Collection of both printed and handwritten papers documenting the establishment of the first homes in Tel Aviv by a group of sixty-six founding families. These include a letter of mutual guarantorship signed by some forty founding individuals; deeds of purchase of lots; and papers documenting the expansion of the city in its early years (Allenby St., Levinsky Market), and more. Tel Aviv and additional places, first and second decades of the 20th century (one document from the 1920s; most documents from years 1909-10). Hebrew and additional languages.
1-10. Ten original contracts for the purchase of lots in Ahuzat Bayit (original name for Tel Aviv, also known as "Kerem Jabali"), 1909-10:
Five home building contracts and five rental contracts instituted between the founders of Ahuzat Bayit and the Dutch Jewish banker Jacobus Henricus Kann, registered as Ahuzat Bayit's official landowner. The contracts were signed in the process of purchasing lots in Ahuzat Bayit. In order to circumvent an Ottoman law which prohibited the sale of land to non-Ottoman subjects, these contracts were drawn up as construction and rental contracts, and not as purchase agreements.
Printed contracts, filled in by hand, in the names of the following individuals: Akiva Arieh Weiss, managing director of Ahuzat Bayit; Yehuda Leib Matmon-Cohen, founder of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium; the farmer Dov Berger; the businessman Yaakov Elhanan Litwinsky; Yaakov Matalon; David Livni Weisbord, founder of Tel Aviv's Great Synagogue; and the businessmen Yitzhak Hayutman and Matityahu Winokur. Most of these contracts bear the signatures of the abovementioned founding fathers of Tel Aviv, as well as the signature of Zalman David Levontin, manager of the Anglo-Palestine Bank.
11-20. Ten official documents of the "Ahuzat Bayit" / "Tel Aviv" Association for the establishment of a Jewish city, all signed by the association's members who participated in the so-called "Seashell Lottery" and thus came to be recognized as the founding fathers of Tel Aviv:
• Two signed forms: Confirmation from two of the founders regarding the building of houses in Tel Aviv. January 1910. Signed by the founders Yisrael Yehuda Adler (house on Ahad Ha'am St. N0. 26) and Yitzhak Arieh Eliovson (house at the corner of Herzl St. and Rothschild Blvd).
• Handwritten letter dated May 23, 1910: Notice to Zalman David Levontin regarding the sale of lots situated behind the newly established Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, hand signed by Meir Dizengoff, Ben Zion Mossensohn, and David Izmozhik. Written on the official stationery of the Ahuzat Bayit Association. The name of the association, "Ahuzat Bayit, " originally printed in the corner of the sheet, is erased, and the name "Tel Aviv" appears handwritten in its place; this may represent the very first actual instance of the name "Tel Aviv" appearing at the top of an official document (the Association made the decision to officially change its name only two days earlier, on May 21, 1910). In the bottom margin is an official inked stamp; here too, "Ahuzat Bayit" is erased, and replaced with "Tel Aviv."
• Handwritten letter addressed to the Anglo-Palestine Bank, dated November 24, 1910: Guarantor's declaration on behalf of the member Matityahu Winokur (house built on Yehuda HaLevi St. No. 31) and all the other members of the association. Bearing the hand signatures of some 40 founding members, some of whose names do not appear on the original guarantorship document, referred to as the "Founders' Pact" and signed by all the families widely regarded as the founders of Tel Aviv.
• And more.
21-40. Additional documents and letters pertaining to the founding of Tel Aviv and its expansion in the early years.
Including: Notice regarding the sale of a plot of land, handwritten by Ahuzat Bayit's managing director, Akiva Arieh Weiss (1909); request to remit payment for the construction of a house to Avraham Hayim Chelouche (official form, hand signed by the founder Simcha Alter Gutman, 1909); documents pertaining to the establishment of new neighborhoods and areas, including a "commercial center" (known today as the Levinsky Market); a "new company" (today Allenby St.); a "center for craftsmen's workshops"; handwritten contract pertaining to the sale of the home of the founder Moshe Cohen to Raphael Mihakashwili (1912); and more.

Size and condition vary. Overall good to fair condition. Stains, creases. Tears, including several open tears, with several documents torn in half. Several documents with punch holes.

Also enclosed: Eleven letters addressed to the Anglo-Palestine Company, dated 1905-10, apparently dealing with land purchases and the establishment of other settlements (Rosh Pina, Ein Ganim, Qastina; two letters from the Odessa Committee).

Tel Aviv's Sixty-Six Founding Families
The idea of establishing a new Jewish city on the sands of Jaffa was first conceived in 1906 by a group of five individuals: the architect Akiva Arieh Weiss; the eventual mayor, Meir Dizengoff; the author David Smilansky; Yehezkel Danin; and Yitzhak Hayutman. Each of the five would claim "fatherhood" of the original idea. Together, these five people – widely regarded as "the founders of Tel Aviv par excellence" – established a collective association known as "Ahuzat Bayit, " and issued a promotional pamphlet that laid out their vision: "Just as the City of New York signifies the main gateway to America, so is it incumbent upon us to create an exemplary city, one that, someday in the future, shall be the New York of the Land of Israel."
The members of the association, numbering sixty families, gathered on a desolate sand dune north of Jaffa on April 11, 1909, and conducted a lottery as a means of assigning lots within the confines of the area envisioned as the site of the future city. The lottery was administered according to a novel idea devised by the association's managing director, Akiva Arieh Weiss; the names of the participants were written on white seashells in one pile, while the numbers of the lots were scrawled on gray seashells in a second pile, and individual shells were then selected at random by a child. The event is referred to in the annals of the Jewish Yishuv as the "Seashell Lottery."
The participants in the lottery all signed a paper – the so-called "Founders' Pact, " essentially a letter of mutual guarantorship – and the individuals listed in this document would come to be viewed as the "60 Founders of Tel Aviv." The names of these 60 founders are inscribed on a stone monument erected in the middle of Rothschild Boulevard, the site where the original lottery had taken place, on the occasion of Tel Aviv's 40th anniversary.
Six more families – who, for various reasons, were not included among the signatories of the Founders' Pact – would eventually be added to the list of founders, and thus today it is widely accepted that the City of Tel Aviv was established by sixty-six founding families.
In the beginning, the founders were unable to have their homes and plots of land listed in their own names, because Ottoman law prohibited, for the most part, the sale of land to non-Ottoman subjects. To circumvent this prohibition, the land was registered under the name of the Jewish banker Jacobus Kann, who as a Dutch subject, was more readily able to purchase the parcel of land in question; Kann was thus listed by the authorities as the official landowner.
The construction of the houses in Ahuzat Bayit began in 1909 along four streets – Yehuda HaLevi, Lilienblum, Rothschild, and Ahad Ha'am – divided by one main avenue, namely Herzl Street, which led to the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. The first homes were completed in January 1910. In May of the same year, it was decided to change the name of the nascent city to "Tel Aviv."

Two letters bound together: letter from Moses Montefiore, mentioning the difficult situation of Persian Jewry, 1873 / letter to Montefiore from the rabbis of the Isfahan community, 1880.
1. Letter handwritten and signed by Moses Montefiore. East Cliff, England, 1873. English.
In this letter, which is addressed to "My dear Guedalla" – presumably the Zionist philanthropist Haim Guedalla (Montefiore's relative), Montefiore thanks him for the update on the improving state of health of Juliana Lucas, his niece. On the fourth page of the letter, Montefiore mentions the St. Petersburg report, presented by Montefiore to the London Committee of Deputies of the British Jews in 1872. A short line on the second page of the letter alludes to Montefiore's efforts on behalf of Persian Jewry: "The accounts from our brethren in Persia continue most distressing".
[2] ff. (4 written pages). 18 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, creases and folding marks. Numbering in pencil and colored pencil on first page. Minor tears. Remnants of blue paper and ink on final page, from adjoining letter, affecting text. Strip of tape to inner margin of first page (covering beginning of each line of text).
2. Letter from the rabbis of Isfahan, addressed to Moses Montefiore, 1880. Hebrew.
Letter from the rabbis of Isfahan – R. Yehuda son of R. Yosef, R. Yeshaya son of R. Yosef, R. Avraham son of R. Yechezkel, R. Yosef Shalom son of R. Yehuda Melamed – addressed to Moses Montefiore; written by a scribe, with the stamps and signatures of the rabbis, and with the addition of several lines in their handwriting.
In their letter, the rabbis of Isfahan appeal to Montefiore to raise funds for their community, to enable them to subsist honorably and to allow them to continue teaching and studying Torah unrestrictedly.
[1] f. (1 written page; blue paper). Approx. 21 cm. Fair condition. Text on left side of leaf partially erased. Stains and creases. Minor marginal tears; open tear on left side of leaf, affecting text.
Both letters are bound together in fine leather binding (new).

Montefiore began working to alleviate the plight of the Persian communities already ca. 1840, using all the means at his disposal – direct donations and fundraising, diplomatic channels and by meeting with the Persian Shah himself, to assist the Jews who were suffering persecution from the authorities, pogroms and forced conversions. During the great Persian famine of 1871-1872, the rapid and effective aid arranged by Montefiore saved many Jews. In 1873, Montefiore met with the Shah, and procured his assurance to protect Persian Jewry.
For more information, see: Amnon Netzer, Montefiore and the Jews of Persia, in: Pe'amim, XX, Yad Ben Zvi, 1984. Pp. 55-68.

Some 45 letters written by Shai (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon, all but one handwritten by him; most of them personally signed. 1930s to 1960s. Hebrew and some English.
Intriguing collection of letters written by one of the greatest of Hebrew authors of the Modern Era, Shai (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon, all written in his inimitable, singularly distinctive style, laced with sharpness, wit, and his characteristic humor. The majority of letters are addressed to the author, poet, sculptor, and editor of the daily newspaper "Haaretz, " Benjamin Tammuz. Several other letters are addressed to the author and poet Shin Shalom, editor of the journal "Carmelit." And in one other letter, addressed to Israel Meir Lask, who translated Agnon's novel "Hakhnassat Kalah" ("The Bridal Canopy") into English, Agnon congratulates the translator on the occasion of the publication of the English edition of the book. The great majority of the letters deal with various literary subjects, such as the publication of stories and articles by Agnon, assorted requests from editors pertaining to his writings, and other such matters.
Agnon was known for his insistence on having his works meticulously copy-edited, and this insistence reappears pervasively in the present letters. For instance, in one particular letter to "Haaretz" editor Benjamin Tammuz, he writes as follows: "Most honored editor, you know all too well that I would never think of troubling you to correct misprints in my writings; and even if, at the proofreader's, one city was exchanged for another, for instance Hamburg for Homburg, I remained silent; in the World of Rectification all is eventually rectified. But with regard to several errors that occurred in my article on Buber, I request that you correct them immediately, for they are of the [types of] errors that cannot be corrected in the World of Rectification if they are not first corrected in the World of Error."
In some of the letters, Agnon complains about unwanted guests and various annoyances that disrupt his work; he also gripes about the irritations of his advanced age. In one letter he writes as follows: "Had I had a little more time on my hands, I would have written [something] to protest the custom of sending flowers. Personally, they irritate me and interfere with my breathing. May I just make it through those days without a runny nose." And in another letter: "I now have two equal 'Carmeliyot' [i.e. identical copies of the same issue of the journal "Carmelit"]. I would gladly return one of them to you, but the difficult task of mailing [an item] and standing in line at the post office, and so forth, and [having to deal with] the clerks – most of whom are not expert in the laws of mail – is just too burdensome for me in my old age."
On more than one occasion, Agnon lets loose with his biting sarcasm. In one (incomplete) letter, he writes as follows: "Perchance you are familiar with Avirum, general secretary of ACUM [the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel]. Please explain to him that, if it isn't too much trouble, he should not treat me like some administrative clerk. I would have answered him, but he is unable to read my handwriting...".
In one particular letter, Agnon relates to the subject of the Eichmann Trial, which rattled the entire country in the early 1960s: "Thank Boaz Evron on my behalf for his article ‘The Great Circus.' If only his words be heeded, such that no Jew will go see that pathetic comedy that renders the blood of the Jewish people cheap" (Evron's [Hebrew] article "HaKirkas HaGadol" ["The Great Circus"] was published in the daily newspaper "Haaretz" on March 15, 1961).

Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Several letters incomplete. Blemishes to some letters: stains, closed and open tears, ink smears, minor creases; some affecting text.

Enclosed:
• Eight letters sent to Israel Meir Lask (1905-1974), translator of Agnon's novel "Hakhnassat Kalah" ("The Bridal Canopy") into English, plus one additional letter sent by Lask himself. These letters mostly deal with the translation of Agnon's letters. Among the senders are Dr. Moritz Spitzer, who represented the Schocken Publishing House in Germany; Regina Klapper, who represented Schocken in New York; Rabbi Eugene Cohen; and others.
• "Request Form regarding an Aliyah Permit for an Overseas Relative, " signed by Agnon, thus making him a guarantor for his relative, Shemarya Appelberg, and his family, enabling their immigration to Israel.
• Handwritten draft of an article by Shin (Shemu'el) Bas on the occasion of Agnon's sixtieth birthday.

Letter handwritten and personally signed by Albert Einstein, and letters handwritten and personally signed by his second wife, Elsa. Addressed to their friend, the Danish journalist, Karen Stampe Bendix. German.
1. Letter from Albert and Elsa Einstein. Written on the shore of Cristóbal, Panama, and sent from on board the steamer "Oakland" operated by HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerika Linie). Written on HAPAG stationery. December 31, 1932. German.
There are two parts to this letter, the first handwritten by Elsa Einstein, and the second handwritten by Albert Einstein (hand-signed "A. Einstein").
In this letter, Elsa Einstein expresses her gratitude to Stampe Bendix for the fruit basket she sent to the couple, and writes of how the voyage on board the ship has been good for her husband, who has never appeared as calm and collected. In his note, Albert adds his own warm thanks to Stampe Bendix, adding that "I often feel ashamed when I am showered with unearned kindness and sympathy." In the first half of December, 1932, Albert Einstein and his second wife Elsa embarked on a sea voyage to America on board the steamship "Oakland"; Albert was en route to a series of lectures in addition to meetings regarding his professional and academic future, but he had no idea at the time that he and his wife would never return to Germany.
While Einstein was visiting the United States, on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. The rise of the Nazis to power opened a new chapter in German history. Albert and Elsa returned one more time to Europe, but refused to set foot in Germany. In Belgium, Albert Einstein renounced his German citizenship (for the second time), publicly denounced the barbarism of the Nazi regime, and resigned his membership in the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Many of his former friends and colleagues at the Academy greeted the news of his resignation with silence. His summer home in the village of Caputh (near Potsdam) was looted and plundered, a bounty was placed on his head, and his writings were destroyed in a public book-burning that took place in May, 1933. Upon his return to America, Einstein accepted the job offer made to him at Princeton University's newly created Institute for Advanced Study. He and Elsa settled in Princeton, New Jersey, where he resumed his scientific and political activity. Einstein remained in Princeton until his death in 1955.
[1] f., folded in half (three handwritten pages), 18.5 cm. Good condition. Fold lines and minor creases. Minor stains. Minor tear to edge.
2-5. Three letters and a postcard, handwritten and hand-signed by Elsa Einstein. Europe, [1930s]. One letter written on Albert Einstein's personal stationery.
These letters deal with various personal matters. In one letter, Elsa Einstein requests that Stampe Bendix mark the envelopes of all letters addressed to her as "personal" and "urgent, " otherwise Albert will simply lay them down on her desk without telling her, and they will be ignored and forgotten. In another letter, Elsa writes that Albert has been away for ten days already, addressing the League of Nations in Geneva, and begs for Stampe Bendix's patience in her anticipation of a response from him.
Additionally, Elsa offers advice on the subject of raising children; invites Stampe Bendix to come and visit (but warns her to give plenty of notice, because the house is so often filled with guests); thanks her for the bread she has been sending, but pleads with her to stop doing so because there is more than enough fresh bread available in the house; and more.
Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Minor stains, fold lines, and creases. Open tear to upper portion of one letter (not affecting text).

Karen Stampe Bendix (1881-1963), Danish educator, screenwriter, and author. Daughter of the Danish-Jewish composer Victor Bendix and the Danish baroness, author, and philanthropist Rigmor Stampe Bendix (goddaughter of Hans Christian Andersen). Stampe Bendix became friendly with the Einstein couple in the 1930s, and published a lengthy article on Albert Einstein in the Danish daily newspaper "Politiken."