Historic-Jerusalem broadside ‘on behalf of the Rabbis, Gaonim, and Beit Din of the Sephardim and Ashkenazim’, that places an extremely strict ban on the English hospitals in Jerusalem, which has the law of a ‘section of foreign idols’, and any sick person who enters the hospital ‘will not receive a Jewish burial’ and the one who slaughters for the hospital ‘is slaughtering a ritually unfit animal’ and his place ‘in this world and the next is the deepest grave’. Jerusalem c. 1890. Large, solitary leaf measuring 48×32 cm. Good condition. Pink paper. Light tears in the creases without any loss. Framed.
Rabbi Yaakov Shaul Elisher, author of ‘Yisa Bracha’, Rabbi Shmuel Salant, and and Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin the ‘Rav of Brisk’ all signed on the broadside.
This excommunication and the story of the battle of the Jews of Jerusalem again the Mission and its hospital stirred the world. Much literature has been written about this episode. The sternness of this prohibition has no historic precedence. As far as is known, there was only one incident where it was necessary to actualize the prohibition and the deceased was buried ‘behind the fence’. This one incident was sufficient, and caused the Jews to refrain from entering the hospital. This incident speeded up the establishment of a Jewish hospital in Jerusalem.
This placard with the signature of Mahari”l Diskin is exceptionally rare.