Typed Letter Signed to one Dr. Kaufman

AUCTION 43 | Thursday, April 02nd, 2009 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 254
BALFOUR, ARTHUR JAMES

Typed Letter Signed to one Dr. Kaufman

One page. Framed alongside photographic portrait

London: 28th April, 1925

Est: $1,000 - $1,200
PRICE REALIZED $1,000
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC (1848-1930) was the thirty-third Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In this letter Lord Balfour writes how impressed he was with the ceremony of the opening of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, from which he had recently returned. Balfour refers to Dr. Kaufman's letter of April 1st, which means that Kaufman wrote on the very day of the ceremony, held April 1st on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. It was deemed fitting by the organizers that the University be officially inaugurated by Lord Balfour, who eight years earlier on November 2nd, 1917, endorsed the celebrated Balfour Declaration, which paved the way for the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel. Though no first name is supplied, it would seem that Balfour's correspondent is the American Dr. Judah Kaufman (later "Even Shmuel.")