Wonderful dedication signed by Rabbi Yehezkel Docks hy”d, Rabbi of Altona, on the book Menorat HaMa’or

Wonderful dedication signed by Rabbi Yehezkel Docks hy”d, Rabbi of Altona, on the book Menorat HaMa’or
Two volumes with two sections of the book Menorat HaMa’or by Rabbeinu Yitzhak Abuhav, with the commentary Nefesh Yehuda. Edition printed by the Ram brothers and widow—Vilna 1890. 162; 164 pages. Two covers for the first section. Handsome old bindings, probably original, have undergone repairs to the spine in later years. The page before the cover has a handwritten dedication partially in red ink: “A mazkeret ahava, to the gabbay of the hevra Kadisha Zeev bar Yehuda Miller…on his 70th birthday…here in Altona 8th of Sivan 1920…” At the end are signatures of heads of the Altona community, including Rabbi Yehezkel Docks, “Eliezer bar Shimon Koppel, ” and “Yehezkel ben Moharar Moshe Michael HaKohen Altona.” Precise, pretty work. The blank first page has the note: “To Menachem David Hager.” Rabbi Menachem David Hager shlita of Shatz Vizhnitz was the son of Rabbi Moshe Hager, head of the Yachel Yisrael yeshiva of Seret-Vizhnitz Haifa, and grandson of the Mekor Baruch of Seret Vizhnitz. He married the daughter of Rabbi Haim Alter Panet, Rabbi of Anya (author of Tapuchei Haim.” His name is also inscribed in gold letters on the volumes. Rabbi Yehezkel Docks (1868-1944) was a genealogist, historian, and rabbi of Altona (Hamburg). He was a student of the Shevet Sofer at his HaRama yeshiva in Pressburg, where he learned alongside the future Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Zvi Dushinsky. After he was certified to the rabbinate in Presburg he moved to Altona, where he served in a variety of roles until he served as rabbi of the city, which became almost separate from Hamburg. Rabbi Yehezkel was also known as an experienced mohel and supervised many britot for the community. He also acted as head of the Bikur Holim association there, and head of the Hevra Kadisha. For more than 50 years he spread Torah and led the Beit Midrash (the Kloyz) in Altona. At the start of World War II he immigrated to Amsterdam, where his wife died. When the Nazis invaded he was arrested and held at the Westerburg Concentration Camp, from which he was sent to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. He wrote Aveh LaMoshav (Krakow 1903), Chochmei Ahav (Hamburg 1908), and more.