Harav Meshilem Dov Kalush, Dayan Munkach

Berko and Gitze are mentioned as the parents of Feige in 1864, when she married Abraham. Berko had a grandson called after him, whose religious name was Mesilem Ber. Therefore his religious name must have been Meshulam Dov. Berko died in or before 1887, when his grandson Berko was named after him. Berko may have died even earlier, in or before 1882, when Markusz Kallus and Leie Jahr called a son Mesulem Ber. The name of his son strongly suggests that Markusz was a son of Berko, because the name Meshulam Ber is quite rare. Maybe Berko is to be identified with Berko Kallus who died in Munkacs in 1878. If he was the only adult Berko Kallus in town in the 1860s and 1870s, then he must be Berko Kallus, who was witness and rabbi in 1865 at the wedding of Israel Volf Schlesinger and Chaje Schiffman. In 1875 Rabbi Berko Kallus is sandak (godfather) at the bris of David, the son of Ezekiel Khan and Czipore Kallus. Berko Kallus appears 34 times (!) as a witness at marriages in Munkacs in the years 1865-1870. In 1870 M. B. Kallus appears 6 times as a witness instead of Berko Kallus. There are no other witnesses called Kallus in these years except for a Kallus without private name, who appears twice and one Berle Kallus. These statistics suggest that Berko = M. B. = Berle Kallus. The initials M. B. (=Meshullam Ber?) provide further support for his identification with Rabbi Berko Kallus. Further evidence is provided by the marriage record of his daughter Feige, which refers to him as Rabbi Berko (see Shmuel Chaim Yaakov Gruber, "Rabbi Nachum Benyamin Kalish," Alei Zikaron 17, pp. 66-67). In 1876 Rabbi Berko Kalus joined a delegation of orthodox rabbis to the Emperor Franz Josef to request the establishment of a separate body for the Ultra-Orthodox community. His signature appears on the request. He also participated in the Jewish Congress that was convened and held in Pest (today part of Budapest), Hungary, between mid-December 1868 and late February 1869, in order to establish a nationwide organizational framework for the Jewish communities of Hungary. His name appears on the seating chart. In 1868 the rabbinical judge (dayan) Meshullam Dov was a prenumerant of the book Kisey Rachamim. In 1874 Rabbi/Moreh Tzedek Meshullam Ber was a prenumerant of the book Aryeh de ve Ilhai. In 1876 Rabbi Meshulam Dov Kallus was a prenumerant of the book Chochmas Hanefesh. The earliest source to mention him appears to be the Jewish census of 1832: Berko Kallus (No. 55) with wife and three daughters in Munkacs. According to his grandson Abraham, the son of Israel, Meshulam Dov arrived in Munkacs from Galicia with his brothers in about 1833. Probably he is to be identified with Rabbi Meshulam Dov ben Yehuda Leibish, who appears in the list of members of the Society for the Support of Torah at the end of its regulations Takkanot Tamchin de'Orayta (Munkács: Samuel Kahn, 1895).

Chodesh B'chodsho 5759 p. 90 lists his Yom Hilulah as 4 Adar 5638.