Fascinating Historic (and Personal) Letter Handwritten by the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rare Stationery

Fascinating Historic (and Personal) Letter Handwritten by the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rare Stationery

Fascinating, important and historic letter. The first half is typewritten and the bottom part [approximately 100 words] is handwritten and signed by the leader of American Jewry, the gaon Rabbi Aharon Kotler, rosh yeshivah of Lakewood. The letter deals with historic Jewish subjects (the typewritten part) but also intimate personal matters (the handwritten part). New York, 1947.

The letter was sent to Rabbi Aharon Kotler's close friend, Rabbi Zeidel (Yitzchak Tzvi) Siemiatycki. The first (typewritten) part of the letter deals with the historic subject: "American Va'ad Hatzalah of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada" which was established to assist yeshivahs exiled from Poland and Lithuania during the Holocaust, primarily to Shanghai. At the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Aharon thanks Rabbi Zeidel for the Va'ad's help for the Kletzk-Pardes Hannah yeshivah, which was officially led by Rabbi Aharon Kotler. Rabbi Aharon later on discusses the main activities of the Va'ad, the deliveries of the sefarim, the clothing, and the funds for the benefit of the yeshivahs, and the obstacles to getting them to their destinations. In the part added by hand, he describes some of the activities as the kind with "impossible to predict results, Heaven forbid."

Later on in the letter, in the handwritten part, Rabbi Aharon tells his "kindred spirit" what is going on in his personal life, "The extent of my troubles and distress from various issues cannot be measured." Rabbi Aharon opens his heart about Rischel (Friedman), Rabbi Shneur's, his son and successor's fiancée: "His honor has certainly heard about Rischel, who has been in our home from the day she arrived. She is seriously ill in her lungs, and has already been sick for a while, from when she was in Shanghai. We are obviously doing all we can to save her. May Hashem send her a complete recovery soon... From the time she arrived, she has improved a lot, B"H, but she is still seriously ill." Historic piece.

As is known, Rabbi Shneur and Rischel became engaged in Vilna before the Holocaust. When the war broke out, Rabbi Shneur managed to flee to the land of Israel (using a certificate sent by his grandfather, the gaon Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer) but his fiancée, Rischel, remained in the burning Europe (later on, she managed to flee to Shanghai with the students of the Mir yeshivah). The couple remained loyal to each other throughout the war, even though their connection was severed. After the refugees in Shanghai received visas for the United States, Rischel arrived there as well. From this letter, we see that when she arrived in America - after her entire family was slaughtered in Europe - she became critically ill, but Rabbi Aharon and Rabbi Shneur were devoted to her recovery, and she even stayed at her great father-in-law's home until she recovered from her critical illness. In this letter, we see Rabbi Aharon's great concern while she was lying on her deathbed in his home.

Rischel long outlived her father-in-law and her husband, who had transformed Lakewood into the largest yeshivah in the world, and she even had the privilege of seeing her son Rabbi Malkiel succeed his father and grandfather as rosh yeshivah. She actually administered the Torah kingdom in Lakewood, New Jersey, and was "the yeshivah's mother" who took care of all the needs of the students there, to her final day. Her funeral set out from the yeshivah in Lakewood, New Jersey, and then from the Mir yeshivah in Jerusalem, where she was buried. Many thousands for whom she served as mother accompanied her on her final journey, with her sons, the geonim, at their lead.

Written on extremely rare stationery with a logo that discloses the story of the displacement of yeshivahs from their cradle in Lithuania to the Land of Israel and the United States. The stationery bears a rare logo of Yeshivat Etz Chaim D'Kletzk (Rabbi Aharon's yeshivah in Lithuania) during the time of its exile in Siberia and Shanghai (this line was crossed out), the Kletzk yeshivah's branch in Pardes Hannah, in the Land of Israel (founded by Rabbi Aharon's brother-in-law and led by Rabbi Aharon )." Beneath this logo is another logo in English, that of Rabbi Aharon himself at his place of residence in America, where he had already begun to establish the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshivah in Lakewood - the largest yeshivah in the world.

Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

Size: 22x28 cm.

Fine condition. Aging stains.  Fold marks.