Pinḳas ha-gadol de-Ḥavurah ha-ḳedoshah Talmud Torah di-ḳ.ḳ. Staṿisḳ shenat 609 li-f. ḳ.
Ḥavurah Ḳedoshah Talmud Torah Staṿisḳ
Pinḳas ha-gadol de-Ḥavurah ha-ḳedoshah Talmud Torah di-ḳ.ḳ. Staṿisḳ shenat 609 li-f. ḳ. (The Great Pinkas of the Holy Society of the Talmud Torah of Stawiski, year 609)
Manuscript decorated with colored ink on paper
Stawiski (Stavisk), Poland, 1849
This manuscript is a ledger (pinkas) documenting the statute and history of the benevolent local organization established in 1836 that provided support for the religious school (Talmud Torah) in the town of Stawiski in northeastern Poland. Aaron Zebi Friedman (1822–1876), a rabbi and shohet (a person performing kosher animal slaughter), made the last entry in 1871. Friedman moved to Germany in 1844 and four years later settled in New York.
The illuminated title page of the pinkas is displayed here. The name of the society is written in gold characters, bordered with a frame of purple and black, and adorned with simple geometrical ornament.
The first Jews settled in Stawiski in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community numbered more than 1,200 members. By the end of the century, there were more than 2,500 Jews, amounting to half of Stawiski’s population. This town (or shtetl, a common term for little towns or villages with a substantial Jewish population) was a stronghold of the Misnagdim, those who adhered to traditional Jewish religious and scholarly traditions, as opposed to the Hasidim, who were driven by mysticism and the emotional experience of Judaism.
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