Two letters from R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky. Vilna, Shevat / Adar II 1938.
Handwritten by R. Chaim Ozer's scribe, with several lines handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer. Addressed to his intimate associate R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head rabbi of the London Beit Din. Two of the letters contain additional lines added in the margins, with a personal note handwritten and signed (with initials) by R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky – confidant, scribe and secretary of R. Chaim Ozer, and relative of R. Abramsky.
The letters discuss various issues, primarily rescuing Russian rabbis from Soviet persecution, many of whom had been sent to Siberia for the "crime" of disseminating or observing Judaism.
The first letter, dated 25th Shevat 1938, discusses the "heart-wrenching news from Russia. You must have heard that many rabbis and shochatim were arrested there. From what the Lubavitcher Rebbe told me, some of them have been released. Among those known to me, R. Mizes of Kremenchuk, son-in-law of R. Shalom dean of the Eišiškės yeshiva, was arrested for the crime of disseminating Torah there for some years in Minsk, and later when he came to get a visa to travel to the Holy Land, he was arrested and sent to the wilderness for seven years. Likewise R. Israelit of Koidanov was arrested… The general situation is said to be awful there; they suffer from cold and famine, letters are not received from there and I have stopped sending packages there for the present time, apart from the great difficulties I am unsure whether sending is desirable in view of the situation there. Perhaps it is possible to do something for the benefit of the prisoners through the Board of Deputies…".
Later in the letter, R. Chaim writes of assistance to yeshivas, especially the Beit Yosef yeshiva of Novardok students. On the verso, R. Chaim Ozer adds a handwritten request to send funds to support Shemitah observers in Eretz Israel, by the Chazon Ish: "If you have received any sum for the benefit of the Shemitah observers, please make it available to R. Avraham Yeshayah Karelitz, author of Chazon Ish, who resides in Bnei Brak".
In the second letter, dated 6th Adar II 1938, R. Chaim Ozer writes of the health condition of "our friend, the head of the Brisk Beit Din. Thank G-d, his health condition has somewhat improved, but he is nevertheless still very sick and weak…". After the signature he adds another piece of information about the arrests of rabbis and mitzvah functionaries in Soviet Russia: "According to the letter I received today from abroad, these rabbis have been lately arrested in Russia: R. Medalia in Moscow; in Smolensk, R. Leib Schiffman, who was rabbi in Pukhavichy; R. Israelit of Koidanov; R. Leib Meisel of Dukora (Leibl Romanover); the Rabbi of Krychaw; the Rabbi of Mazyr; the Rabbi of Kalinkavichy; the Rabbi of Plyeshchanitsy; and a few of them have already been sent to the wilderness (he does not write in detail), except his friend the Rabbi of Mstsislaw R. Chaim HaKohen Katz has been sent to the north for ten years".
R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky goes on to enumerate further rabbis who were then arrested in Russia.
R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a foremost rabbi of his generation and leader of European Jewry. He was the son of R. David Shlomo Grodzinski, Rabbi of Iwye. He was renowned from his childhood for his exceptional brilliance. He entered the Volozhin yeshiva at the young age of 11, and became a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk. At the age of 24, he was appointed rabbi and posek of Vilna, succeeding his father-in-law R. Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnansky, a posek in Vilna (son-in-law of R. Yisrael Salanter). He assumed the yoke of public leadership from a young age, and his opinion was conclusive on all public issues which arose throughout the Jewish world for close to fifty years.
The recipient of the letters, R. Yechezkel Abramsky (1886-1976), was a confidant and agent of R. Chaim Ozer of Vilna ever since developing close ties with him in his youth while studying under his influence in Vilna. In winter of 1806, the "prodigy of Masty" Yechezkel Abramsky was forced to leave the Telshe yeshiva and flee to Vilna [which was then under Polish control] to avoid conscription to the Russian army. In Vilna he was accepted into the Ramailes yeshiva and joined the elite class of students who listened to the advanced lectures of R. Chaim Ozer (based on Melech BeYofyo, pp. 29-33). While subsequently serving as Rabbi of Smilavichy and Slutsk, he served often as R. Chaim Ozer's agent in various communal affairs. R. Abramsky smuggled the manuscript of Part I of his Chazon Yechezkel from Slutsk to his teacher R. Chaim Ozer in Vilna, who was involved in its publication in Vilna, 1925, through his confidant R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky (R. Abramsky's wife's cousin).
When R. Abramsky was arrested by the Soviets and sent to Siberia in 1930, R. Chaim Ozer made every possible effort to release him. After his release in 1931, R. Chaim Ozer and the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch joined with R. Abramsky to initiate the project of sending Pesach flour and food packages to Jews under the Bolshevik regime in Russia.
Likewise, R. Abramsky was active on missions on behalf of R. Chaim Ozer for yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania and for rabbis of Europe. They also cooperated on many public issues, including the struggles for Jewish marriage and against the anti-Semitic laws in Germany and Europe forbidding Jewish shechitah (requiring stunning animals before slaughtering, which renders the meat non-kosher), and on rescue activity for rabbis and yeshivas who fled as refugees to Vilna at the start of the Holocaust. The present letters reflect some of their cooperation on halachah, public and private affairs, and assistance to rabbis.
2 letters on official stationery. 28 cm. Varying condition, good to good-fair. Stains, wear and folding marks. Dark stains to first letter.
