Bidspirit auction | The Struggle Over the Succession

The Struggle Over the Succession to Rabbi Kook’s Throne — A Rare Election Broadside for the Chief Rabbinate of Eretz Israel. Jerusalem, 1936 - A rare and fascinating polemical broadside, among the most charged and dramatic election posters printed in Jerusalem during the campaign for the Chief Rabbinate following the passing of Maran Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook. Jerusalem, 1936. Presented here is an authentic witness to one of the most passionate and consequential rabbinic elections in the history of the Chief Rabbinate—the struggle over the succession to the position held by Rabbi Kook. On one side stood Rabbi Kook’s foremost disciple, the gaon Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, rabbi of the Shaarei Chesed neighborhood and Rosh Yeshivas Merkaz HaRav. A quintessential Jerusalem figure, a son of the Old Yishuv, clad in traditional Jerusalem attire, one of the outstanding Torah scholars of the Holy City and among the personalities most closely identified with Rabbi Kook’s spiritual legacy. Opposing him was Rabbi Isaac Herzog, then Chief Rabbi of Ireland, who had recently arrived in Eretz Israel and was widely regarded as a candidate of international stature, possessing broad scholarship and extensive public experience. One of the great surprises of the election campaign was the support of the Chazon Ish for Rabbi Herzog’s candidacy. Although Rabbi Charlap appeared, on the surface, to be closer to the Chazon Ish in background and outlook, the latter nevertheless backed Rabbi Herzog. This decision generated considerable discussion at the time and continues to attract the attention of historians of the rabbinate and the Orthodox community. The broadside offered here was intended to rally public support behind Rabbi Charlap’s candidacy. Written in the fervent and combative style characteristic of Jerusalem polemical broadsides of the 1930s, it combines emotion, ideological conviction, loyalty to tradition, and impassioned appeals to the electorate. At the top of the broadside appear, unusually, photographs of Rabbi Kook and his disciple Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap—a rare use of rabbinic portraits on an election poster of that era. Among its prominent slogans are: “Honorable voter! Do not diminish the honor of Jerusalem, nor bring low the stature of the entire Jewish people!” Further on: “Do not betray, with deliberate betrayal, the honor of our departed master, Rabbi Kook!” And: “Voter! Turn to the East and not to the West!” Concluding with its central appeal: “Choose Rabbi Charlap as Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel, for with him are peace and the spirit of Israel in its purity.” The broadside also invokes the memory of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and employs symbols associated both with the Old Yishuv and with Religious Zionism, seeking to portray Rabbi Charlap as the natural and exclusive heir to Rabbi Kook’s legacy. The election took place on 17 Kislev 5697 (December 1, 1936). After an exceptionally heated campaign, Rabbi Isaac Herzog was ultimately elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel. The present broadside thus survives as a rare relic of a historic election campaign that helped shape the future of the Chief Rabbinate and the religious leadership of the Jewish community in Eretz Israel for generations to come. A fascinating political-rabbinic document reflecting the struggles, aspirations, and anxieties of the Torah world and the Jewish Yishuv in the years before statehood, when the identity of Rabbi Kook’s successor—and with it the future direction of the Chief Rabbinate—hung in the balance. Large broadside. 46 × 30 cm. Condition: Fair. Age stains. Fold marks. Tears along fold lines.