Magnificent Certificate, Handwritten on Parchment – In Honor of Shimshon Rosenbaum of Minsk, 1908

Magnificent Certificate, Handwritten on Parchment – In Honor of Shimshon Rosenbaum of Minsk, 1908
Certificate on parchment, in honor of the Zionist statesman Shimshon Rosenbaum, on behalf of his friends, Zionist and Socialist activists from the Jewish community of Minsk. [Minsk, c. 1908].
The certificate was handwritten and hand-illustrated. In the center, is a long letter written in handsome square letters. Its frame is hand drawn and painted: At the top is an imaginary illustration of the city of Jerusalem crowned with rays of sun; on its right is the figure of an angel and on its left the figure of Moses (?) holding a torch. The right and left margins have several small illustrations: a Star of David, menorah, monogram of the letters Shin and Resh (initials of Shimson Rosenbaum), and other illustrations. Signed on the bottom right corner, "Meir Paranov / Porogov" (?).
In the letter, members of the Minsk Jewish community express their support of Rosenbaum and show their support following his arrest by the Russian Tsarist rule.
40 people, representatives of the Minsk Jewish community, signed at the bottom of the letter. Among them are: Yehoshua Sirkin, Esther Churgin, Noach Tiomkin, Avraham Kaplan, Avraham ben Kalonymus Kalman and others.
Dr. Shimshon Rosenbaum (Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum, 1859-1934), Jewish attorney and statesman, native of Pinsk, Belarus. Rosenbaum studied in a cheder and the Volozhin Yeshiva and later studied law at the Odessa University and at the University of Vienna. During his studies, he began his Zionist activities. Rosenbaum was a member of the Hovevei Zion movement, participated in Zionist congresses, was a member of the Zionist General Council, a member of Zionei Zion (who were in favor of a Jewish settlement only in Eretz Israel and strongly opposed the Uganda Scheme), one of the Zionist heads in Minsk and the primary organizer of the Minsk Convention, member of the central committee of the Zionist movement in Russia.
In 1906, Shimshon Rosenbaum was chosen to serve in the first Duma assembly of the Russian empire (the first Russian parliament), and was active as part of the Constitutional Democratic Party, which wished to advance political reforms, civil rights and liberal democracy in Russia. From the beginning of the Duma meeting, the party members raised subject such as release of political prisoners and abolishing the death sentence and they condemned the Tsarist rule at every occasion. In the beginning of July 1906, following the increase in the Duma's radical political pressure, the Tsar decided to close it.
In reaction to the closing of the Duma, some of its members, including Shimshon Rosenbaum, moved to Vyborg (at that time part of Finland), where they signed the Vyborg Manifesto which called for non-violent civil revolt expressed by not paying taxes and non-enlistment. The population as a rule did not heed the calls of those who signed the manifesto. Many of those who signed were arrested and were sentenced to three months imprisonment, and were banned from taking part in the Duma again. This letter relates to Rosenbaum's imprisonment after signing the manifesto.
After the end of his imprisonment, he became an attorney and dealt with files connected to pogroms and anti-Zionist trials. During World War I, he moved to Vilna and became the leader of the Lithuania Zionist movement. With the establishment of independent Lithuania, he became a deputy Foreign Minister and later Minister for Jewish matters. In 1924, he ascended to Eretz Israel. Since 1929, he served as Lithuanian Consul in Eretz Israel. When the organization for Minsk immigrants to Eretz Israel was founded in 1930, Rosenbaum was chosen as honorary president of the organization. Died in Tel-Aviv in 1934 and was buried in the Trumpledor cemetery.
Parchment sheet 44X35.5 cm. Good condition. Folding marks, minor stains. Minor tears and creases to margins. Several faded signatures.