Rectangular, hinged lid with Hebrew dedicatory inscription to Rabbi Samuel Jacob Rabinowitz from Congregation Adath Yeshurun, Sapotzkin (Lithuania) upon his departure to a new rabbinic pulpit in Liverpool, England. 3 x 5 inches. Russian marks.

Samuel Jacob Rabinowitz (1857-1921), was Lithuanian rabbi and Zionist leader who held rabbinical posts at Ivye, Aleksot, Sopotskin and Liverpool. He was esteemed as a writer of responsa and novellae, some which were collected in his Sepher Orah Yashar (1903). An early member of the Hovevei Zion, Rabinowitz attended the Second Zionist Congress, where he made a deep impression on Theodor Herzl and was elected to the Zionist General Council. In 1899 Rabinowitz led the Lithuanian Zionists in their battle against the Lishkah Shechorah, a group of violently anti-Zionist rabbis. As a result of his vigorous efforts, over 100 East European rabbis wrote letters in support of the Zionist movement. Together with Yitzchak Reines, in 1902 he founded the Mizrachi Movement of Religious Zionists. See G. Kressel, Kazir (1964) pp. 123-39; L. P. Gartner, Jewish Immigrant in England (1960) pp. 193-6