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Soloveitchick’s Act of Selfless Heroism, 1785

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Soloveitchick’s Act of Selfless Heroism, 1785[1]
Michael K. Silber, New Haven
Michael K. Silber is the Cardinal Franz Koenig Senior Lecturer in Austrian Studies in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew U.  He has taught at Harvard, Stanford and the Central European University and during the 2013-2014 academic year, he is the Jacob Perlow Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies at Yale. He also serves as the Chair of the Board of the Central Archives of the Jewish People, Jerusalem. His researches focus on the Jews of Central Europe, Hungary and the Habsburg Empire in particular, from the end of the seventeenth century until World War I and he has written on a variety of topics in particular on enlightened absolutism, Jewish military service, Orthodox Judaism and Jewish nationalism. Lately, he has also been intrigued by the history of the Jewish beard in modern times. 
“In 1761,” we read in Dov Levin’s entry on Kaunas in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe,” there were violent attacks on Jews and their property, and Jews were once again expelled from the town. This time, Slobodka’s rabbi, Mosheh Soloveichik, responded by suing the municipality before the royal court. The case was not resolved until 1782 after intervention by Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł (1734–1790). In the end, the city’s mayor, who had directed the events, was sentenced to a short imprisonment, and the municipality was required to pay restitution and an indemnity to the Jewish community. Megilat Kovno, a recounting of the story, was read annually on Purim in the old study hall—the first place of prayer established in Kovno.”
Referring to this incident, Shulamit Soloveitchik Meiselman wrote that Moshe Soloveitchik and his brother Abraham, the sons of Isaac, were honored by the Jews of Kovno: Moshe by being appointed rabbi of the town, and his brother Abraham elected as the head of the community. “Because of the family’s firm stance against the Polish government’s oppressive decrees, the name Soloveitchik became known throughout Eastern Europe. It was identified with honor, respect, aristocracy, strength of character, philanthropy, courage, and fearlessness.” The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter’s Memoir (Hoboken, NJ, 1995), p. 43.
While the skeptical may dismiss this high praise as no more than filial piety, I came across recently an unprejudiced testimony by happenstance, a contemporary report from 1785 published in a Viennese weekly that records an incident that involved the lesser known of the two brothers, Abraham. It testifies to just these virtues and made the name Soloveitchik known if briefly not only in Eastern Europe, but in lands far beyond. This may very well be the first time that the family name appeared in print, albeit in German and mildly distorted.

A few weeks ago, on the Courland coast (a bay of the Baltic Sea), a certain Russian courier on route to Würtemberg burst before the sleigh of a Polish Jew. Suddenly the ice broke under his horse and the abyss threatened to swallow horse and rider. The Jew saw this and heard the Christian wailing, he jumped in and saved him at the risk of his own life. The courier then pulled out his bag to reward the Jew, but he turned down the money, and asked for nothing more than that every poor Jew that the rescued man would see in danger he would take under his wing. This Jew, Abraham Isaac’s son, is called Soloveitchick and is a native of Kovno in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.


Wienerblättchen 01.03.1785, p. 181.

[1] On the eve of the inauguration of a scion of the family, Peter Salovey (http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/119176/soloveitchik-jesus), as the 23rd president of Yale University.



Modesty and Piety: Improving on the Past

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Modesty and Piety: Improving on the Past
by: Michael K. Silber
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The well known “coat of arms” of the priestly Rapaport family first appeared as a colophon at the end of Avraham Menachem Rapa of Porto’s Mincha Belulah (Verona, 1594), fol. 207b, readily at HebrewBooks.org (here). Instead of a motto, a banner proclaimed the author’s name above and below the shield which featured a pair of hands raised in priestly benediction in the upper half, while below was depicted a crow (Rabe in German) on a branch, a reference to the author’s family name. The shield is flanked by two heraldic supporters, and this is what interests us here.
The supporters feature two female torsos rampant facing away from the shield. They are nude from the waist up.

It was by no means rare to encounter nude women in Hebrew books between the sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries, even prominently displayed on the covers (Adam accompanied at times by a buxom Eve is a ready example). But no doubt such nudity proves unsettling to the Orthodox public nowadays.
Benjamin Shlomo Hamburger’s recently published magisterial three volume history, Ha-Yeshiva ha-Rama bi-Fiorda (Bnei Brak, 5770) is a rich, learned study by one who has dedicated many scholarly books to the heritage of German Jewry. The volumes are noteworthy also for their rich illustrations, but one in particular catches the eye.
A chapter dedicated to Baruch Kahana Rapaport who served for many years as rabbi of Fürth (1711-1746), reproduces, as many a study on the Rapaports, the “coat of arms” from Mincha Belulah (volume 1, page 390).  
But the supporters here have been modestly transgendered and piously rendered with beards! 

Several studies by Jacob J. Schacter and others have noted the tendency to “verbessern” the past in Orthodox historiography. This then is a modest (but not very pious) contribution to the topic from the perspective of visual evidence of the past.
Addendum:
Dan Rabinowitz
the Seforim blog
It is indeed import to note as Dr. Michael K. Silber has, that we have yet another example of doctoring history to conform with today’s anachronistic views.  But, we should note that this is not the first time the Rapoport coat of arms has undergone a change.  Before turning to this early example, we need to a make a few points.
As Dr. Silber notes, this coat of arms appears at the end of the first edition of Mincha Belulah, Verona, 1594. Rapoport created this herald and the herald contains allusions to his name – Rapoport.  Hida, R. Hayyim Yosef David Azulai, no Reform rabbi, includes an entry on Rapoport in Hida’s Shem HaGedolim (Machret Seforim, Mem, sub. Mincha Belula).  Importantly, although the herald appears at the back of Mincha Belulah, Hida calls attention to this herald. Hida notes that “Rapoport” is spelled differently on the herald than on the title page.  But, no where does Hida question the inclusion of the bare-breasted women on this rabbinic herald. Moreover, Hida doesn’t alert that reader that if one looks up the herald there are these “offensive” images.  Hida’s silence is remarkable but only if one ignores the prevalence of such imagery in Hebrew books.  That is, Mincha Belula is not the only work to include such imagery.  For example, as we have previously discussed, other works include similar imagery (see here, here, here, here, for examples of nudes, and here for examples of mythological images).
We also note that this was not the first time the herald from the Mincha Belulah has been modified. In the 1989 Beni Brak reprint of Mincha Belulah, the images are also altered.  While they haven’t been turned into men, the women are more modestly clothed.  The image below is taken from this edition.