Press release, Judaica Auction sale no.16

Yeshivas Ahavas Torah Baranovich in Jerusalem will IY"H be holding a public auction of old Seforim, manuscripts and antique Judaica on June 17th, 2009, in Brooklyn, New York. The yeshiva's auction's are unique in that all proceeds from the sale are earmarked for the support of Torah study in Eretz Israel. In advance of the sale, a handsome full color catalog has been published. The cover is impressive enough, with a photograph of a silver filigree Esther scroll case, the work of a first-class Yemenite silversmith from Jerusalem. One section of the catalogue is devoted to very early Sifrei Kodesh preserved in excellent condition. They are beautifully bound, attesting to the ideal of "beautiful Torah in a beautiful vessel." More information is available on our website

1 - Lot No. 94

Complete set of a beautiful edition of the Talmud, from the personal library of Sir Moses Montefiore
Moses Montefiore was born in 1784 in Leghorn, Italy, to an affluent family, which moved to England while he was still a child. He dealt in commerce and became very wealthy. Thus at the early age of forty, he was at liberty to devote all his time to communal service. His wealth, lineage, prestige, impressive appearance and tall figure all combined to open doors for him wherever he turned. He was astute enough to use them on behalf of Jewish communities worldwide. Montefiore met with heads of state all over the world, including Russia, Morocco and Germany and used his connections to help persecuted Jews everywhere.
From the time of his first visit to Jerusalem in 1827, he became closer to Torah observance, and led a religious lifestyle. Among those closest to him, was Nathan Adler, Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of London. He was careful to take his own shochet whenever he traveled, to supply him with kosher meat. When he partook of state dinners and events, he brought along his own food and utensils. In his estate in Ramsgate, outside of London, he built his own synagogue. As a Jew who loved Torah, he had an impressive private library of Hebrew books, which was greatly expanded following his passing, to include very valuable books and manuscripts.
During his youth, the finest set of the Talmud available was a deluxe edition printed in Amsterdam between the years 1752 and 1765, and was much in demand among scholars and important laymen alike. Other editions of the Talmud were printed later, but none were of the same high quality. It is likely, that when Sir Moses Montefiore sought to enrich his private library with a set of the Talmud, he searched for the best set available. It was customary at the time when printing an edition of the Talmud, to print a small number of sets in a more elegant format, with wide margins on high quality paper. These copies were printed for the benefit of well-to-do customers. Such a copy, bound in a luxurious wood and leather binding made its way to the hands of Montefiore, who could afford the luxury of this edition. Today it is rare to find even individual volumes from these sets, all the more so, a complete one.

2 - Lot No. 109

A Passover Haggadah Published by the "Bank of United States," the First Bank to Collapse at the Start of the Great Depression in 1930

The Haggadah has its original binding with the large emblem of the bank and other descriptive words embossed in gold. Glued onto the inside covers are advertisements for the Bank of United States. On the inside of the back cover, in the middle of the advertisement, is a picture of Joseph Marcus, founder and president of the bank. The ads are written in Yiddish.
The Bank of United States was founded by Joseph Marcus in 1913. Marcus was born in Telshe, Lithuania in 1862, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. He began his career as a tailor, as most of his fellow Jewish immigrants, advanced to the textile business and finally, to the banking industry. He passed away in 1927, a year after the printing of this Haggadah. He was a well-known philanthropist, supporting among other causes, the Beth Israel Hospital and the Association for the Jewish Blind, both in New York.
His son, Bernard K. Marcus, inherited the management of the bank from his father and expanded it to a network of 62 branches, until it became the third largest bank in New York, and the twenty-eighth in the country. On December 10, 1930, on the basis of a rumor later proven false, an estimated crowd of 25,000 stormed the branch of the bank in the Bronx to demand withdrawal of their money. This hysteria led to the collapse of the entire bank the next day. This was the first bank to fall as a result of the stock market crash of 1929. The collapse of the bank shook up the entire banking industry in the United States and in a chain reaction, led to the collapse of many other banks. Within a month, almost three hundred banks across the country failed.

3 - Lots Nos. 77, 79

A Passover Haggadah printed in Amsterdam in 1695, with many copper engraved illustrations and a large Hebrew map of Eretz Israel. The illustrations and map are the artistic work of "Abraham, son of Jacob from the family of the Patriarch Abraham," a convert. This is the first Haggadah printed with a map of Israel, after which many later Haggadahs were patterned, such as the one printed in Amsterdam in 1712, also on sale in this catalog.

4 - Lots Nos. 117, 126

Original drawings from the Holocaust, drawn at the height of the war: a sketch in pencil from the Lodz ghetto, and a watercolor, drawn by a well-known artist in the Kovno ghetto.

5 - Lot No. 118

A Passover Haggadah written in Toulouse in 1941, at the height of the war, for the inmates of the detention camp there. It was handwritten and copied in stencil

6 - Lots Nos. 120-125

Albums of photographs depicting the destruction of European Jewry. These are the first albums printed immediately following the Holocaust, in the years: 1945-1948.

7 - Lot No. 140

Book with the signature of R. Avraham Danzig, famous as the author of the Chayei Adam.

8 - Lot No. 181

Unique illustrated book, promoting a fascinating theory, that the Koreans and
Japanese are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes!

9 - Lot No. 170

Tallis bag made from a velvet boy's jacket, an example of a garment converted into a
Jewish ritual item.

10 - Lot No. 80

An early Sefer Minhagim, printed in Amsterdam with dozens of wood etchings, explaining Jewish customs
practiced during the course of the year, and during a person's lifespan.