(Pinkas Shadar). Ledger Book belonging to the emissary Avraham Nissan, in relation to his journey to France to solicit funds on behalf of the Perushim community of Jerusalem.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

France-Jerusalem

1864-72

Hebrew Manuscript on paper in various cursive Aschkenazic hands. With stamp “Abraham Nissan Shadar” and inscription on f. 1.

Abraham Nissan served as emissary of the Ashkenazic Perushim community of Jerusalem to a number of countries including the United States (1861-62) and France in 1864. He returned to Jerusalem in 1866, where, along with his son Reuven David, he died in a cholera epidemic. The opening leaves of this record-book contain the emissary’s expenses whilst in Paris (1864), Nissan recounts other financial transactions he engaged in elsewhere, including in Colmar. Thereafter, detailed information is provided pertaining to the disbursement of Nissan’s estate through until 1872. Mention is made of financial involvement of several notable individuals: Sir Moses Montefiore (f.5b); Yoseph Rivlin (f. 23b); Haham David ben Shimon (f. 24a); R. Shmuel Salant (final leaf). See Salo W. & J.M. Baron, Palestinian Messengers in America in: Jewish Social Studies Vol. 5 (1943) pp. 115-162. “It has long been recognized that the records…kept by these messengers…constitute invaluable sources of information for the history of both Palestinian and Diaspora Jewry” (p. 116). See also A. Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, pp. 801-03.