R' Ephraim Fischel Parnas Lieberman, A.B.D. Ludmir and secretary of the Council of the Four Lands

GEDCOM Note

From M. Dworzhetsky, the History of Jewish Wladimir, in Pinkas Ludmir; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Ludmir:

Rabbi Efraim Fishel ben Arieh Leib of Ludmir (1671 - 1719) (Rabbi Efraim the Lobbyist, Trustee of the House of Israel)

In the years 1671-1684 Rabbi Efraim Fishel (Rabbi Efraim the Lobbyist) was a community leader of Ludmir on the Council of the Four Lands. He was a frequent participant in the meetings of the Council of the Four Lands and was one of the central figures of Jewish Poland in his day.

In a writ dated 18 April 1679 the Polish king Jan Soviesky sponsored Rabbi Efraim Fishel, naming him the Official Author Chosen by all the Jews of the Kingdom (in other words, Loyal to the House of Israel, of the Four Lands). He was granted lifelong permission to live in the court of the king, to be and to trade wherever he wished, he was granted the right to establish a brewery, and he was released from all financial obligations regarding the community and region of Ludmir.

In 1699 the Polish king Augustus the Second confirmed the writ of sponsorship granted to him by the king Jan Soviesky. He is mentioned frequently in the registers of Tiktin and Opatow in connection with the gatherings of the Council of the Four Lands in which he took part; in 1719 he is mentioned as trustee of the Four Lands." [Pinkas Ludmir pp. 31-32]

-------------------------------------------------------------------
From Moshe Chenowicz, Rabbis and Notables of Wlodimierz, in in Pinkas Ludmir; sefer zikaron le-kehilat Ludmir:

Rabbi Ephraim Fischel of Ludmir and his three famous sons

In [the late 17th to early 18th centuries], the notable Rabbi Ephraim Fischel, who was a donor of the Council of the Four Lands, was active in Ludmir. For many years he participated in each and every meeting of the Council and was one of the primary speakers among contemporary Polish Jewry. He was a gentleman with family connections, and well-known personages among the Jews of Poland in the rabbinic-scholarly, Jewish representative and philanthropic fields were his relations.

Rabbi Ephraim Fischel's father was the sage Rabbi Arye Leib the Great, head of the rabbinic court of Krakow, and the brother of Rabbi Ephraim Fischel was the sage Rabbi Zachariah Mendel, rabbi of Belz and author of Ba”er Heitev on Yoreh Deah, Choshen Mishpat and Even ha-Ezer.

Rabbi Ephraim Fischel as mentioned above was a resident of Ludmir. In 1684 while at the meeting of the Council of the Four Lands he gave his Pinkas Vaad Arba Aratzot (rabbinic approbation) to publication of the book Ein Jakob. In 1721 Rabbi Ephraim Fischel was still living, as we learn from the words of his son Rabbi David Tebel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Pinkus Kremenets:

"R' Fishil was a well-known civic activist from Ludmir who had worked for many years as a trustee and leader of the Council of the Four Lands as well as the head of the council for the district [of Volhyn]."

1679 & 1699: As a leader of regional and crown Jewish committees, the Polish-Lithuanian kings [Jan III Sobieski; reconfirmed by August II] awarded him the status of Royal Servant.[Volodymyr Volyns'kyi. The Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews of Eastern Europe] This gave him permission to live any place throughout the kingdom, to construct beer breweries and liquor distilleries on his lands in Ludmir and to be judged in the king's court.

1700: Served as trustee in the session of the District Council in Horochow.

1705 - Parnas (head); Council of the Four Lands.

A document from the Council of Four Lands appoints R' Fishil son of [Aryeh] Leyb as district leader beginning in 1705.

Apparently, the leaders of the autonomous Jewish institutions in Poland were already heavily embroiled in difficulties by that time, and few were willing to jump into these situations. The representatives of the principal communities ... implored R' Fishil to take on the district leadership again, and they obligated themselves to lighten his load:

"He will not have to arrange the division (of taxes) for the surroundings (settlements subordinated to the principal communities and the district), only for the principal districts along with their settlements and for the cities of our district, Volin."

[Document from the Archives of Southwestern Russia, Part 5, vol. I, pp. 221-223 discussed in Pinkas Kremenets]