”Before us appeared R. Eizik son of R. Shimon Zimansky & testified as follows: I saw Mr. Abraham …. how he smoked on Shabbos in public, he is a Mechalel Shabbos…this he testified before us 11 Shvat 1885, here Chicago in North America”
Signed by the 3 Rabbis, members of the Beth Din of which we have only been able to identify the first one, namely the Gaon Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Gershon Leeser, Rabbi of Beth Medrash Hagadol.
The Gaon Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Gershon Leeser, was a tzaddik from the first prominent Russian rabbis who came to the USA. Born in 1834 in Mir to his father Rabbi Ezriel Meir, he l studied at the Mir yeshiva in his hometown and later at the yeshiva of the geniuses Rabbi Gershon Tanhum from Minsk, Rabbi Yosef of Kletzk and Rabbi Shmuel Amdor Tosfoah Abd Karlin. He received Semicha from the above-mentioned Rabbi Hagaon Abd Karlin as well as from Rabbi Yitzchak Elhanan Abd Kaunas, Rabbi Isaac Carif Abd Slonim , Rabbi Yosef Razin Abd Telz, and Rabbi Yechiel Abd’k Suwalk.
He married the daughter of his rabbi the Gaon Rabbi Yosef of Kletzk . In 1861 he served as Rabbi of Amstivava and from there he was accepted to the rabbinate of Halnika, Hardak, and Ludvinau .
In 1880 he came to thew USA and was accepted as a rabbi in Chicago and served there for about twelve years. In 1895 he became a Rabbi in the city of Cincinnati. In 1903 when the Rabbinical Association of the United States of America and Canada was founded, he was elected president of the association and ran it for many years, and God gave him the living spirit in the leadership to strengthen the Torah and Judaism in this country and he lived for many years. He passed away at the ripe old age of 90 in 1925, and the great rabbis of the country gathered and came to his funeral and eulogized the death of the teacher and the head of the rabbis in our country.
21.3 Cm.
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Lot #274