96 208 (WASHINGTON, GEORGE / GRATZ, MICHAEL). Manuscript ledger of Gratz’s expenses. Includes entry: “Rec. of Mr. Michal Gratts [Michael Gratz] seventy eight pounds for two men to join George Washington’s Army.” Philadephia, June 30th, 1780 and signed [McGaliager?]. * WITH: Two entries signed by Isaiah Bush “received., of Mr. Michael Gratz …on account for my brother Nathan Bush.” One entry dated July, 20th 1780 for 1, 000 pounds. The other entry dated August 29th, 1780 for 1, 500 pounds. Four pages. 4to. Philadephia, June 30th, 1780. $4000 - $6000 ❧ In the early 1780’s Pennsylvania and the national government was so financially destitute they could not afford to pay the soldiers of the Continental Army. This explains why the Patriot Michael Gratz paid the expense of two soldiers. He also underwrote rations for the soldiers in Pennsylvania. German-born Michael Gratz (1740-1811) immigrated to America in 1759 settling in Philadelphia and then Lancaster, Penn. He and his brother Barnard were traders and supplied the American government with Indian goods, and weapons for the Continental Army. They also underwrote soldiers’ rations at Fort Pitt, Penn. Michael was one of the original members of Mickve Israel and served as the Parnas there. His son, Jacob Gratz, served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the State Senate. He was the father of the American educator and philanthropist Rebecca Gratz. Born in Philadelphia, Isaiah Bush (1763-1806) was one of the original members of that city’s Congregation Mickve Israel. (Further details accompanies the lot). 209 ROKEACH, ISRAEL DOV. Autograph Manuscript, a ledger of funds raised to benefit Knesseth Israel of Jerusalem, Palestine - Kupat Rabbi Meir Ba’al Hanes. Text in Yiddish and Hebrew. Collection of documents bearing the printed letterhead of the Committee Knesseth Israel of Jerusalem, the organization founded in 1866 under the auspices of Rabbis Meir Auerbach and Shmuel Salant. The pages were a record kept by this Shadar, or emissary from Eretz Israel, sent to collect money in the Diaspora for distribution to the needy Jews of the Holy Land. 40 pages. Loose. Folio. Various American and Canadian cities, 1921. $800 - $1200 ❧ Documents Rokeach’s travels to numerous North American Jewish communities, from McKeesport, PA (he received 21 donations, totalling $34.71), to Grand Forks, ND, and Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN in between. Several of the pages are from cities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec. Each man and woman is listed by name in the column for donors, the amounts given, and receipt number are all carefully recorded. Donations usually came in modest amounts: $.50, $2, or odd numbers such as $2.06 or $1.48. One imagines the donors giving whatever they might have to hand. Occasionally, a local gabbai, or agent, is named, who collected the sums for Rokeach to pick up when he came to town. Rokeach, as a rabbinic emissary collecting funds for the needy and Torah scholars of Eretz Israel, was part of a tradition in America that actually preceded the formation of the United States. See Stanley Mirvis, Shadarim in the Colonial Americas: Agents of Inter-Communal Connectivity and Rabbinic Authority, in: American Jewish History Vol. 102.2 (2018). Lot 209 Lot 208