes in Kutno. After immigrating to Palestine in 1933, he helped found Bnei Brak and Bank Mizrachi in Tel Aviv. He served as vice-president of the bank in Bnei Brak and conducted a lengthy court case against them. He wrote for the “HaTzofeh”, “HaMashkif”, “Haaretz” and Torah journals. He was the president of the Society of Kutno Immigrants in Israel. Rabbi Elberg’s archive contains thousands of historical documents, including first-hand historic documentation of community life. It includes thousands of stenciled pages in Rabbi Elberg’s hand, from his stint as community parnes. Additional documents in Polish relate to the Polish and German governments. His account books are arranged in alphabetical order and include the accounts and names of the community members. The archive also presents a Torah perspective of Rabbi Elberg. It includes hundreds of documents, including correspondence with the sages of Poland and Eretz Yisrael, such as his teacher, Rabbi Yehoshua’le, Rabbi Alexander Tchorsh, Rabbi Kook and others. One binder contains hundreds of notes and novellae in the hand of the rabbi, drafts of books regarding his teacher and other rebbes, the story of Elijah’s appearance to his mother, and more. Additional binders contains hundreds of receipts and documents pertaining to his business and communal activities in the 1930s in Poland and Palestine, tens of documents relating to his activities in the Mizrachi movement, 303 documents relating to his case against the bank, and correspondence with Ben Gurion and others regarding religion and the State of Israel. Books and newspapers included in this archive: Bound works: [2] Medrash Socher Tov on Tehilim, 1850? and Ba’alei HaNefesh, Lemberg 1858 – with Rabbi Elberg’s stamp. Diary notes, novellae and jokes on interior leaves. Newspaper cuttings, 1959 diary with advertisements. “Mangina Iliait”, holy songs, 1960. Plans for JNF’S Forest of the Martyrs. Sefer Kutno and its environs, 591 pages, [4] Tel Aviv, 1968, published by the Society for Kutno Immigrants that Rabbi Elberg headed. “Esa Einay”, Tel Aviv, 2005, with a compilation of Torah thoughts by Rabbi Elberg. The ideological tenets of Mizrachi. Warsaw, 1834. “Ha’aretz”, “HaTzofeh”, “Dvar” newspapers from the Second World War. “Kol Mizrachi”, 1940.