<<Papo, Yehudah.>> Shever Poshim [controversy concerning the administration of the Kollel of Hebron].

Concerns the refusal of the emissary R. Yoseph Shalom to present an audit of expenses and monies collected on behalf of the Hebron community. Shalom was a wealthy individual who volunteered to administer the fund-raising activities free of charge. Offended by the accusation made by two Hebron rabbis that he was enriching himself from Kollel funds while its students were starving, Shalom had the rabbis arrested by British Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn. Although originally from Baghdad, Shalom was a British citizen. Shalom was subsequently excommunicated by almost all the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Rabbis of Hebron, Jerusalem Safed and Tiberias. The two Rabbis (R. Rafael Yisrael Elyakim and R. Moshe Kimche) were eventually released months later. Details of this controversy were reported at length in the Jewish Chronicle, July 5th, 1861. This work, penned by the son of the Pele Yoetz, was in response to Yoseph Shalom’s account “Eiduth BeYosef.”