Alot HaBrit – Jerusalem, 1878 – Poster of Maharil Diskin's Ban Against the Haskalah Schools – Rare First Edition of ...

Alot HaBrit – Jerusalem, 1878 – Poster of Maharil Diskin's Ban Against the Haskalah Schools – Rare First Edition of Poster – With Over 270 Signatures of Jerusalem Rabbis

Printed leaf (printed on both sides) – Alot HaBrit – poster announcing the ban against schools and secular studies with dozens of signatures (printed) of R. Yehoshua Leib (Maharil) Diskin, Rabbi of Brisk, and 275 other rabbis of Jerusalem and leaders of the Ashkenazi communities in Jerusalem. [Jerusalem: printer not indicated, 12th Adar I 1878].

The signature of Maharil Diskin, the Gaon of Brisk, appears first ("R. Moshe Yehoshua Yehudah Leib son of R. Binyamin Rabbi of Brisk"), followed by 275 other signatures, including R. Yaakov Yehudah Löwy, head of the Jerusalem Beit Din along with his court; R. Mordechai Eliezer Weber, the Rabbi of Ada (disciple of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz); R. Baruch Mendelbaum, Rabbi of Turaw; R. Yitzchak David Biderman of Lelov, Rebbe Elazar Menachem Biderman of Lelov and his son Rebbe David Tzvi Shlomo of Lelov; kabbalist R. Hillel Moshe Gelbstein; kabbalist R. Yitzchak Böhm of Carei, his son R. Yaakov Yehudah and his grandson R. Yechiel Böhm; R. Uri son of R. Moshe Orenstein, his son R. Yeshayah and his grandson R. Yaakov Orenstein; and more.

In 1856, the rabbis of Jerusalem had already issued a ban against the Lämel school, one of the first schools in Jerusalem to incorporate secular studies (established with the financial support and at the initiative of the wealthy Lämel family of Austria, and headed by teacher and journalist Ludwig August von Frankl). The poster of 1856 was signed by R. Shmuel Salant, his father-in-law R. Yosef Zundel of Salant and many other rabbis. The ban was renewed and expanded in 1862, 1866 and 1873, adding signatures of R. Meir Auerbach Rabbi of Kalisz and Jerusalem (author of Imrei Binah), R. Moshe Yehudah Leib Silberberg the Gaon of Kutno (author of Zayit Raanan), R. Nachum of Szadek and others.

One of the main goals of Maharil Diskin Rabbi of Brisk, upon his arrival in Jerusalem on 29th Tamuz 1877, was to strengthen the breaches in holiness and education in Jerusalem, and to assist the rabbis of the city in their fight against the Haskalah. This was after various parties from outside of Eretz Israel established various institutions in order to interfere with traditional Jewish education in Jerusalem. When the Maharil Diskin arrived, the rabbis and leaders of Jerusalem redoubled their efforts in the fight against Haskalah schools.

The present poster, Alot HaBrit, is the poster that Maharil Diskin worked to have signed for over half a year from the time of his arrival. He had the leaders of all the Ashkenazi communities in Jerusalem sign to accept upon themselves and their children all the prohibitions and decrees appearing therein [the Sephardi communities did not join the ban, beginning with the 1856 ban, apart from a few Sephardi rabbis who on various occasions called to join the ban (see an 1882 poster in Kedem catalogue 98, Lot 179, where R. Refael Yedidiah Abulafia and R. Eliyahu Suleiman Mani called to join the Ashkenazi rabbis' ban); their view was not however accepted by the mainstream of the Sephardic rabbis – and indeed most of the students of the schools placed under ban were from Sephardic families in the city].

This ban of 1878 added provisions and prohibitions that were not present in the previous bans, in which only studying in the schools was prohibited. In this decision the prohibition was expanded, with the present poster reading:

"Forbidding learning of secular studies – even those which are by law permissible to study are nevertheless forbidden to study under a dedicated teacher who is paid from abroad. Likewise forbidding study of foreign scripts and languages, not to be studied in a group in any place, neither in a school nor as an added subject in Torah schools, even absolutely trivially, in any way, even by a G-d-fearing supervisor".

The poster goes on to have the signatories accept all the prohibitions upon themselves and their children: "…However, so as not to leave room for those who come after us to find loopholes in any small provision to interpret its words as they please to violate these rules, we therefore come to accept the above prohibition upon ourselves anew and to clearly explain every single detail. The old and new prohibitions are binding for all study of foreign languages… The decrees and bans apply even to the official language. The decrees and bans are binding on all who come to learn and teach… and all who found and assist, and fathers of boys and girls…".

On several occasions, the Maharil Diskin sent his disciples (R. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, R. Leib Chefetz, R. Shlomo Zalman Porush) to publicly declare the ban, as for instance during the visit of the leaders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in the Hurva synagogue and on other occasions. These disciples declared the ban at high personal risk, and were beaten savagely by thugs hired to that end by the initiators of the school – as already documented at length in historical books and periodicals of the Edah HaCharedit in Jerusalem, which detail the battle for the souls of the community's children (see: Tochachat Megulah poster, Jerusalem 1887 – Kedem catalogue, Auction 98, Lot 181; and see further: Amud Esh, Jerusalem 1954, pp. 125-126; HaIsh Al HaChomah, 2023 edition, II, chapter 16, pp. 47-82; and more).

The Lämel school served as a sort of orphanage and shelter for the poor, and its curriculum included secular studies and foreign languages, along with songs and dances, and many games and activities for children. The school faced heavy opposition at its founding, mainly on the part of the Ashkenazi rabbis and Yishuv Yashan in Jerusalem, who were concerned about the secular studies and foreign languages studied, and the novel pedagogical methods. The leading rabbis of Jerusalem, headed by Maharil Diskin and R. Shmuel Salant and his court, announced several bans against the Lämel school and the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools founded in its wake (to this day, many Orthodox institutions in Jerusalem avoid teaching foreign languages in class, allowing only tutoring in pairs – as some of the original bans apply the prohibition of teaching foreign languages to a class of three or more students).

During the Maharil Diskin's fierce battle against the schools in Jerusalem, a tourist staying in Jerusalem at the time describes his impressions on a visit to the Maharil Diskin's home: "…I saw the Rabbi of Brisk for a whole hour, and people of bitter heart and soul afflicted with suffering and sickness would come to him one by one to receive a blessing, to ask him to pray to annul the strict decrees, and the rabbi would sympathize with the pain of each and every one; his whispering voice was sweet and his eyes were full of compassion, sitting and listening to their groans and offering them his blessing and counsel, and he was visibly sick with the sickness of the offspring of the holy people… And when I stood up to leave, I innocently touched on the question of the schools in Jerusalem, and in a moment his appearance was changed; the rabbi stood shaking from his chair and was filled with a great zeal to the point that all his bones shook and his tongue swept fiery coals and he was like one of the fiery angels… He stripped off one form and took on another – and what man is privy to the secret of his conduct and inspiration, which is beyond my grasp…?" (Amud Esh, Jerusalem 1954, p. 112).

[1] leaf, printed on both sides. 35 cm. Fair condition. Tears and open tears, slightly affecting text. Stains and various inscriptions.

The present poster is particularly rare. Not documented in Sh. Halevy or in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, and does not appear in the NLI catalogue.

Many copies of this historical poster have been reprinted in Jerusalem over the course of time (generally with the hundreds of signatories omitted). The present poster is the original, including all the hundreds of signatures, printed in 1878.