Kol Kore! Amud HaYirah LeChazek Hadath VeYishuv Ha’Aretz.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF) SCHLESINGER, AKIVA JOSEPH.

A. Rokeach and E. Tennenbaum

Jerusalem

(1883?)

Mostly in Yiddish. With introduction in Hebrew.

Halevy 434 (“Yekar hametziuth”).

A longtime resident of Jerusalem, R. Akiva Joseph Schlesinger (1838-1922) was born in Pressburg, Hungary and was intimately connected with the famed Sofer family: His mohel was the Chatham Sofer, he studied in the yeshiva of the Kethav Sofer and his most famous work, “Lev Ivri” is a commentary to the ethical will of the Chatham Sofer, calling for an unswerving adherence to tradition. - Nonetheless, Schlesinger could also be innovative within the confines of Jewish law. Thus, he wore the recently discovered blue thread of techeleth and blew the shofar on the Sabbath in the Old City of Jerusalem. In the present pamphlet, Schlesinger preaches for the urgent resettlement of the Land of Israel based upon the traditions of Torah. Through the agency of his son-in-law, Abraham HaCohen, an “Army of Pioneers” (Chalutzei Tzava) are to be funded for settlement of the land. However this drew the opposition of the existing directors of the establishment Kollelim. See M. A. Z. Kinstlicher, HeChatham Sofer VeTalmidav (2005) p. 534 and Benjamin Mintz in L. Jung (Ed.), Men of the Spirit (1964) pp. 85-105.