Yad Yosef

I just came across this piece written in 1996 when Dayan Apfel (cantor, rabbi and av bet din for many years in Leeds) published a book of his writings:

Rabbi Yosef Yehoshua Apfel, the head of Leeds Beth Din, has recently published a sefer (written in Hebrew) which is a collection of his writings over the last seventy years. I thought would that itspublication might be of interest to the readers of Mail- Jewish. Dayan Apfel a graduate of the famous Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin, a Talmid Muvchak (Outstanding student) of Rabbi Yaakov Yehiel Weinberg.., work is divided into four parts. The first section consistsof responsas, (questions and answers) that Dayan Apfel corresponded with Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Eliasheiv , Rav Weinberg, and Rav Yitzhak Weiss(the Minchat Yitzhak) and a very interesting question about animal welfare that Dayan Apfel submitted in the nineteen thirties, when he was in living in Berlin to the Rav Nahum Weinfeld (The Hazon Nahum).

The second section consists of deveri Torah compiled from Rabbi Maimon's work, Sarei Elef. The third section consists of biographies of various great rabbis, such as Rav Yehiel Yaakov Weinberg, Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson (The Shoel Umesheiv), Rav Moshe Sefer, Rav Yehuda Assod etc.

The last section is made up of correspondence between Dayan Apfel and various rabbinical luminaries.What is particularly interesting in this section are the letters that Rav Yehiel Weinberg sent Dayan Apfel which have never been published before.

Dayan Apfel writes in his introduction to his work, a short biography of his long productive life. He describes his early life in Sanz,Galici. Learning in a beis medrash in Sanz and receiving his first semicha at 18, and his fortunate escape from the hands of the Nazis to England in 1938 just before its gates to Jewish refugees were shut.

Dayan Apfel, a survivor from pre-world war II, Poland and Germany,writings are valuable for their historical insights and novel and decisive rulings concerning modern questions. I recommend this work to all interested in rabbinical literature.

Unfortunately, I don't think this book is still in print, and I can't find it on second-hand websites. Sounds interesting though.