Certificate of Appointment, Appointing Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar as President of the Eda HaCharedit in ...

Certificate of Appointment, Appointing Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar as President of the Eda HaCharedit in Jerusalem – Jerusalem, 1951
Large handwritten leaf – certificate appointing Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum as president of the Eda HaCharedit in Jerusalem, signed by seven leaders of the "city committee of the Ashkenazi community – Perushim and Chassidim". With a long letter handwritten and signed by R. Zelig Reuven Bengis, Rabbi of the Eda HaCharedit. Jerusalem, Adar II 1951.
Calligraphic square script. The text is set within a curtained arch frame, painted in blue, red and yellow, surmounted by a golden crown and illustrations of the holy sites – the Western Wall and Rachel's Tomb.
The certificate is signed by the seven leaders of the Jerusalem city committee: R. Baruch Greenfeld, R. Meir Shraga Katz Klein, R. Eliyahu Nachum Porush Glickman, R. Avraham Cohen Roth, R. Amram son of R. Sh.Y. Blau, R. Yaakov Meir Shechter and R. Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal.
At the foot of the certificate is an interesting letter handwritten and signed by R. Bengis, Rabbi of the Eda HaCharedit, in which he approves of the appointment of the Satmar Rebbe as president of the Eda HaCharedit, stating that " through you and through me the Almighty will be glorified".
Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1887-1979), one of the greatest leaders of his generation, president of the Eda HaCharedit and leader of American Orthodox Jewry, one of the founding pillars of Chassidic Jewry after the Holocaust. Born in Sighet (Sighetu Marmației), he was the son of Rebbe Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the Kedushat Yom Tov, and grandson of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda, the Yitav Lev, who both served as rabbis of Sighet and were leaders of Chassidic Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was renowned from his youth for his perspicacity and intellectual capacities, as well as for his holiness and outstanding purity. After marrying the daughter of Rebbe Avraham Chaim Horowitz of Polaniec, he settled in Satmar (Satu Mare) and taught Torah and Chassidut to an elite group of disciples and followers. He served as rabbi of Irshava, Karaly (Carei, from 1925) and Satmar (from 1934), managing in each of these places a large yeshiva and Chassidic court. He stood at the helm of faithful, uncompromising Orthodox Jewry in the Maramureș region. During the Holocaust, he was rescued by the Kastner Train, and after a journey through Bergen-Belsen and Eretz Israel, he reached the United States, where he established the largest Chassidic group in the world – Satmar Chassidut, until today the dominant faction in American Orthodox Jewry.
In 1951, he was appointed president of the Eda HaCharedit in Jerusalem, and in 1953, after the passing of the elderly R. Bengis, he succeeded him as "Rabbi of all the Ashkenazi Communities – The Eda HaCharedit in Jerusalem" (the rebbe was appointed as Rabbi of the Eda HaCharedit even though he lived in the United States, and in Jerusalem, R. Pinchas Epstein was appointed as Raavad – Head of the Rabbinical Court. To this day, the Eda HaCharedit is headed by two rabbis, the Gaavad and the Raavad. For example, after the passing of R. Epstein and R. David Jungreis, R. Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, author of Minchat Yitzchak, was appointed as Raavad of the Eda HaCharedit, and after the passing of the Satmar Rebbe, he was appointed Gaavad – in effect the Chief Rabbi of the Eda HaCharedit).
Rebbe Teitelbaum was a leading opponent of Zionism and of the founding of the State of Israel, and zealously led crucial battles for the preservation of the unique character of the Jewish people and its holiness, fearful for the honor of the Torah and the future of faithful Jewry. He was renowned as an exceptionally charitable person; his door was open to the poor and his ear attentive to the needy from every stream of the Jewish people. An outstanding Torah scholar, he responded to many halachic queries, and his writings were published in dozens of books: VaYoel Moshe, Responsa Divrei Yoel, Divrei Yoel on the Torah and more.
[1] large leaf, 42X54.5 cm. Thick Bristol board. Good-fair condition. Stains. Repaired marginal tears.