Epistle of Israel’s Deliverance

Born near Lemberg (present-day Lviv) and later living in Lutsk, Volhynia, Joseph Solomon Lutski was a Karaite leader and scholar. He moved to Yevpatoria, in Crimea, in 1802 to serve as Ḥazan (in Karaite communities, a community leader) and teacher. In 1827, he traveled with the ḥakham (spiritual leader) Simhah Babovich to St. Petersburg, where they successfully lobbied the Russian government to exempt Karaites from the compulsory military service imposed by Nicholas I on Jews. His Epistle recounting his travels opens the panorama of the Russian Empire, with St. Petersburg and its fabulous palaces. These experiences are described in his Igeret teshu’at Yisra’el (1840), originally published in Hebrew and translated into Judeo-Tatar by his brother-in-law, Abraham (Avraam) Firkovich. Several of Lutski’s prayers, liturgical poems, and religious hymns were included in the Karaite prayer book.