Solomon Elhanan Jaffe Papers

This collection consists of manuscripts and correspondence containing the following: 1) Sermons on the Pentateuch; 2) responsa on ritual matters among which are questions from a) Rabbi A.H. Seligsohn of New Castle, Pennsylvania concerning the kashrut of the muscovy duck (1912), b) Rabbi I. Eskin of El Paso, Texas concerning kosher slaughtering (1919), c) Rabbi H. Shabetay of Buenos Aires whether the prayer for rain normally found in the Shemoneh Esreh should be recited in the Southern Hemisphere, which has different seasons; and d) a letter from Rabbi Jacob Widrewitz of New York City commenting on some legal points; 3) general correspondence among which are letters from Rabbi Jacob Katzman of San Francisco and Rabbi Bernard Louis Levinthal of Philadelphia, and a letter in Russian; 4) biographical data on his family supplied by Jaffe for a biographical dictionary; 5) a manuscript for a planned volume on the Midrash; 6) a draft of his work [Hebrew] which differs from the published version; 7) and a notebook containing numerous entries among which are responsa, sermons, special sermons for Passover, and a table of contents for a planned second edition of his book of responsa [Hebrew]. In this latter item there is a reference to the question of kosher slaughtering in Boston.

Included in the collection is a manuscript (possibly Jaffe's grandfather) of a nineteenth century commentary on the Talmud with emendations by Jaffe, and responsa from various members of the Jaffe family from the 18th and 19th centuries.