Three Letters with Sensitive Political Content - From the Archive of Rabbi Shmuel Salant

Three unsigned letters, from the archive of R. Shmuel Salant, Rabbi of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, [c. 1855-1896].
· Unsigned trenchant letter regarding the conduct of "the Rabbi of the Sephardim… R. D. C.". [David Chazan], who uses his authority to imprison people to strengthen his position in the rabbinate. [A fervent request to the recipients appears in the margins: "Be kind enough to burn the note after you have read it…because our intention in not to degrade the rabbi G-d forbid, but to save…and peace should reign in Israel". [Jerusalem, after 1855. Rabbi Chaim David Chazan son of the Chikrei Lev emigrated from Izmir to Jerusalem in 1855 and served as Chacham Bashi-Rishon L'Zion until his death in 1861].
· Unsigned letter [apparently in the handwriting of R. Shmuel Salant's scribe] to the managers of the Grodno Kollel, about a hurtful event - a father who refuses to circumcise and redeem his firstborn son, claiming that the baby's father is a non-Jew. Jerusalem, Cheshvan 1872. The grandson of the Vilna Gaon "R. Eliezer Landau" who was one of the heads of the Grodno Kollel is mentioned in the letter.
· Unsigned draft of a letter [apparently, the handwriting of the scribe of the Va'ad HaKlali or the scribe of R. Shmuel Salant], to R. Chaim Berlin. Jerusalem, Kislev 1896. It contains a response regarding the possibility of R. Chaim serving as Rabbi of Jerusalem, with details of the difficulty of the Va'ad HaKlali to promise a regular salary and to give him a position in the rabbinate for two reasons: 1. The death of R. Yosef Rivlin "who was the mainstay of the Va'ad HaKlali. 2. The scandal of the opening of Kollel America which is supposed to receive all the income from American donations "and the pillars of this great edifice are now unstable". [At that time, R. Chaim Berlin left the Kobryn rabbinate and because he could not immigrate to Jerusalem, he served in the Elisawetgrad (Kherson region) rabbinate for 10 years until he finally reached Jerusalem in 1906].
3 letters, size and condition vary. In one of the letters,
the identifying details of names were erased with ink or whitener.
R. Shmuel Salant was accustomed to using the services of scribes and secretaries in writing his letters and sometimes he would add his signature or stamp. Apparently, some or all these items are letters or drafts which were written at the behest of R. Shmuel Salant himself.