Certificates of Appointment as Shochet and Bodek - Chabad Community in Disna - With the Signatures of Hundreds of ...

Certificates of Appointment as Shochet and Bodek - Chabad Community in Disna - With the Signatures of Hundreds of Community Notables - Disna, 1866 / 1911
Two documents from the Chabad community in Disna (Dzisna, Vitebsk region - Belarus), with the signatures of hundreds of community notables:
1. Certificate of appointment as shochet (ritual slaughterer), with the signatures of 65 community notables and leaders in Disna. Disna, Nisan 1866.
Certificate of appointment for two shochatim: R. Moshe Chefetz (son of the rabbi of the town, R. Mordechai Chefetz), who was to succeed R. David Lipshitz; and his relative R. Shlomo Zalman Chefetz, who would replace his father R. Moshe Chefetz. The certificate of appointment lists the wages they will receive, and states that they commit to allocate a portion of their income to the widows of the previous shochatim.
[2] leaves (3 written pages). 35.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains and wear. Folding marks.
2. Certificate of appointment as shochet, signed by 145 community notables and leaders in Disna. Disna, Nisan 1911.
Certificate of appointment as shochet for R. Menachem Mendel Leib Smirin, son-in-law of the shochet R. Shlomo Zalman Itygin. The certificate states that he is being nominated in addition to the two practicing shochatim.
[4] leaves (4 written pages). 36.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, tears and wear. Folding marks.
Disna is a city located on both banks of the Daugava river. One side of it falls under the jurisdiction of the Vilna region, while the other side belongs to the Vitebsk region. In the late 19th century, it comprised some twenty thousand inhabitants, the majority of which were Jewish. "The Jews of the city were all Chabad Chassidim, whether belonging to the Liadi, Lubavitch, Kopust or Staroselye branches… the only prayer rite followed in every synagogue throughout the city was the Chabad rite, based on the Arizal, and there was not a single minyan praying Nusach Ashkenaz. When a non-Chassidic Jew would come to the town, and wished to pray in a quorum, he was compelled to pray following the Chabad rite" (Zichronot, Yitzchak Shirion, Jerusalem 1943, pp. 14-15).
Disna was a distinctly Chabad town already in the times of the Baal HaTanya in the 1790s, and several of his disciples settled there, such as the brothers R. Elazar and R. Tzvi Hirsh Yoffe and others. Some of the signees on the letter of appointment from 1866 may be elder disciples of the Baal HaTanya. One of the signees is "Elazar son of R. Yehoshua Feivel Yoffe". It is difficult to determine whether this is the signature of the elderly R. Elazar of Disna, disciple of the Baal HaTanya, or of one of his descendants who bore his name. Another signee (first from the left) is "Avraham son of R. Tzvi Kluft", presumably a disciple of the Tzemach Tzedek of Lubavitch, who mentions him in one of his letters: "The elderly R. Avraham Kluft… of Disna" (Igrot Kodesh of the Tzemach Tzedek, Brooklyn 2013, p. 159).