(“R. Piniele,” Grand Rebbe of Ustile, 1880-1943). Autograph Letter Signed, written in Hebrew, on letterhead to R. Yechiel (of London).

TWERSKY, PINCHAS.

Wednesday, Parshath Toldoth

Pshemishel (Przemyśl)

1938

Beseeching assistance for his relative, R. Naphtali Tzvi Parnas, who lost his Polish citizenship. Requests the recipient obtain a rabbinical position in London in order to save the rabbi and his wife from being stateless.

The son of R. Mordechai of Rachmastrivka, R. Pinchas Twersky of Ustila (R. Piniele Ustiler) was the son-in-law of Grand Rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz. His marriage to Rebbetzin Chana Rochel was celebrated in Belz in 1900, and he resided there, close to his prominent father-in-law, from 1902. His father-in-law, the Belzer Rebbe held his son-in-law in the highest esteem and effusively extolled his holiness. In 1923 when R. Pinchas moved to Ustila (Volhyn) to serve as its rabbi and rebbe, his father-in- law, the Maharid, blessed him that he should merit to bring salvation to all Jews. Indeed from the beginning of his tenure in Ustila, he gained the reputation of a wonder-worker and became famed as one of the leading rebbes of his generation. Upon the outbreak of war in 1939, he fled with his family to Sambor, from where he was eventually deported to Bełżec and murdered. One of his family’s survivors, was his daughter, the Rebbetzin of his son-in-law, R. Ya’akov Yosef of Skver (New York).