(Community Pinkas). Chevra Maskil El Dal [social services agency]

Attractive community ledger for a society that provided medical and welfare assistance to thousands of Jews in need, resident in 19th-century Safed and the surrounding areas of the Galilee. The ledger records goals, structural policies and regulations with many signed testimonies (in several languages) attesting to the integrity and good work of the organization. An ancillary organization entitled Linath Hatzedek was also proposed, whereby members would be responsible to attend to the needs of the the sick, noting that services are provided only to those who do not make acquaintance with the social services offered by local attending Christian missionaries. The Pinkas contains signatures of the founding committee members, communal leaders Hirsch Brecher and Chaikel Schapira, Rabbi of the Hungarian community, R. Abraham Yehoshua Heschel Rubin and more than one hundred Society members. Among the founding supporters are members of the Rothschild family, Mordechai Adler of Cambridge, Eliezer Poliakoff of Moscow, P. D. Mocatto and Herman Landau. Rabbis involved in the society include: Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh (Dr. Solfendi) of Dirkheim, R. Nathan Bamberger of Würzburg, R. Yaakov Yekel Mayer of Milhausen, R. Chaim Chizkiah Medini (author of Sdei Chemed), R. Yisrael Ya’akov Yaavetz of Krementchug, R. Moshe Nachum Yerushalimsky of Kaminka, R. Eliyahu Posek of Alapala and R. Zalman Zushye of Minsk. R. Samuel Toister was sent as an emissary to Great Britain to raise funds for the cause, taking along with him this Pinkas as way to satisfy potential donors of the worthiness of his efforts. London-based subscribers that are here recorded include: Samuel Montague, Israel Shraga Tarlowski, Shalom Shlomo Danziger, Samuel Asher Goldfluss, A. V. Rabinowitz, and S. M. Goldman.