YOCHANAN B. ISAAC OF HOELLESCHAU. Ma’aseh Rav.

A Rabbinic controversy surrounding a divorce granted by Chief Rabbi Aaron Hart to one Ansel Katz of London prior his sailing to the West Indies. This decision was publicly criticized by Mordechai Hamburger who was promptly placed under the communal ban of “herem.” Additionally, Hart set out the matter in the pamphlet “Urim Vetumim” (London, 1707). To defend his position, Hamburger had a member of his household (Hamburger was the wealthy son-in-law of the diarist Glükl of Hameln) prepare his defense in the present publication. The historical background to the affair is presented by David Kaufmann in JHSET, Vol. III pp.102-25. The bibliographic confusion relating to the work is clarified by Nathan Isaacs in Journal of Jewish Bibliography (1939) pp.83-5. Both scholars attest to the unusual rarity of the Ma’aseh Rav. The American perspective gained from this work, is the light shed upon the types of Jews who were arriving upon American shores in the very early days of migration to the New World.