Thread by @onthemainline

"This Mordechai said 'the [conditional] gett that Ansel Cohen had written yesterday [to divorce his wife in case he was imprisoned for gambling debts and could not return to England] is shit,' in the English language...'

London, 1705

Not surprisingly, the first bit of Hebrew-sefer printed matter in England was about a controversy, namely a gett, a bill of divorce, written by the 'chief rabbi 'of the Ashkenazim, Uri Phoebus Hamburger, known in English as Aaron Hart.

His enemies argued in a book printed in Amsterdam that, well, the gett was shit.

This pamphlet was his response:

hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?…

Monarchs always had a shoutout on early modern title pages, and this one salutes Queen Anne.

H-t re 'the gett is shit' line available upon request (I'm not sure if I am supposed to give one in this case)

The basic facts of this case can be read in, among other places, BUSSE, G. W. “The Ḥerem of Rabenu Tam in Queen Anne's London.” Transactions (Jewish Historical Society of England), vol. 21, 1962, pp. 138–147.

Here is a depiction of Hart on the bookplate of British Chief Rabbi J. H. Hertz, some 240 years later:

https://twitter.com/onthemainline/status/1090402007976939520?s=20

I put 'chief rabbi' in quotes in this thread, because this institution did not really exist in 1705.

However, Hart can be regarded as the progenitor of the line of rabbis which eventually evolved into the chief rabbinate of Britain, since that is exactly what he was - the first rabbi of the Ashkenazim congregation in London.

Cf the "you bitches, you all belong to me" entry in the pinkas of the London Beth Din from 1823.

I wrote about it here:

onthemainline.blogspot.com/2012/02/just-h…

Hat tip to Motty Berger.

Can't believe I forgot to mention this: the aforesaid Mordechai? His mother was Glueckel of Hameln.