Letter handwritten and personally signed by Sarah Aaronsohn, addressed to her sister, Rivka Aaronsohn. Istanbul, January 25, 1915. Hebrew.
In 1914, Sarah Aaronsohn married the merchant Haim Abraham on a railway platform in Atlit. The couple then left Palestine and settled in Istanbul. Aaronsohn did not meet Abraham before the wedding and many believe she married him to enable her younger sister, Rivka, to marry the man they both truly loved – Avshalom Feinberg. Aaronsohn lived with her husband in Istanbul for about a year; however, in December 1915, she succumbed to her homesickness and returned to Palestine.
This letter, sent from Istanbul, is written on an official postcard of "Abraham Frères, Constantinople" – the company run by Haim Abraham and his brother Moritz in Istanbul. Sarah writes to her sister about her dull and boring life in Istanbul: "...there are no news […] there isn't much work, I am engaged in embroidery. Embroidery is now above everything else here and I too have learned the craft. We make white embroidery, broderie Anglaise [English embroidery], and other exquisite kinds, and maybe, someday I too will be able to embroider nicely".
Although the common object of Sarah's and Rivka's love, Avshalom, is not mentioned throughout the letter, the choice to end the letter with the words "a thousand kisses", possibly alludes to the refrain of the well-known love poem Avshalom had dedicated to Rivka several years earlier – "A thousand kisses to you, my love" (Hebrew).

Approx. 14.5X10 cm. Fair-good condition. Fold lines, creases, stains and blemishes. Damage to text in several places (some of the words faded; the words at the beginning of the three last lines are illegible).