A Historical Discovery: the Original Form of the Text of the Embargo Imposed by the Rabbis of Jerusalem against a ...

A Historical Discovery: the Original Form of the Text of the Embargo Imposed by the Rabbis of Jerusalem against a Missionary Hospital in Jerusalem - a Complete Record of the Meeting of the Rabbis of Jerusalem Leading to the Declaration of Boycott - [1845]
A large leaf with the text of the ban imposed by the rabbis of Jerusalem, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi, against cooperating with the English mission in Jerusalem. 1845.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the original document in which the Jerusalem rabbis wrote the text of the boycott! The page also lists the detailed protocol of a meeting of the Ashkenazi rabbis, Pharisees and Hasidic courts of Jerusalem, which took place on the eve of the declaration of the ban, which sets all the details of the ban. This protocol was unknown till now, and includes many details now exposed for the first time! This is an amazing historical item, related to historical affairs with tremendous influence on the history of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, and with a great spiritual significance. This severe embargo, which was declared in the most difficult period from the historical perspective, was in fact the first ban imposed by the Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis together, since the beginning of the return to Zion and the renewal of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem.

The leaf is handwritten by one of the rabbis of the community (we do not know his identity), and was carefully preserved to this day in an important long-time archive, along with other documents related to this historic affair.

For full description, please see Hebrew catalog.

A large (18X20 cm) leaf, folded, with three written pages.
The leaf starts with the following words: "As the great rabbis, supervisors, managers and courts…" Two pages include the minutes of the meeting of Jerusalem rabbis, in which four articles of the boycott were spelled. The third page is the Hebrew text of the Boycott, which was announced in synagogues, opening with: "All of Israel shall hear and see".

Historical background
The first Jewish hospital in Jerusalem started to be built at the end of 1844. It was set up to preempt the bane overshadowing the Jewish community - the establishment of a missionary hospital in the heart of Jerusalem.
The activities of missionaries in the city created a sense of real danger to the Jews of Jerusalem. The success of the missionaries to convert five prominent Jews in Jerusalem to Christianity (Iyar of 1843) urged the Jewish leadership to establish a Jewish hospital in the city.
The missionaries clearly understood that in order for the hospital to be able to serve Jews, they needed to observe the laws of kashrut and Shabbat. Only thus will Jews enter their gates. They were able to recruit Jewish staff ("servants"), including a well-known Shochet. A Jewish staff in a missionary hospital created most difficult challenges, the first of its kind since the renewal of the Yishuv, to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: despite the clear position of the community, some people did enter the gates of the missionary hospital. “In order for the people to pay attention, when two Jewish patients died within its walls, the rabbis refused to bring the bodies to the Jewish cemetery (!) So that the people will hear and fear and not go there anymore." On Saturday shortly after the incident, when the portion of BeShalach was read, on XVII of the month of Shevat (25 January 1845), all Jerusalem synagogues declared a firm boycott against Jewish workers employed at the hospital and against anyone who went there as a patient.
The boycott address was read in synagogues from copies of the original sheet. From familiarity with the source of this sheet here before us, it is proven that this page is probably the original page and the first written and in which the boycott was formalized.
Immediately after the declaration of the boycott, eight Jewish patients left the hospital. It is likely that as a result of the ban, the number of patients in the Jewish hospital grew.
Repercussions of the historical boycott continued to sound for generations to come, because missionary activity also lasted for many years (subject material attached)
In the two pages of the document there appears the protocol of the meeting of the Ashkenazi rabbis of Jerusalem. The text is written in Yiddish peppered with Hebrew. The background to the boycott is explained, and four sections detailing the rules of the boycott are listed. All of this description is not known from any other source! This is an exceptionally important discovery about the origins of this boycott, which was a seminal event in the history of the Jewish community in Jerusalem! Incidentally, in one of the sections, the Jerusalem rabbis warn not to send Mishloach Manot to hospital workers in the approaching Purim! (as noted, the ban was announced in the month of Shevat).
Finally the Jerusalem rabbis make it clear that the above refers to the apostates who collaborated with the missionaries and work in the hospital, and do not refer to the Gentiles who ran the institution. After this warning, the document also warns Jews not to work as servants in the Hospital in any way, and also not to work as interpreters.

Condition: Good. Folding marks.