Bidspirit auction | Rare Jewish Document from Chicago:

Rare Jewish Document from Chicago: A Chametz-Sale Contract Bearing the Signatures of About One Hundred Jews! Chicago, 1903 * A document from the year 1903 containing approximately one hundred signatures (!) of Jews appointing Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Broda, one of the rabbanim of Chicago, to sell their chametz on their behalf. At that time, the Jewish community of Chicago was one of the largest Jewish centers in the United States. According to a source from a newspaper of that time, approximately fifty thousand Jews lived there. Most were immigrants who organized themselves according to their countries or even cities of origin, such as the Ohavei Shalom congregation of immigrants from Mariampol, which was headed by Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Broda. Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Broda (1845–1907) was one of the leading rabbanim of Chicago and served as Rav of the Ohavei Shalom congregation of immigrants from Mariampol. He was one of the main dayanim involved in the “Kollel America” controversy on the American side at the end of the 19th century. Rabbi Broda was a contemporary of the Ridvaz and close to him; he printed the Ridvaz’s sefer Nimukei Ridvaz (Chicago, 1904). As is known, the Ridvaz came to serve in the rabbinate of Chicago during that period but endured hardship due to his efforts to enact takanos concerning the treifos that were then prevalent there, and he left the city after a short time. However, the close relationship between Rabbi Broda and the Ridvaz continued even after the Ridvaz settled in Tzfat. A small chiddush from Rabbi Broda was printed in Mikveh Yisrael (Chicago, 1898). Two sources note that a sefer titled Beis Avraham containing his Torah was published, but no copy or documentation of such a work has been found. Chicago, 1903. [2] pages, with approximately one hundred signatures. Size: 20.2 × 32 cm.