Obj. ID: 53415
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Zikaron ba-Sefer Tochen ha-Sefarim, Ukraine, 1869
The following description was prepared by William Gross:
The Bender Hasidic dynasty was active from the second decade of the nineteenth century until the Holocaust. The founder was Shim‘on Shelomoh (d. ca. 1802), a disciple of the Magid of Mezritsh, who was a preacher in Savran (Podolia). Shim‘on’s two sons established independent Hasidic dynasties in Podolia and Bessarabia.
The elder son, Aryeh Leib Wertheim (ca. 1772–1854), settled in the town of Bender in Bessarabia, where in 1814 he founded the only Hasidic dynasty ever established in that region. His Hasidim were mainly from Bessarabia, though some were from Odessa; he served as both rabbi and rebbe. His son Shim‘on Shelomoh (ca. 1805–1864) and later his grandson Yitsḥak (d. 1911) succeeded him, as did his great-grandson Shim‘on Shelomoh (ca. 1865–1924); each also served as both rabbi and rebbe. The last of these was attracted to Zionism and was a member of the Mizraḥi movement, as was his son Yosef (1881–1946), who was a rabbi in several communities in Poland but refused to serve as a rebbe. Yosef moved to Palestine around 1940, and from that time Bendery Hasidism ceased to exist.
This manuscript is a library listing from the Bender Rebbe, Yitzhak ben Shimon Shlomo Wertheim, the same Rabbi for whom there is an Elijah cup in the Gross Family Collection, 017.001. The list comprises 620 books found in his library, a not inconsequential number for that time