Pinkas Hevrat Lehem la-Reuvim…(Ledger of the Society for Feeding the Hungry…), Jerusalem: 1890

9 leaves (11 x 8 in.; 280 204 mm). Written in various inks and hands in Hebrew, Yiddish and English. Title and first leaf, text illuminated with gold ink and set within gold and copper metallic stamped framing elements; additional text in red and black. Assorted institutional approbation stamps. pp. 3,5-8. Numerous signatures, various inks. Holes from earlier stab-sewn binding. Some marginal losses with tape and paper repairs, affecting a few letters of text. Modern blind paneled leather.

This decorated volume begins with the letters of appointment for Rabbi Joseph ben Barukh Zevi Horowitz to solicit funds from Diaspora Jews on behalf of the charitable society, Hevrah Lehem la-Reuvim, ve-Hakhnasat Orhim. The society’s mission included feeding and housing impoverished Jews in the city of Jerusalem. Horowitz was an experienced shadar (rabbinical emissary) whose previous assignment had included an apparently successful fundraising trip to India and Australia a dozen years earlier in 1878. His mandate for the present journey was an ambitious one, authorizing him to collect monies from Jews in America, California, Brazil and South Africa. Accordingly, the authorizations are written in multiple languages so that his mission might meet with success in any of those locales. Interestingly, while the Hebrew and English texts are written on behalf of, and signed by some of the most eminent rabbinic authorities of late nineteenth century Jerusalem, the Yiddish text is signed by three women. The contributions entered in the final leaves of the pinkas seem to indicate that Horowitz traveled south into Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, recording donations in both Egypt and Yemen.