Large archive of c. 350 documents and letters to, and accumulated by, <<Rabbi Isak Unna>> concerning the campaign to protect Kosher slaughter (Shechitah) in Germany.

Auction 92 | Thursday, February 18th, 2021 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Arts

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Lot 7
(GERMANY).

Large archive of c. 350 documents and letters to, and accumulated by, <<Rabbi Isak Unna>> concerning the campaign to protect Kosher slaughter (Shechitah) in Germany.

Letters, articles, drafts, clippings, etc. Mostly entirely German, occasional Hebrew.

Mannheim, Berlin, etc, etc: 1930-34

Est: $2,000 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $3,000
<<ARCHIVE RELATING TO A PROPOSED SHECHITAH BAN IN GERMANY.>> These documents pertain to the battle waged by Rabbi Unna and others to defend Shechita from animal welfare advocates, and then, after the rise of Hitler, a total ban of Shechitah enforced by the Nazis. Rabbi Dr. Yitzhak Unna (1872-1948), a scion of the distinguished Bamberger rabbinic family, was the chief rabbi of Mannheim and one of the leaders of the non-separatist form of Orthodoxy espoused by his grandfather, the Rav of Würzberg. After the Nazis banned Shechita, Unna and Rabbi Yechiel Ya’akov Weinberg took the initiative to create a halachic solution which would permit stunning prior to slaughter. The initiative failed to win widespread rabbinic backing, and besides, would not have persuaded the Nazis, who were concerned with the suppression of Jews rather than the welfare of animals. This archive contains: Letters from the Reichszentrale für Schächtangelegenheiten (a Jewish group formed by Rabbis Hirsch Hildesheimer and Esra Munk dedicated to defending kosher slaughter); letters from many rabbis; pamphlets by animal rights groups; and documents from a firm that produced instruments of slaughter which the rabbis were working with to create a stunning option that could produce kosher meat. And very much more… See also Kestenbaum Sale 90, lot 219; and Sale 83, lots 133 and 134.