(Rogue scholar. 1860-1924). Autograph Letter Signed, in Hebrew, to Baron David Guenzburg, requesting financial assistance in publishing his commentary to the Jerusalem Talmud. Written in a florid (pseudo)-Sephardic hand

FRIEDLANDER, SHLOMO YEHUDAH ALGAZI

9th Iyar

Satmar

1906

One of the most colorful characters in the rogue's gallery of Rabbinic literature is undoubtedly the man who called himself "Solomon Judah Algazi Friedlander." This unlikely figure arrived in Hungary at the turn of the 20th-century, presenting himself as a Sephardic Jew from the Orient, who had made a startling discovery: A manuscript containing the long-lost Jerusalem Talmud on the Order of Kodashim. Although initially greeted with great enthusiasm, soon enough doubts began to arise as to the authenticity of the work, and aspersions were cast on the moral character of the enigmatic Herr Friedlander