Auction 115 Seforim, Letters from Rabbis and Rebbes, Chabad, Manuscripts, Art from Israel, Important historic documents
Jul 24, 2019
Israel
 3 Shatner Center 1st Floor Givat Shaul Jerusalem
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LOT 17:

Live Documentation in which Yeshivah Students Dedicated Themselves so that the Voice of Torah would not be Stilled. ...

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Live Documentation in which Yeshivah Students Dedicated Themselves so that the Voice of Torah would not be Stilled. List of Youths in the Exiled Mir Yeshivah. Shanghai, Historic Document
One of the most fateful events to take place in the period preceding the outbreak of WWII, in the summer of 1939, was the peace treaty signed between Nazi Germany and Communist USSR, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. The day after the pact, newspapers announced the pact's military and economic details. This astounded the world, two sworn enemies making a pact of friendship. The Germans' intent was to conquer Poland, which divided the two countries, and the "secret" pact between the two countries was to conquer Poland and split it between them. A week later, they invaded Poland and within a month the country Poland was completely wiped off the map. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fled in panic from the occupied territory, however, all the country's gated were locked. Over a quarter million of them fled to occupied Russia.
The world of yeshivahs, too - Poland of those days was its great fortress - was not passed over by this fate. Most of the yeshivahs were then in eastern Poland, which was under Russian occupation. Many of the yeshivah youths fled to Vilna. Its rabbi, R' Chaim Ozer, took care of them, calmed them, and guided them. The rosh yeshivah of Mir, Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, gathered dozens of his disciples, and immigrated from Vilna to Keidan, where they arrived during Chanukah. After about seven months, Lithuania was conquered by the Russians, and the refugees again found themselves trapped in the Russian stranglehold. After supreme efforts to obtain exit permits and certificates, they succeeded, through the Japanese consul, to emigrate to Japan. After much hardship, the first refugees began to arrive (in the winter of 1941). Thousands of refugees poured in from then on, everyday Jews and yeshivah students thronged to this unknown land. Despite the anxiety, questions and enormous tension, they began to found a yeshivah in Shanghai, and invested all their attentions to Torah. This success, known as "Nes HaHatzlachah," was a miracle which continued the light of Torah in a world gone dark.
During this period, Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz took over the reins of the yeshivah. This was in the wake of his father-in-law's, Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel's, fundraising trip to the Land of Israel, from which he could not return home. In addition to managing the Mir yeshivah, Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz also managed the finances of the Lubavitch, Kletzk and Kaminetz yeshivahs. The yeshivahs were located in Shanghai for five and a half years. He traveled to the United States with the yeshivah in Tevet 1947, and about a half a year later, he ascended to the Land of Israel, where he assisted his father-in-law in the founding of the Mir yeshivah in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood.
Before us is a rare historic document on which Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz wrote (by hand) the names of all the yeshivah students and rabbis during the period they were in Shanghai. 202 names, arranged and numbered according to family name and first name. Family men were written only by name of the head of the family and the number of people in the family. For example, next to the name of Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein - the legendary mashgiach, the number 3 is written to indicate 3 people, and next to the name of Mordechai Ginzburg, the mashgiach's son-in-law, the number 3 is also written.
Rabbi Chaim himself, when writing the names and arriving at his own name, only wrote Shmuelevitz, without a first name, the way he wrote all the others. Next to his family name, he added the number 5.
There are a total of 202 names, to which 11 students of the Kaminetz yeshivah and another 11 from the Kletzk yeshivah, without detailing their names.
[1] leaf official paper. 27x21 cm. Written on both sides. Fine condition. All the names are legible.

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