Extraordinarily rare historic poster from the Edah HaChareidit with the headline: “Prayer in distress.” The poster calls for a day of prayer and supplication in the midst of the Holocaust. This is the original kol koreh [from which the announcements were printed], typewritten and signed by the ga’ava”d , the gaon Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis and the ra’ava”d of Jerusalem, the gaon Rabbi Pinchas Epstein. Including important corrections in their penmanship. Jerusalem, Iyar/May 1940.
“Our brothers are in a terrifying situation in the countries in which they are scattered … terrible hair-raising rumors are reaching us on a daily basis from our brothers in Poland who are subject to pogroms, hunger and thirst, imprisonment and oppression. We are considered like sheep to the slaughter, brought to be killed, lost, abused and shamed. And now, grief has been added to grief, as our brethren in Holland have fallen to the hands of the tyrannical regime that knows no mercy …”
The poster was written in Iyar, 1940. That some month [May 1940] the Germans conquered Holland, as appears in the poster, “And now, grief has been added to grief, as our brethren in Holland have fallen to the hands of the tyrannical regime” The Edah HaChareidit called a day of fasting shnei batra [that year it was on 12 Iyar 1940] as a day of prayer and pleading due to the Holocaust.
We see something astonishing in this poster. The poster was written at the height of the Holocaust, as it states: “Our brothers are in a terrifying situation in the countries in which they are scattered … terrible hair-raising rumors are reaching us on a daily basis from our brothers in Poland who are subject to pogroms …” and the amazing thing is that the primary and longer part of the poster deals with “provincial issues” – religious matters important in times of peace, but when the majority of the Jewish people is being exterminated in gas chambers, is it the time to “also” protest about the inferior secular education in the Land???
Indeed, we see that the gaon Rabbi Pinchas Epstein placed parentheses around the entire section of the poster that deals with religious problems in the Land of Israel. Despite their obvious great importance to him, he omits them from the poster about the Holocaust, because it is not the appropriate place. It is worth noting that Rabbi Epstein added a paragraph in his own penmanship “and to pray for the welfare of our government, the government of Great Britain [which spearheaded the war against the Nazis].
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the rabbis who signed on the poster, the gaon Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis and the gaon Rabbi Pinchas Epstein .
[1] leaf, typewritten, 23×30 cm. Signed by the above rabbis and with their handwritten glosses. Written on the back of a different poster published by the Bada”tz, from about half a year earlier.
Very fine condition. Fold marks. Filing perforations.