Mecha’ah Gluyah. Endorsed by R. Jacob Saul Elishar and R. Samuel Salant

(BEN-YEHUDAH, ELIEZER)

15th Kislev

Jerusalem

(1894)

Printed Broadside. Text in Hebrew

Eliezer Ben-Yehudah was a thorn in the side of the Orthodox establishment of Jerusalem. He challenged the Halukah welfare-system, championed new settlements founded on principles of agricultural labor and most especially promoted the revival of Hebrew as a modern spoken language. In Ben-Yehudah’s weekly Ha’Tzvi, an article was written including the phrase “let us gather strength and go forward.” Ben-Yehudah’s opponents took the newspaper to the Ottoman authorities distorted its meaning to read “let us gather an army and proceed against the East.” As a result, Ben-Yehudah was charged with sedition and sentenced to imprisonment. In the present broadside, representatives of Sephardic and Aschkenazic Orthodox leadership express their disapproval of the sentiments supposedly expressed in the Ha’Tzvi article and profess allegiance to and respect for the Sultan and his officers