Letter to the management of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Jerusalem, signed by 71 rabbis who study in the yeshiva with a request to abstain from hanging the Israeli flag and identifying with the State of Israel on the Day of Independence. Rosh Chodesh Iyar 1954.
"… It is unnecessary to expound upon the great desecration of G-d and of the holy Torah, carried out by the "free" (non-religious) government, which constantly announce that they have no part and parcel of G-d and of his holy Torah. How our hearts ache to see their Day of Independence each year, the Zionist flag waving over the gate of our holy yeshiva, which seemingly demonstrates that our holy yeshiva identifies with this government, and this is a great desecration of G-d… Please have compassion on the honor of G-d and the honor of the Torah and on the pain of the students of the holy yeshiva…".
The letter is signed in the handwriting of 71 yeshiva students. We will note some of the more famous: Rabbi Zvi Michel Heller, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach [later, head of Ma'alot HaTorah Yeshiva], Rabbi Zerach Efraim Zelaznik, Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach, Rabbi Yechiel Matitya Davis, Rabbi Moshe Baruch Levine, Rabbi Yitzchak David Gotfarb, Rabbi Gedalya Neiman [author of Gidulei Shmuel and one of the yeshiva heads], Rabbi Shalom Eisen, Rabbi Nachman David Duvinky, Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Prague, Rabbi Sender Freund, Rabbi Avraham Bradky, Rabbi Ze'ev Dov Chechik, Rabbi Yehuda Shapira [lather, head of Kollel Chazon Ish], Rabbi Avraham Chaim Brimm, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Landau, and other many important figures.
Leaf 28 cm. [2] written pages. Good-fair condition, wear and tears to margins and to paper folds.