Handwriting and signature of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld Ga’avad of the Eida Charedit, on calling for a public ...

Handwriting and signature of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld Ga’avad of the Eida Charedit, on calling for a public fast as a result of the bloodshed of 1929

A call for a public fast on Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul 1929, following the bloody disturbances which took place in Chevron on Shabbat the 18th of Av 1929, written on a typewriter with additional handwriting of two lines and a signature by the Mara d’Atra Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld.

Background: In the month of Av 1909, a chain of bloody events took place throughout the Holy Land, events that culminated in the Shabbat pogrom in Hebron. A pogrom in which more than sixty of the city's Jews were killed, including about a third of the students of the Hebron Yeshiva, by their Arab neighbors and acquaintances. Following the shock that swept the entire Jewish people, the great sages of Israel, led by Chafetz Chaim, announced a general day of fasting that year on the eve of R.H. Elul. In his letter, Rabbi Zonnenfeld wrote: “our brothers in the Diaspora have heard of the horrific events in Israel…and groaning for the victims…have taken upon themselves the day of Erev Rosh Chodesh as a general public fast.” Rabbi Zonnenfeld ends his letter with the handwritten note: “and the prime purpose is to awaken tshuva for each according to his needs, may we return to You. Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld.” 21x22cm. Filing holes, small tears, creases, good condition.

Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld (1849-1932) was the Ga’avad of the Eida Charedit in Jerusalem. One of the most prominent leaders of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem during the turbulent periods of Aliyah. At age 16 he started studying in the yeshiva of the Ktav Sofer, and after his marriage he followed Rabbi Avraham Shag. In 1874 he moved with his rabbi to Israel, where he began to serve as right-hand man to Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Diskin and Rabbi Yitzhak Yerucham Diskin, in their efforts on behalf of Jerusalem’s Jews. His peak activity came in 1919, in founding the Eida Charedit and being appointed to lead it.