Auction 75 - Rare and Important Items
Collection of Lengthy Polemic Letters Regarding the Mizrachi Movement and Teheran Children, by Rebbe Rayatz
Opening: $5,000
Estimate: $8,000 - $10,000
Sold for: $13,750
Including buyer's premium
Collection of letters, including some polemic and particularly lengthy ones, by Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch. Addressed to R. Aryeh Leib Gellman, president of the World Mizrachi Organization. Brooklyn NY, 1942-1949.
9 letters from Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch, typewritten on the rebbe's official stationery, with his handwritten signature. Two letters include emendations and several words handwritten by the rebbe.
Two letters call to act firmly against the Jewish Agency, who was sending Orthodox Jewish orphans to irreligious kibbutzim. In his letter from 25th Av 1943 (erroneously dated 1941), the Rayatz addresses the leaders of the Mizrachi movement in the United States and asks them to join a general meeting, which would be attended by the rabbis and leaders of all Orthodox factions in the United States, to confer on a plan of action against the Jewish Agency, regarding the Teheran Children affair (the leaders of the Mizrachi movement decided not to attend the meeting, and did not even respond to the letter of the Rayatz. At the foot of the letter, the recipient, R. Aryeh Leib Gellman, noted: "The narrow committee – R. Berlin, R. Gold, Gedaliah Bublick, Hollander, Nadler – decided not to participate and not to respond"). Enclosed with this letter is a note from the secretary R. Chaim Lieberman, informing them on behalf of the Rayatz that the meeting was postponed by one day.
The letters dated 2nd Adar and 6th Nissan 1942 are polemic, sharp and several pages long, and contain severe censure of the activities of the Mizrachi movement during the Holocaust. The letter from 23rd Iyar 1942, which is particularly long, comprises 7 pages. It begins and ends with a polemic regarding the Mizrachi movement, yet most of it is an easy to understand explanation of the Chabad approach to the tenets of Judaism, accompanied with stories. Four of the letters consist of requests from the heads of Mizrachi to apply to the leaders of the Joint for significant funding to benefit Russian Jewry and war survivors. The letter from Tammuz 1949 bears the famous signature of the Rayatz in the final year of his life, with the letter Yud in Ashuri script, with the addition of several words in his handwriting: "All goodness in material and spiritual matters".
Enclosed with some letters are copies of the recipient's question or response to the letters of the Rayatz.
All the letters were published in the Igrot Kodesh of Rebbe Rayatz series, most with the omission of the name of the recipient.
24 paper items (letters from Rebbe Rayatz: 18 leaves). 28 cm. Good condition. Stains. Folding marks.
9 letters from Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch, typewritten on the rebbe's official stationery, with his handwritten signature. Two letters include emendations and several words handwritten by the rebbe.
Two letters call to act firmly against the Jewish Agency, who was sending Orthodox Jewish orphans to irreligious kibbutzim. In his letter from 25th Av 1943 (erroneously dated 1941), the Rayatz addresses the leaders of the Mizrachi movement in the United States and asks them to join a general meeting, which would be attended by the rabbis and leaders of all Orthodox factions in the United States, to confer on a plan of action against the Jewish Agency, regarding the Teheran Children affair (the leaders of the Mizrachi movement decided not to attend the meeting, and did not even respond to the letter of the Rayatz. At the foot of the letter, the recipient, R. Aryeh Leib Gellman, noted: "The narrow committee – R. Berlin, R. Gold, Gedaliah Bublick, Hollander, Nadler – decided not to participate and not to respond"). Enclosed with this letter is a note from the secretary R. Chaim Lieberman, informing them on behalf of the Rayatz that the meeting was postponed by one day.
The letters dated 2nd Adar and 6th Nissan 1942 are polemic, sharp and several pages long, and contain severe censure of the activities of the Mizrachi movement during the Holocaust. The letter from 23rd Iyar 1942, which is particularly long, comprises 7 pages. It begins and ends with a polemic regarding the Mizrachi movement, yet most of it is an easy to understand explanation of the Chabad approach to the tenets of Judaism, accompanied with stories. Four of the letters consist of requests from the heads of Mizrachi to apply to the leaders of the Joint for significant funding to benefit Russian Jewry and war survivors. The letter from Tammuz 1949 bears the famous signature of the Rayatz in the final year of his life, with the letter Yud in Ashuri script, with the addition of several words in his handwriting: "All goodness in material and spiritual matters".
Enclosed with some letters are copies of the recipient's question or response to the letters of the Rayatz.
All the letters were published in the Igrot Kodesh of Rebbe Rayatz series, most with the omission of the name of the recipient.
24 paper items (letters from Rebbe Rayatz: 18 leaves). 28 cm. Good condition. Stains. Folding marks.
Chabad – Letters and Manuscripts
Chabad – Letters and Manuscripts