Megilat Starim - Polemic Composition against Moses Montefiore, by Efrayim Deinard - an Impressive Edition printed ...

Megilat Starim - Polemic Composition against Moses Montefiore, by Efrayim Deinard - an Impressive Edition printed on Golden Paper of 50 Copies Only - New York, 1928
An extraordinarily rare book. It has only been up for auction once, when it was sold for $21,000!
Megilat Starim By Ephraim Deinard. New York, 1928. Single edition. Printed in only 50 copies, in a large and magnificent format, on gilded paper.
The author relates: “I have prepared it for print of only fifty examples as a manuscript, only for libraries, and not for the general public…”. The book is extremely rare. Not listed in the Hebrew Bibliography.

In this book “The actions of the man Moshe Montefiore will be related for all generations, the good as well the bad, and how he was turned into a deity of the miserable foolish people who see the light of a rotten tree from afar and think it to be the light of the seven days…”. The author expresses harsh criticism of “The Montefiore worship”, in other words, the entire Jewish people’s admiration of Moshe Montefiore.

On the book’s title page he guarantees that “At the end are photographically copied maps from protests with the handwriting of the signatories in Jerusalem” (against Montefiore’s actions in the Batei Tura affair), however, these leaves are not found in the copy before us. In the copy in the National Library, these leaves were completed by facsimile. It seems that Deinard did not include these leaves in all of the 50 copies which he printed (it is known that he printed his books with changes between one copy and the next).

Deinard describes certain cases which seem to denigrate Montefiore or show his lack of success. Of course, some of them never occurred, and in some of the cases, the analysis Deinard presents bears no connection to the original reality.

Together with the pain and pity which arise when reading such a ridiculous work, and from the darkness in which the author lived, a great light shines. Of course, there is no content to the baseless claims he presents. But there is a correct and genuine element of the book, which is Deinard’s accurate description of the national admiration - from all sides of the spectrum - for Montefiore’s personality. Indeed, the Jewish people gave fitting respect to the actions of the “Righteous prince”, as he was described by the Rabbis of Jerusalem, and everyone knew that he was the primary supporter of the Jewish settlement in Israel, with many enterprises to his credit.

12 leaves. Each page has 12 numbered columns.
Condition: Good. Slight wear in the page margins.