The Personal Journal of the Jerusalem Righteous Rabbi Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal, Founder of the Renowned ...

The Personal Journal of the Jerusalem Righteous Rabbi Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal, Founder of the Renowned Orphanage

A beautiful historical item – the personal journal of the righteous Rabbi Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal, one of the great public figures of Jerusalem and founder of the renowned Tzion-Blumenthal Orphanage. The journal was gifted to him by the caretakers and administrators of the institution. Jerusalem, 1906 (תרס"ו).

At the beginning of the journal, there are two elegant title pages, written in calligraphic script and hand-illustrated. On the third page, there is a fine dedication extolling his deeds and dedicating the journal as the official register of the educational institution, where the names of donors who supported the orphanage were recorded.

However, in practice, the journal was primarily used by Rabbi Blumenthal to document the financial support and donations he generously gave to those in need, as well as notes from sermons he delivered both in public and at the orphanage.

In the first pages of the journal, there are numerous entries written in a foreign language. The contents of these entries have not been examined. On the margin of one of these lists, a stamp from the Deutsche-Palestine Bank appears.

The greatest rabbis, both in the Land of Israel and abroad, praised Rabbi Blumenthal for his righteousness and devotion to helping the needy, especially the orphans of Jerusalem, as reflected in letters of endorsement from that time.

Approximately 63 leaves [of which around 36 pages contain writing]. 19 x 13 cm. A prestigious notebook with a hardcover binding.

Condition: Good. Some water stains and signs of aging.

Rabbi Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal (1877–1967)

A prominent educator and figure of the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem, he was the founding director of the Tzion-Blumenthal Orphanage, which still operates near Kikar HaShabbat in Jerusalem.

His father, Rabbi Yaakov, was among the founders of Petah Tikva and the neighborhoods of Beit Yisrael and Batei Ungarin in Jerusalem. At the age of 22, Rabbi Avraham Yochanan established a yeshiva for at-risk youth called "Beit Chinuch Ne'arim" (House of Youth Education), with the aim of "educating the young of Israel, particularly abandoned children who have gone astray, raising and nurturing them in both body and soul in accordance with Torah, ethics, and proper conduct, so they may become useful members of society, bringing honor to our people and our holy city." This was the first yeshiva dedicated to youth who had strayed from the traditional path.

At the end of World War I, he transformed the yeshiva into the Tzion-Blumenthal Orphanage, which he then headed.

Rabbi Blumenthal was known as a figure above communal divisions. For example, a wedding held at his home in 1928 was described in the press as an event attended by "a large and diverse crowd from all the different communities of Jerusalem, " including "the heads of institutions from both the Old and New Yishuv."

His funeral was attended by a vast crowd, and he was eulogized by his sons-in-law, the esteemed rabbis Rabbi Michel Shlapobersky, Rabbi Chaim Solomon, Rabbi Yehoshua Fishel Zaks, and others.