Ash, Abraham Joseph. Autograph Letter Signed, in Hebrew, to Joseph Zechariah Stern

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

New York

1881

Concerns halachic issues relating to the use of a power of attorney and the means of conveyence of a Get (document of divorce) through the mail. Ash records precedents, citing the great decisors of Russia and Galicia: R. Hillel Milikowsky of Suvalk, R. Yaakov Meir Padwa of Brisk and R. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, whom Ash states, accepted Gittin that Ash himself sent to Sanz via postal services. An earlier responsum on a similar matter was addressed to Ash by R. Jacob Ettlinger of Altona, (Binyan Zion no. 63, dated 1858). Abraham Joseph Ash was born in Semyatitch, Russia, about 1813 and died in New York in 1888. Arriving in the United States in 1852, he helped to organize in New York City the first Russian-American congregation, Bet ha-Midrash ha-Gadol, and eight years later he was elected its rabbi. In this capacity he served until his death. See J. D. Eisenstein, The History of the First Russian American Jewish Congregation, AJHSP, Vol. IX (1901), pp. 64-71. Ash’s correspondent, Joseph Zechariah Stern of Shavel, was author of the volume of responsa, Zecher Yehoseph