(Spiritual leader of Lithuanian Jewry, 1863-1940). Autograph Letter Signed, written in Hebrew on letterhead to R. Moshe Blau (head of Agudath Israel, Jerusalem).

This letter pertains to the proposal by Rabbi Dr. Meir Hildesheimer to relocate the Hildesheimer Seminary of Berlin to Tel Aviv. An idea to which, R. Chaim Ozer was strongly opposed. He allows, in this letter, that in Berlin the Seminary was a necessary competition in opposition to Reform elements,however, “Is there a need for German Haskalah in Jerusalem?” he asks rhetorically. Although Rabbi Grodzenski was an ally of German neo-Orthodoxy through a mutual affiliation with the Agudath Israel movement, as a staunch traditionalist, he opposed the importation of German Orthodoxy and its perceived modernist tendencies into the fabric of the yishuv in Eretz Israel. Indeed R. Chaim Ozer’s opinion prevailed and despite the obvious necessity to escape from the increasingly oppressive Nazi rule, the Seminary remained in Berlin and did not relocate at a time when Nazi Germany would have been glad to assist. (It was only well after Kristallnacht that Nazi policy changed and they prevented German Jews from emigrating). Unlike many other European yeshivoth that were devastated by the Holocaust, the Hildesheimer Seminary never re-established itself. For another letter that R. Chaim Ozer wrote (to Rav Kook) on this contentious subject, see Kestenbaum Sale 62, lot 177.