Bidspirit auction | “Matters That Must Not Be

“Matters That Must Not Be Put in Writing” – A Secret Report to the Vaad Hatzalah, Written One Month After the Holocaust, in the Handwriting of Rabbi Hezekiah Mashkovsky - Important Historical Document – Secret Report by the Heads of the Committee for Aid to Rabbis in Eretz Israel: The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac HaLevi Herzog, and Rabbi Hezekiah Mashkovsky, Av Beit Din of Krinik. Sent to the “Vaad Hatzalah” in New York. Eretz Israel, 1945 [תש”ה]. A previously unpublished and extremely rare historical document containing a detailed report sent to the Vaad Hatzalah in New York, describing extensive efforts made in Eretz Israel during the Holocaust to rescue Jewish refugees in Russia, as well as urgent postwar directives – including rescuing Jewish children from Christian homes and churches, and preventing their education by secular left-wing organizations in Palestine. The document spans fourteen typewritten pages, filled with corrections, annotations, and additions in the handwriting of Rabbi Hezekiah Mashkovsky, including two full pages handwritten entirely by him. Written shortly after the end of the Holocaust, the report includes previously unknown details: names of prominent rabbis who remained in Russia, lists of parcels and supplies sent to them, and rare human accounts: “...The great Rabbi R. David Weitzel, Av Beit Din of Baranovich, an elderly rabbi about eighty years old – wrote to us several times asking that we send him women’s shoes, specifically brown and specifically modern ones...” “...Interestingly, the first to request a shaving machine did not ask it for himself but for another – the well-known righteous man R. Shmuel Leib Katz of Stuchin in Lithuania, who was known as ‘the Silent One’...” The document also includes early and detailed evidence of the first organized efforts to rescue Jewish children from non-Jewish homes, along with a confidential report describing the activities of the “free” (secular) elements who converted Holocaust survivor children, accompanied by sharp, though veiled criticism of the indifference shown by official religious organizations: “...The religious parties – Agudat Yisrael and Mizrachi – achieve only a very tiny percentage, for the leftist circles know the true value of children...” In several places, the author explicitly added: “These matters must not be put in writing.” Historical background: Rabbi Hezekiah Yosef Mashkovsky (1898–1947), a disciple of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, was the rabbi of Krinik, Poland, from which he fled at the outbreak of World War II. After wandering via Japan, he arrived in Eretz Israel on the eve of Passover 1941, where he founded together with Rabbi Herzog the Committee for Aid to Rabbis and Yeshiva Students in Russia, which worked in cooperation with the American Vaad Hatzalah and the Joint Distribution Committee to provide relief to yeshiva refugees and Jews in Russia. This initiative is regarded as one of the earliest organized rescue efforts for Jewish refugees from Europe and the Soviet Union. [14] leaves, various sizes. Mostly typewritten, with dozens of handwritten emendations and additions by Rabbi Mashkovsky, including two complete handwritten pages. Very good condition. Light age stains, filing holes. A rare and primary historical document—an authentic testimony to the immediate post-Holocaust period, seen through the eyes of two of the greatest rabbinic leaders of their generation.