Techinah U’Bakashah. Letter in a fine rabbinic hand written to James Finn, British Consul in Jerusalem and signed in Hebrew by the five representative heads of Ashkenazic Perushim community of Jerusalem.

When the Perushim, the students of the Gaon of Vilna, arrived in Jerusalem, they sought to rebuild the synagogue that had been established by R. Yehudah HaChasid more than a century earlier. In order to rebuild a firman was needed to be provided by the Ottoman authorities who were in control of the Holy Land. The present lengthy letter recounts the myriad of difficulties the community encountered in negotiating with the Sultan, alongside their efforts to raise necessary funds – with the notable Anglo-Jewish philanthropist, Sir Moses Montefiore acting particularly generously. Although Baron Rothschild sought to aid the project by way of his relationship with the Austrian Consul in Jerusalem, given that many of the Aschkenazic Jews of Jerusalem had roots in and familiarity with England, it is the British Consul, James Finn, that they thought would be best placed to lend his influence with the Ottoman authorities. Meanwhile, the community felt as nomads with no central synagogue in which to pray, indeed they were often left outdoors, subject to the elements. Overall, rebuilding one of Jerusalem’s ruined houses of prayer was seen as having symbolic, mystical significance. The “repairing” of an earlier destruction would represent the first step toward the rebuilding of the entire city, a prerequisite for the arrival of the Messiah. The signatories here are Rabbis: Eliyahu Daiches (see Frumkin, Toldoth Chachmei Yerushalayim, Part III, pp. 237-38); Ya’akov b. Yidel Berlin - the father of the Netziv (Frumkin, part III, p. 246); Aryeh b. Yerachmiel Ne’eman Markus (Frumkin, Part III, pp. 263-64; Yochanan Hirsch Shlanka (Frumkin, Part III, pp. 256-57; and Ya’akov b. Mendel of Lutzin (Frumkin, Part III, p. 258). The philo-Semite, James Finn (1806-72), served as British Consul in Jerusalem from 1845 to 1862. He, alongside his wife Elizabeth Finn, greatly assisted the Jews of the Holy Land and often sought to protect them from unreasonably oppressive Ottoman rule. His efforts did indeed bear fruit and in 1864 the new building of the the Churvah Synagogue was reconstituted. See J. Finn, Stirring Times, Vol. II pp. 462-3. See also See A.M. Hyamson, The British Consulate In Jerusalem, Part I, pp. 225-27.