Auction 87 - Jewish and Israeli Art, History and Culture
Including: sketches by Ze'ev Raban and Bezalel items, hildren's books, avant-garde books, rare ladino periodicals, and more
Six Certificates of Inscription in the "Silver Book" of the JNF in Austria – Viennese Cantor Gerson Herz Margolies – Vienna, 1932-1937 – Signed by Adolf Böhm, Founder of the Zionist Federation in Austria
Six certificates of inscription in the "Silver Book" of the JNF in Austria. The registrant – cantor Gerson Herz Margolies. Vienna: 1932-1937. Hebrew and German.
Identical illustrated certificates, printed in blue and silver. The name of the new registrant, "Chief Cantor Gerson Margolies" is handwritten in the center of each certificate (in German and Hebrew), alongside the names of the various organizations, which donated the sum required to register one in the book.
The certificates are hand-signed by of Adolf Böhm – founder of the Zionist Federation in Austria, and Chaim Tartakower – head of the JNF office in Austria; hand-numbered, and signed in print "KL."
Gerson Herz Margolies was born ca. 1885 in Kalvarija, Lithuania. Served as chief cantor in the liberal Tempelgasse Synagogue (Leopoldstädter Tempel), in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna. Margolies was a well-known cantor in his day – a tenor who toured extensively, and performed for Jewish communities around the world.
Margolies was a devoted Zionist activist. According to newspaper reports from the period, he immigrated to Palestine in 1935, but apparently did not settle there. Other sources, including an identification card, issued in his name by the Jewish community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien; see previous lot), indicate that Margolies served as the Tempelgasse synagogue cantor at least until June 1938; the synagogue was burnt to the ground during the Kristallnacht pogrom, several months later. Margolies managed to escape to England, and from there he continued on to the USA; he died in New York in 1953, and, in accordance with his last will and testament, was buried in Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. Recordings of his performances, which were never published, are found in the archives of " ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, " in Tel Aviv.
Certificates: approx. 23X32 cm; placed in three frames (two certificates per frame.) Frames: 34.5X47.5 cm. Condition varies. Stains. Blemishes. Minor tears to one certificate. Certificates unexamined outside of frames.