Obj. ID: 37903  Em le-Masoret. .. by Aryeh Leib Charif, Jerusalem, 1876

This text was prepared by William Gross:

A book printed in Jerusalem with many woodcut illustrations of traditional scenes of the Holy Land.
Two works bound in one volume: Sefer Em la-Masoroth and Sefer Zikhron Yerushalayim by Shneur Zalman B.Menachem Mendel (Mendelevich). Zalman Mendelevich was an emissary on behalf of Kollel Chabad of Hebron and Jerusalem. Here he records his travels throughout the Near East and South-East Asia.
The volume was printed at Jerusalem’s first Hebrew press, established in 1841 by the Chassidic printer Israel Bak. Born in 1797 in Berdichev, Ukraine, Bak founded his first press in Berdechiv in 1815. After making Aliyah to Eretz Israel in 1831, he founded his second press in Safed in 1832. In 1841 he again relocated, this time to Jerusalem, where he established his third press in the Holy City. Following Bak’s death in 1874, the Jerusalem press was operated by his son Nisan. The present volume, from 1876, was printed by “Nissan Bak & Grandson”.