Bidspirit auction | Urgent Plea from Rabbi Avraham

Urgent Plea from Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz to Assist the Brisker Rav and the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva – 1948 * A handwritten and autographed letter by Rabbi Avraham Kalmanovitz, Rosh Yeshiva of Mir in the United States, and one of the foremost activists in the rescue and rebuilding of the Torah world after the devastation of the Holocaust. The letter was sent to the illustrious Sternbuch family, famous for their rescue activities. In this moving appeal, Rabbi Avraham urgently requests that swift action be taken to secure Swiss visas for two of the gedolei hador, whose frail health required a stay in Switzerland: “The Brisker Gaon and tzaddik and the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva.” The Brisker Rav is, of course, the gadol hador Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, and the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva is Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, who founded the great Mir yeshiva. Rabbi Avraham writes: “I beg of you, as a mission of saving the lives of these tzaddikim, to perform a great and historic mitzvah immediately — to go to the Swiss government and request that visas be issued for these two families, who are gedolei Yisrael.” Rabbi Avraham then lists the names of those who need the visas, together with their accompanying family members, who would themselves later become gedolei hador: The Brisker Rav; his son Rabbi Yosef Ber, later Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk; Rabbi Yosef Ber's wife Rebbetzin Ettel; his son Rabbi Chaim; his son Rabbi Meshulam Dovid, later Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk; his son Rabbi Meir, later Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk; his son Rabbi Rafael; the Rosh Yeshiva of Mir, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel; and his wife, Rebbetzin Malka. The reason for obtaining the visas was the weakened health of both rabbanim, who required rest in the renowned healing spas of Switzerland. It is well known that the Brisker Rav was frail throughout his life and in constant need of medical care and periods of recuperation. Physicians recommended travel to Switzerland, and Rabbi Salman of Charkov — whom the Brisker Rav held in great esteem — ruled that such trips constituted a matter of pikuach nefesh for him. Indeed, several years later, beginning in 1954, the Brisker Rav traveled to Switzerland several times, where he was assisted devotedly by the baal chessed Rabbi Wolf Rosengarten, a trusted aide of Gedolei Yisrael. The letter was addressed to the tzaddik Rabbi Yitzchak Sternbuch of Switzerland, husband of Rebbetzin Recha Sternbuch — the righteous woman who rescued many Jews with extraordinary self-sacrifice during the years of the Holocaust, paying unbearably heavy personal prices for her efforts. New York, 1948 . Airmail letter, handwritten and signed by Rabbi Avraham Kalmanovitz. Size : 18.2 × 22.5 cm. Condition : Good. Filing holes and minor tears from opening. - - - - - - - - - - - - - The life of Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz (1891-1964) was a long chain of Harbatzas Torah and public efforts on behalf of Bnei Torah worldwide. In 1929, at the young age of 22, he was appointed Rav in Rakov, and from that day, he never paused in his tireless efforts to promote Torah and assist his fellow Jews in distress. Rabbi Avraham was a close confidante of both the Chofetz Chaim and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, and he spearheaded the Vaad Hatzalah's rescue efforts during World War II to save Lithuanian yeshivos, most notably the Mir Yeshiva in Shanghai. In 1929, he became Rav of Tiktin. With the outbreak of war, he fled with his family to Vilna and, from there, to the United States. After the war, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz founded the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn for survivors of the inferno. It was not in vain that Rabbi Simcha Eilberg declared, “He rescued Torah in our generation!”