Collection of seven letters from deans of the Lomza yeshiva in Petach Tikva – five letters from R. Yehoshua Zelig Roch and two letters from R. Moshe Aryeh Ozer (sons-in-law of the founder of the yeshiva, R. Eliezer Shulevitz). Petach Tikva, 1930-1931.
Addressed to R. Yisrael Zissel Dvoretz. The letters discuss donors to the Lomza yeshiva and an inauguration of the yeshiva building, financial issues of the yeshiva and attaining a permanent visa for R. Yehoshua Zelig Roch.
R. Yehoshua Zelig Roch (1880-1941; perished in the Holocaust), the "prodigy of Rokiškis", a leading disciple of the Slabodka yeshiva who was sent by the Alter of Slabodka to inculcate the Musar attitude in the Telshe and Mir yeshivas. Second son-in-law of R. Eliezer Shulevitz, he headed the Lomza yeshiva together with his brother-in-law R. Yechiel Mordechai Gordon. When the Petach Tikva branch of the yeshiva opened in 1926, R. Zelig set out for Eretz Israel together with his brother-in-law R. Moshe Leib Ozer. He eventually returned to lead the main branch of the Lomza yeshiva. He was murdered in the Holocaust at the end of Yom Kippur 1941, dressed in his kittel and tallit.
R. Moshe Aryeh Leib Ozer (1898-1967), dean of the Petach Tikva yeshiva, son of R. Shalom Ozer (Felderberg) Rabbi of Troškūnai. He was a close disciple of R. Yehudah Leib Bloch and R. Chaim Rabinowitz in the Telshe yeshiva. In World War I he fled to Russia, becoming a disciple of R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz and establishing his yeshiva in exile. He later established a yeshiva in Kharkiv, where he married Rachel, youngest daughter of R. Eliezer Shulevitz, founder of the Lomza yeshiva. In 1926 he immigrated to Eretz Israel, founding the Petach Tikva branch of the Lomza yeshiva alongside his distinguished brothers-in-law.
The recipient of the letter,
R. Yisrael Zissel Dvoretz (1885-1968), a leading disciple of the Slabodka yeshiva and right-hand man of the Alter of Slabodka – R. Natan Tzvi Finkel, and confidant of the yeshiva dean R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein. Served as Rabbi in Jieznas and Kamajai in Lithuania. After World War I he established a network of youth yeshivas and Torah schools, Yavneh, alongside his teacher R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein. He initiated and established the Slabodka yeshiva in Hebron (and the Hebron Bank), the first kollel in Petach Tikva and Jerusalem, yeshivas and Torah schools. Founder and editor of the periodical Tevunah.
7 letters. Official stationery (with image of yeshiva building). 28 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. Folding marks and filing holes.
