Seven halachic rulings signed by R. Yaakov Yitzchak Neumann, the head of the Beit Din of Pupa (Pápa). Celldömölk, 1946 / Antwerp, 1949-1950.
Contains: Two letters written during his residence in Antwerp, on his official stationery; five testimonies recorded in Celldömölk on women who perished in the Holocaust, signed by R. Neumann and his court.
The testimonies, recorded in order to permit remarriage, were written and signed by the Special Beit Din for Agunot established in Budapest after the Holocaust.

R. Yaakov Yitzchak Neumann, the dayan of Pupa (Pápa; 1911-2007), a prominent rabbi and posek in the previous generation. Taught thousands of students over the course of seventy years. Was a faithful disciple of the Pupa rebbes, appointed by the Vayaged Yaakov of Pupa to head the Pupa Beit Midrash and after the Holocaust assisted Rebbe Yosef Grünwald, the Vayechi Yosef of Pupa. He later served as Rabbi of the Melbourne community (Australia) and Machazikei HaDat community in Montreal (Canada).

7 leaves. Varying size and condition.

Large assorted collection of letters of rabbis from Hungary and Romania regarding divorce and marriage, agunot and Holocaust survivors:

• Lengthy letter from R. David Sperber (author of Afarkasta DeAnya). Brașov, 1946.
• Two letters from R. Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, head of the Grosswardein Beit Din (the Minchat Yitzchak). Grosswardein (Oradea), 1947.
• Two letters from R. Azriel Yehudah Leibowitz, head of the Hajdúhadház Beit Din (author of Ezer MiYehudah). Hajdúhadház, [ca. 1946-1947].
• Letter handwritten and signed by R. Efraim Fishel Hershkowitz, dayan and posek in Ratzfert. Ratzfert, Sivan 1947.
• Record of testimony signed by R. Yitzchak Elbaum, Rabbi of Cieszyn. Cieszyn, Elul 1946.
• Record of testimony signed by dayanim of the Satmar Beit Din: R. Yishai Hecht, R. Moshe Aryeh Freund and R. Yechezkel Shraga Brach. Satmar, Adar 1949.
• Mimeographed leaf with summary of a responsum from R. Chaim Mordechai Roller, by the Special Beit Din for Agunot in Budapest, which relied on this ruling in giving thousands of agunot permission to remarry after the Holocaust. [Budapest, ca, 1945-1946].

8 signed letters and one mimeograph. Varying size and condition.

Large collection of over seventy letters and stamped documents (lists and reports of donors), sent by rabbis, rebbes, tzedakah collectors and various donors to Kollel Shomrei HaChomot – Kollel Ungarn. Hungary, Transylvania and other regions, ca. 1920s-1930s.

The present collection includes letters and documents signed by the following rabbis:
• R. Binyamin Fuchs, Rabbi of Grosswardein (Oradea), president of Kollel Shomrei HaChomot. • Rebbe Naftali Teitelbaum, Rabbi of Nyírbátor (2 letters). • R. Meir Leib Frei, Rabbi of Šurany. • R. David Yehudah Leib Silberstein, Rabbi of Vác. • R. Yosef Elimelech Kahana, Rabbi of Ungvár (Uzhhorod). • R. Moses Chaim Litch-Rosenbaum, Rabbi of Kleinwardein (Kisvárda). • R. Shaul Rosenberg, Rabbi of Ratzfert (Újfehértó). • Rebbe Eliezer Lipa HaLevi Silberman of Ratzfert, son of R. Moshe of Ratzfert and grandson of R. Hertzka of Ratzfert (3 letters). • R. Chaim HaLevi Silberman (3 letters). • Rebbe Naftali Gross of Kerestir-Berbesht (son-in-law of Rebbe Avraham Steiner of Kerestir). • R. Yosef Meir Moshe HaKohen Steiner, Rabbi of Ilok – son-in-law of R. Hillel Lichtenstein of Kolomyia (3 letters). • R. Yisrael Hillel Yitzchak HaKohen Steiner, Rabbi of Ilok. • R. Yaakov Shalom Sofer, Sárospatak. • R. Moshe Eliezer, Rabbi of Novo Mesto. • R. Tzvi Segal Prager, Rabbi of Poprad. • R. Chaim Yaakov Moshe Krauss, Rabbi of Ragendorf (Rajka). • R. Moshe Bunam Krauss, Rabbi of Baden (3 letters). • R. Yisrael Broda, dayan and posek of Michalovce (author of Ishei Yisrael). • R. Shalom Tzvi Adler, Rabbi of Diosig. • R. Yerachmiel Katzburg, Rabbi of Ózd. • R. Yitzchak Tzvi Sofer, Rabbi of Fabric, Timișoara (3 letters). • R. Tzvi Hirsch HaKohen, Rabbi of Derecske. • R. Moshe Chaim Grünfeld, Rabbi of Sajószentpéter (5 letters). • R. Efraim Grünfeld, Rabbi of Rimavská Seč (2 letters). • R. Menachem HaKohen Fischer, Rabbi of Sárvár. • R. Mordechai Leib Fischer, Rabbi of Nagykáta. • R. Menachem Mendel Schick, Rabbi of Szikszó. • R. Asher Anshel Schick, Szikszó. • R. Eliezer Brumer HaLevi, head of the Sanok Beit Din. • R. Yaakov Segal Leibowitz, Rabbi of Kaposvár. • R. Peretz Tuviah Stein, Rabbi of Diósgyőr. • R. Menachem Mendel Tennenbaum, Rabbi of Tarnów. • R. Moshe Tennenbaum, Rabbi of Moldava nad Bodvou (4 letters). • R. Chaim Sofer-Schreiber, Rabbi of Arad. • R. Avraham Aharon Katz, head of the Nitra Beit Din. • R. Alexander Chaim Schwartz, Rabbi of Gurahonț. • R. Yisrael HaLevi Jungreis, Rabbi of Nádudvar. • R. Bentzion Sneiders, Rabbi of Raab. • R. Elazar Singer, Rabbi of Rimavská Sobota. • R. Shalom Wieder, Rabbi of Nyíregyháza. • R. Bentzion HaLevi Ungar (son of R. Shmuel David, Rabbi of Nitra). • And many more letters.

77 letters and postcards, most on official stationery. Varying size and condition. Some with open tears and singeing (saved from fire), affecting text.

Collection of 67 forms and documentations of the appointment, election and service of Hungarian rabbis just before the Holocaust. [Hungary and nearby regions, most from late 1930s and early 1940s]. Hungarian (and some Romanian).

Declarations, documents, certificates, protocols, translations and copies of various documents, some handwritten and others printed and filled out by hand, with signatures of leaders of Hungarian communities, official stamps of the communities, and signatures and stamps of local officials; some also bear the signatures of the rabbis and their official stamps.
The present item is a rare and exceptional historical documentation of rabbis and their communities just before the Holocaust, containing much information unknown from other sources. Most of the rabbis and community leaders who signed the documents perished in the Holocaust.
The collection includes documents pertaining to the service and appointment of the following rabbis: • R. Aharon Tzvi Kestenbaum, dayan and posek in Tiszaújlak. • R. Chaim Friedman, Rabbi of Somotor. • R. Meir Leifer, Rabbi of the Yisrael Yaakov Beit Midrash in Khust (son of Rebbe Yisrael Shmelka Leifer of Khust). • R. Shalom Goldenberg, Rabbi of Szentmiklós. • R. Aharon Kahana, Rabbi of Bistra, grandson of Rebbe Yosef Meir Weiss, the Imrei Yosef of Spinka. • R. Tzvi Ze'ev Wolf Golberger of Berehove. • R. Moshe David Friedlander of Grosswardein (Oradea; son of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Friedlander of Borga). • R. Shmuel Landau, Rabbi of Nagybocskó. • R. Yaakov Seidenfeld, Rabbi of Kobyletska Poliana. • R. Moshe Dov Ber Landau, Rabbi of Nyzhni Vorota. • R. Yitzchak Belz and R. Baruch Grünzweig, Rabbis of Ternovo. • R. Meir Weiss, Rabbi of Oroszvég. • R. Yaakov Felberbaum, Rabbi of Zapson and the region. • R. Oskar Klein of Seleuș, Rabbi of Zapson and Onok. • R. Shlomo Yitzchak HaKohen Schönfeld, Rabbi of Tiszaújlak. • R. Yitzchak (Ignaz) Schwartz of Tiszaújlak. • R. Yekutiel Yehudah (Zalman) Halpert, Rabbi of Hajdúnánás. • R. Moshe Halpert, Rabbi of Felsőapsa (Verkhnye Vodyane). • R. Shmuel Edelhauch, Rabbi of Barkasovo and Serne. • R. Ze'ev Sheftel Henich son of R. Natan (Strobach) Edelhauch, dayan and posek of Izky. • R. Natan Yosef Zimtbaum, Rabbi of Ohel Yissachar synagogue in Grosswardein (Oradea). • R. David Gross, Rabbi of Tab. • R. Yitzchak (Ignaz) Gross, Rabbi of Torun. • R. Yechiel David Salzer, dean of the Szerdahély (Miercurea Sibiului) yeshiva. • R. Avraham Eliezer Zitron, Rabbi of Hajdúdorog. • R. Shlomo Zuker, Rabbi of Nagyhalász. • R. Chaim Tzvi Fried, Rabbi of Veľké Kapušany. • R. Moshe Weinberger of Munkacs, Rabbi of Nyagova. • R. Moshe Dov Weissberger, Rabbi of Tárkány. • R. Ze'ev (Vilmos) Lichtenstein, Rabbi of the Beit Midrash of R. Yaakov Farkash in Khust. • R. Avraham Yaakov Goldenberg, Rabbi of the Shevet Achim synagogue in Munkacs. • R. Yosef Yosefowitz, Rabbi of Falucska (Bogarevytsya). • And more.

[67] forms. Varying size and condition. Overall good to fair-good condition. The collection has not been thoroughly examined, and is being sold as is.

Collection of over 150 letters (on postcards) sent by the students of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Biržai who were deported to Siberia, to R. Eliezer Bentzion Bruk, dean of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Jerusalem. [Siberia, Kazakhstan and North Caucasus (Russia), Łódź (Poland) and elsewhere, ca. 1942-1946]. Yiddish (a few in Hebrew and Russian).

The present collection is a rare and exceptionally comprehensive documentation of the students of the Novardok-Bialystok yeshiva during their deportation to the Siberian wilderness and in remote towns of Kazakhstan and the Caucasus, and on their way to Poland and the liberated zones at the end of World War II. In their letters, the students thank R. Bruk for sending aid packages from Eretz Israel, describe their arduous work, the difficult conditions and the pressing situation in the camps and kolkhozes; detail their lack of Jewish ritual objects and books; send greetings to their relatives and acquaintances abroad; seek accurate information on rumors of the Holocaust and what became of their friends and relatives; describe their hope for the defeat of the Germans and the victory of the Soviets and for the Jewish people to be avenged; write of their plans to leave Russia and return to their home in Poland on the way to Eretz Israel; and more.
The collection includes many letters from deans of the Novardok yeshivas and leading students, including: 11 letters from R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz, dean and director of the yeshiva, and his wife Rebbetzin Ettel Nekritz (daughter of R. Avraham Yoffen and granddaughter of the Alter of Novardok); three letters from R. Yaakov Galinsky (later the famous Maggid), a leading Torah scholar in the Novardok yeshivas in Pinsk and Kovel; two letters from R. Chaim Zaitchik, dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Buchach; letter from R. Yitzchak Orlansky, dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Pinsk and Kovel; eight letters from R. Refael Waldschein and his mother Rebbetzin Gittel Waldschein (wife of R. Yitzchak Elchanan Waldschein, the Shershover; sister of R. Chaim Shmuelevitz and granddaughter of the Alter of Novardok); letter of R. Moshe Roginsky, a dean of the Beit Yosef Kollel in Vilna; and many letters from yeshiva students (see Hebrew description for a partial listing).

The collection additionally includes: • Two letters with a Shanah Tovah blessing from the mashgiach of the yeshiva R. Yisrael Movshovitz and R. Yekutiel Fuchs. Prague, Tishrei 1946. • Lengthy three-page letter from R. Yechiel Fishkin of Rubiazhevichy (later Rabbi of Šiauliai) detailing some of his past during the Holocaust period and the news he received from the Novardok-Biržai yeshiva in exile in Russia (Ostia, Italy, Kislev 1945). • Letter from Rebbetzin Fruma Rappaport (wife of R. David Rappaport, author of Tzemach David). • Letter to R. Hillel Witkind. • Seven leaves (typewritten) with list of rabbis and students receiving aid packages, their locations and the date of sending of the packages. • Several envelopes.

Background
At the outbreak of World War I, when Russia annexed eastern Poland, including Bialystok where the Novardok yeshiva headed by R. Avraham Yoffen was located, the yeshiva students who refused to live under the Soviet regime fled to Vilna. When the Russians invaded Lithuania, the yeshiva students again fled to Biržai while attempting to attain visas to countries that were not occupied by the Germans or the Soviets. While R. Avraham Yoffen and a limited number of students managed to attain visas to the United States, the remaining students were offered Soviet citizenship; when they refused, they were deported to labor camps in Siberia (most of those students who were not deported were later murdered by the Nazis).
Some 60 yeshiva students were deported in two groups, one with R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz to Parbig and the other with R. Yisrael Movshovitz to Krasnoyarsk, both suffering from hard labor, harsh torture, starvation and illness, which, however, they bore with courage, continuing to study Torah and observe mitzvot in secret.
R. Movshovitz's group was released in 1941 and chose to settle in Merki, Kazakhstan, where they were obliged to perform hard and dangerous work in a kolkhoz where many died. R. Nekritz's group was released in 1944 and settled in a sovkhoz near Ipatovo. At the end of the war, all the deported yeshiva students left Soviet Russia for Łódź and various DP camps, later immigrating to the United States and Eretz Israel.
The two groups were first able to contact their yeshiva dean R. Avraham Yoffen in New York in 1942, who immediately began to arrange for aid packages with food, clothing and other necessities. R. Bentzion Bruk was one of the main initiators of the aid packages sent from Eretz Israel, and was also in continuous contact with the deported yeshiva students. The letters in the present collection, which come from the archive of R. Bentzion Bruk, were sent by the yeshiva students during these difficult years in exile in Russia.

Over 150 postcards. Varying size and condition. Filing holes.