Rabbi Joseph Shapotshnik, who became a familiar and sometimes controversial figure in London, was born in Kishinev. He was a charismatic and prominent East End character, a social activist and Chassidic rabbi without a congregation.
As I have written before, Rabbi Joseph Shaposhnick was like Marmite – you either loved him or hated him. He came to London in 1913 and settled in the East End. He was already a published author in Europe, and when he came to London became amazingly prolific.
He was brilliant, well-meaning, beloved by some in the East End immigrant Jewish community, flawed and ultimately discredited in the eyes of many of the Charedi community to which he belonged. You can read more about him in Rabbi Pini Dunner’s excellent essay, entitled Rebel Rabbi of London.
This booklet, part of a larger planned monthly series, on the education of young children, was printed in Pietrkow at the press of Shlomo Belkatovsky in 1911, two years before Rabbi Shapotshnik came to London. The child mortality table at the end is particularly shocking by modern standards. Back in 1911, even in England, a country with better health services, 170 children out of 1,000 births died in their first year.
The booklet has a notable series of haskomos (approbations) and letters which take up several pages of the sixteen pages. These are headed by a very impressive one. Rabbi Shalom Mordechai HaCohen Schwadron, known as Maharam or the Brezaner Rav. The Brezaner Rav, who was one of the foremost halachic (Jewish legal) authorities of the nineteenth century, was born in Zlotchov in Poland in 1835. He was a rabbi in various communities in Galicia, Potek, Yislovitz, Buchatch and Brezan. However, his fame spread far beyond the boundaries of Galicia and he received queries from Hungary, Russia, the Land of Israel and Western Europe. He died in Brezan in 1911, so this would have been one of the last approbations that he wrote.
Next is Rabbi Shalom Gutman, Av Beis Din (Head of the Rabbinical Court) of Iasi, author of Beis Yisroel, son of Rabbi Israel Gutman.
Rabbi Yechiel Ichel Toivish, who mentions that Rabbi Shapotshnick was currently living in Odessa.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tzirelson (1859-1941) was one of the signatories among 300 rabbis who protested against the Beilis affair.
Abraham Eli Harkavi was an important historian and public activist.
And then, an interesting British letter from Israel Zangwill, the author and leader of the Jewish Territorial Organization. This demonstrates a connection with Britain two years before Rabbi Shapotshnick came to England.
At the end, Rabbi Tzadok Kahn, the Chief Rabbi of Paris.
This 1911 attempt at a monthly journal does not appear to have been successful. In 1913 Rabbi Shapotshnick was in Berlin, and tried again. I will write about the new edition (of which I have two issues) in due course.
Jewish Miscellanies 
Thank you for this interesting item. I would just like to point out, that the letter from the Maharsham (if genuine) is in fact not a haskomo, but a semicha written in 1904 (when Shapotshnik was only 18!), and therefore not one of his last approbations. Some of the other letters also look a little doubtful. Rabbi Taubes refers to his teshuvos on Even Hoezer and Choshen Mishpot (when Shapotshnik was only 18!? – as far as I know he never published anything like that at all) and the ‘gaon’ Rabbi Yechiel Michel Labgras of Premishlany[?! if he actually existed] describes him in terms that are most surprising. Best wishes Yissochor Marmorstein London, England
PS As mentioned before, I have a large number of items of Anglo Jewish interest and would be interested to meet you when you are next in England.
I’ve sent you a direct email.