An invitation to the wedding of Aryeh Leib with Yocheved Yuta which took place on 3rd Elul 1924 in the city of Pabianice. Printing press of Yitzchak Meir Sternberg, Lask.
The parents of both the bride and the groom were directly related to the Imrei Emet of Gur.
The father of the groom the Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Alter [1878-1942], the brother of the ‘Imrei Emet’ of Gur and the youngest son of the ‘Sfat Emet’. One of the leaders of Polish Jewry between the World Wars, served as the chairman of the Rabbinic Union of Poland and as a member of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudat Yisrael. One of the founders of ultra-orthodox journalism in Poland. During the Holocaust he was one one of the leaders of the ultra-orthodox community in the Warsaw Ghetto. Murdered together with his family in the Treblinka death camp.
The father of the bride, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter, the son-in-law of the ‘Imrei Emet’ of Gur. He was also the nephew of the ‘Imrei Emet’, the son of his brother Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Alter. He was killed at the beginning of the Second World War by a shell.
In the margins of the invitation is the Imrei Emet’s printed signature.
Wedding invitations from this period, especially in the Gur Hasidic are very rare and almost nonexistent
The Rebbe Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter of Gur , author of the Imrei Emet [1866-1948], the firstborn son of Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib the ‘Sfat Emet’. Served as Rebbe of the Gur chassidut for 43 years, and was one of the foremost leaders of ultra-orthodox Jewry as a whole. It was during his time that Gur chassidut reached the zenith of its expansion, numbering over one hundred thousand disciples in the pre-Holocaust era.
[1] paper leaf. Brown paper. Filing holes. Fine condition.