(Pinkas Shada”r). Letter to the rabbis and communal leaders of Allesandria, Italy from the Jerusalem Rabbinate appointing Rabbi Raphael Josef ibn Rubi as emissary

(ITALIAN JUDAICA)

Jerusalem

1782

Mostly Sephardic cursive Hebrew script, with signatures of nine prominent Sephardic Rabbis of Jerusalem

Rabbi Raphael Josef ibn Rubi was one of the most eminent emmisaries of Jerusalem to Western Europe. A great scholar in his own right, he was a member of the Beth Din of Rabbi Yom Tov Algazi and authored the work "Derech Hamelech" on Maimonidies (Livorno 1786). See Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, pp. 549-52. The Moslems of Jerusalem attempted to expropriate for their own use part of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. Ibn Rubi ‘s mission was to raise funds to be used to influence the governing powers in Constantinople to stop the travesty. The signatories present are: Yom Tov Algazi, Efraim Navon, Mansou Mazrak, Rafael Chaim Yehuda (Sharanosa), Yisrael Yaakov Burla, Avigdor Azriel, Mordechai Yosef Bechor Meyuchas, Shmuel Eliahu Bechor Meyuchas, Eliahu Tzvi. For information on many of the rabbis who signed the present document, see A.L. Fryumkin, Toldot Chachmei Yerushalayim, (1928-30); and G. Puzailov, Chachamim shel Arba Arei Hakodesh, Vol II (2001). A similar letter is located in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (see Yaari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael, p.551).