| Description | A poster in Yiddish, entitled 'Negation of the Prohibition of Dr Adler and his Colleagues', with envelope dated 24 October 1896 addressed to Moses Gaster.
The poster was created by Joseph Yaffe / Jaffe / Yafa / Jafa / ?, Rabbi of 'Congregation of Israel', Manchester. He has established his own kosher slaughter supervision, in Manchester, which is in its second year. Enumerating the religious standards of the kosher slaughterers in his operation - 'they are kosher people, fearers of God, learned in Torah, and not violators of the Sabbath' - he implies that the slaughterers under Dr Adler do not meet proper religious standards, referring to it as 'the corruption that prevailed hitherto'.
He lists the following rabbis who endorse his operation: Zebulon Leib Breit of Plungė, [Lithuania], Russia; Abba Werner of Machazeki Hadass, London; Arye Leib Shapira / Shapiro of Amsterdam, Holland; Shemariya Isaac Block / Bloch of Sunderland [England]; Aaron Leib Glickman (sp.?) of Dublin.
He lists the following Russian rabbis who are in favour of opening kosher slaughter operations throughout England, thereby opposing 'impure forces that wish to corrupt the religion': the late Yeruham Leib the Great of Minsk; Israel Meir ha-Kohen, author of the work 'Hafets Hayim'; Joseph Rubin of Dinaburg; the rabbi of Novardak; the rabbi of Dembrova, Galicia; Naftali Sofer of Petsindorf; the late Zalman Spitzer of Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire; and Dr Solomon Breuer of Frankfurt am Main.
He accuses the powers in London, who are attempting to prohibit his independent Manchester operation, of: 1) financial or hubristic self-interest; and 2) sullying the soul of the late Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor of Kovno, whose words they publish posthumously. Jaffe claims that they are taking Spektor's words out of context, for Spektor's words apply: 1) to a rabbi, not a Dr who masquerades as a rabbi ('How can Drs who studied in Breslau [Rabbinic Seminary] or other colleges be our religious leaders ... and tread upon proper rabbis from Russia!'); and 2) not in a city over 200 miles distant, which has a biblical obligation to appoint its own religious judges.
'Buy from my butchers, not from butchers certified by bearded Drs (= who look like rabbis, but really are not)!' He claims that this will ensure that the meat is truly kosher. Followed by a list of his certified butchers and the addresses of the shops: Y. Golding; Samuel Alexi; L. Singer; Mr Epstein; Y. Rosenberg.
See also GASTER/8/C/6. |