Certificate for Change of Name – Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv (Rabbi Y.S. Elyashiv's Father) – Jerusalem, 1932

Certificate for Change of Name – Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv (Rabbi Y.S. Elyashiv's Father) – Jerusalem, 1932
"Certificate for change of name" – Printed certificate of the Population Registry office, completed by typewriter and signed by a clerk - for changing the name of "Popka David" to "Avraham David Elyashiv" and the name of his wife to "Chaya Musa Elyashiv". Jerusalem, 1932. Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv (1878-1943), was the Rabbi of Gomel, son of Rabbi Moshe Levinson from the city of Varėna. At one point, he was forced to change his family name to Popka (Popkin), [apparently he needed to use a fictitious passport of a Jew by the name of “David ben Yehuda Simcha Popkin”] and as the matter became complicated with the authorities, he was forced to change his first name to “Avraham David ben Rabbi Yehuda Simcha”. After he immigrated to Eretz Israel, he changed his family name to Elyashiv like the name of his Kabbalist father-in-law, author of the Leshem, Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv. Interestingly, on this official certificate, Rabbi Avraham listed his official name as “Avraham David” although his name was only Avraham [see the title page of his book Bikurei Avraham, Warsaw 1897 and Jerusalem 1924. Also on his tombstone only the name Rabbi Avraham ben Rabbi Moshe is written]. His only son was Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (1910-2012), a leading posek of our generation. Leaf, 32.5 cm. Good condition.