129 270 HILDESHEIMER, AZRIEL. (Dean of the Rabbiner Seminar, Berlin. 1829-99). Autograph Letter Signed, on personal embossed letterhead, written in Hebrew to R. Eliyahu, Rabbi of Hedias. A responsa concerning Yom Kippur. Autograph address panel on verso. One page. Tear at blank fold. 8vo. Berlin, 1870. $500-700 271 JOSEPH, JACOB. (Chief Rabbi of New York). Letter Signed by R. Jacob Joseph in Hebrew with his title ‘Rav Hakollel New York;’ the body written by his secretary R. Dov Ber Silberman, Maggid of Cong. Tifereth Israel, to R. YITZCHAK ELCHANAN SPEKTOR Chief Rabbi of Kovno. Concerning funds collected from pushkes of the recently closed Yeshiva of Volozhin to be transferred to the Yeshiva of Kovno and sent to R. Isaac Elchanan. Two pages. New York, 13 Marcheshvan, 1894. $3000-4000 ❧ AN IMPORTANT LETTER BETWEEN MAJOR FIGURES WITHIN THE RABBINIC WORLD discussing an heretofore unknown aspect relating to New York’s religious community structures and its relationships with the broader Torah world. The Yeshiva of Volozhin was forcibly closed by the Czar of Russia in 1892. The Rabbis of New York agreed that funds that had been collected for the Yeshiva’s benefit, would now be sent to R. Isaac Elchanan for transfer to the Yeshiva under his jurisdiction in Kovno. Meanwhile, in the interests of communal order, the Gabbaim of the R. Meir Baal Haness Charity ruled that in addition to pushkes directed for their establishment, only one other yeshiva may publicly collect charitable funds. Discussed in this letter was the point that since there was a possibility the Yeshiva of Volozhin might reopen in the future, it should not lose the right to publicly place pushkes as in previous years. Thus an emissary that had placed pushkes to benefit the Yeshiva of Kovno was ordered to place a notice on them stating “Al Pi Chezkath Yeshivah Volozhin” - i.e. Volozhin would not lose its pre-existing status in New York for charitable collection. Rav Ya’akov Yoseph suffered from debilitating illness in his final years (d. 1902) and almost all his later correspondence was in the hand of secretarial assistants, often prominent rabbis in their own right. 272 KALMANOWITZ, AVRAHAM. (Rosh Yeshiva Mir, New York 1887-1964). Autograph Letter Signed, written in Hebrew to the Va’ad HaYeshivoth and R. Zalman Sorotzkin (c/o Rabbi L. Olshwang, Rabbi Kalmanowitz’s brother-in-law) on three sides of an aerogramme. Concerning the rescue of students from Cairo’s Yeshiva Ahaba Ve’Ahva to Israel and America. Mentions Dr. Chaim Shoshkes (and his failure to act discreetly), Chief Rabbi of Israel, Nahum Goldman and US State Department; all in regard to where these students should be enrolled for future Torah studies (Porat Yosef, Jerusalem and Mir, New York). Miami Beach, Florida, 11th February, 1957. $400-600 ❧ Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz escaped to the United States in 1940 following the German occupation of Poland and became a tireless rescue activist on behalf of Jews trapped in Nazi Europe and the Soviet Union. He is credited with the successful transfer of the entire Mir yeshiva from Lithuania to Shanghai, providing for its support for five years, and obtaining visas and travel fare to bring all 250 students and faculty to America after World War II. He established the U.S. branch of the Mir in 1946. In the 1950’s and 60’s he aided North African and Syrian Jewish youth suffering from persecution and pogroms, and successfully lobbied for the passage of a bill in Congress granting “endangered refugee status” to Jewish emigrants from Arab lands. Lot 270 Lot 271