(“The Saba Kadisha,” c. 1826-1930). Letter Signed and stamped, written in Hebrew on letterhead to Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and Rabbi Yitzchak Yeruchem Diskin.

Rabbi Alfandri known as the ‘holy grandfather’ was revered by both Sephardim and Aschkenazim for his deep piety and regarded as one of the most profound rabbinic scholars of the generation. He served as rabbi in his birthplace of Constantinople, then in in Damascus, and from the age of 90, in Safed. He was a mentor to such luminaries as Rabbi Haim Hizkiyahu Medini (the Sdei Chemed) and even to Chassidic Rebbes, famously, the Minchas Elazar, who made great efforts to forge deep connections. He corresponds here with the leaders of the Old Yishuv: Rabbi Sonnenfeld (1848-1932), a fighter against modernism and the encroachment of Zionists, and Rabbi Diskin (1839-1925), son of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin (whose right-hand Rabbi Sonnenfeld had been). These rabbis were united in outlook and common cause when it came to threats to the spiritual situation of Eretz Israel as they perceived it. This letter is signed by R. Alfandri in a typical Sephardic hand, yet the body of the letter is written in a neat Ashkenazic hand, no doubt as a courtesy to the recipients.