Letter handwritten and signed by R. Mendel Katz – scribe and trustee of the Pressburg community, addressed to the leaders of the Hamburg community. Pressburg, Shabbat eve, 3rd day of Chanukah 1838.
Letter from the Pressburg community on behalf of a widow, "a dear, honorable lady", Mrs. Glikel Pollack, who for four months had not received any tidings from her son, who had travelled to Germany. In his last letter, he had mentioned his intent to spend the High Holidays in Hamburg. R. Mendel enjoins the community leaders to investigate and search for the young man ("Bernard Pollack of Pressburg"), "and if he is there, to arouse him to the commandment of honoring his mother, and to refrain from tormenting a widow… he should either write to her immediately to put an end to her grief, or return home…". The addresses of contacts in Vienna and Pressburg are witten at the foot of the letter.
R. Mendel Katz (d. 1867; Ishim BiTeshuvot Chatam Sofer, pp. 263-264), a disciple of the Chatam Sofer, community trustee and Beit Din scribe in Pressburg for close to fifty years, during the tenures of the Chatam Sofer and his son the Ktav Sofer. The latter wrote about him in 1860: "The pious rabbi, famous for his righteousness, good character and good heart, R. Mendel Katz, veteran disciple of my father… a Kohen, trusty and scribe of the Beit Din in our community". R. Aharon David Deutsch Rabbi of Balassagyarmat, author of Goren David was his son-in-law (in his second marriage).
On verso, official wax-seal of the Pressburg community, almost unaffected by the opening of the letter.
[1] double leaf. 22 cm. Good condition. Folding marks. Several stains.