Letter from R. Baruch Dov (Ber) Leibowitz, dean of the Knesset Beit Yitzchak yeshiva in Kamenets. [Kamenets], 15th Tevet, 1937. Yiddish.

Sent to donors of the yeshiva, the Feigin family in Philadelphia, USA. R. Baruch Ber showers them with blessings and thanks for their generous support for the yeshiva. He also adds that on 3rd Tevet, the yeshiva commemorated the yahrzeit of Hinde Chanah daughter of R. Shlomo Zalman, in accordance with the yeshiva's statutes.
Most of the letter is typewritten, and it concludes with six lines of warm, heartfelt blessings handwritten and signed by the yeshiva dean R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz: "I bless you and your generous and righteous wife with long days and good years, with all blessings and successes, lengthy days, wealth and happiness, and the fulfillment of the Torah's blessing, 'Blessed is one who supports', and may we merit to soon see the redemption and hear the coming of the Messiah. Blessing and esteeming him, Baruch Dov Leibowitz, dean of the holy Beit Yitzchak yeshiva".

R. Baruch Dov (Ber) Leibowitz (1864-1939), author of Birkat Shmuel, leading Torah disseminator in his times. He was a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk in the Volozhin yeshiva, and the son-in-law of R. Avraham Yitzchak Zimmerman, Rabbi of Hlusk. After his father-in-law went to serve as rabbi of Kremenchuk, he succeeded him in Hlusk and established a yeshiva. After a 13-year tenure, he was asked to head the Knesset Beit Yitzchak yeshiva in Slabodka. During World War I, he wandered with the yeshiva to Minsk, Kremenchuk and Vilna, finally settling in Kamenets. He authored Birkat Shmuel on Talmudic topics. His teachings and writings are classics of in-depth yeshiva study.

[2] leaves, official stationery. 29.5 cm. Good condition. Folding marks.

PLEASE NOTE: Some lot descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to the Hebrew text.

Lengthy letter handwritten and signed by R. Tzvi Hirsch Ferber, a senior rabbi of London. London, [1950].

Sent to the head of the London Beit Din, R. Yechezkel Abramsky. The letter relates to the confirmation ceremony for girls, a practice he says liberal Jews adopted from the Catholics. R. Ferber relates the history of the controversy surrounding the ceremony among English rabbis, as well as his firing from the rabbinate due to his uncompromising position along with Rabbi Dr. Schonfeld – opposing the view of Chief Rabbi Dr. Hertz (until he was reinstated by the leaders of his community). He says that he although he was threatened with firing, he refused to assent because all the leading rabbis of the generation he had asked had forbidden it when he brought up the issue at an assembly in Vienna.
R. Ferber asks R. Abramsky to convince the new Chief Rabbi Rabbi (Dr. Israel Brodie) to abolish the ceremony, and praises him as an upright person whose parents and grandfather he had previously known.

R. Tzvi Hirsch Ferber (1879-1966), a leading English rabbi. Born in Slabodka, he studied under R. Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor and under R. Yitzchak Blazer and R. Naftali Amsterdam, disciples of R. Yisrael Salanter. In 1910 he moved to England and was a pillar of Orthodox Judaism in London and England. He originally served as dean in the Manchester yeshiva, and many years later moved to serve as rabbi in west London.

[1] leaf, official stationery. 27 cm. Good condition. Stains and folding marks.

PLEASE NOTE: Some lot descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to the Hebrew text.

A collection of over twenty certificates and letters from rabbis concerned with the annulment of marriages of single men and women who married fictitiously in Europe in order to obtain immigration visas (certificates) to Palestine. Europe and Israel, ca. 1930s.

In the 1920s and 1930s, due to the restrictions and immigration quotas imposed by the British Mandate authorities on immigration to Palestine, many single men and women in Europe entered into fictitious marriages in order to obtain an immigration visa that allowed married couples to immigrate under one single permit.
As a result, numerous discussions and testimonies were held in the rabbinical courts and offices across Palestine to issue "annulment of marriages" approvals.
Before us is a diverse collection of certificates, documents, and letters from rabbis in Palestine and Europe concerned with these issues (some on official stationery), some with various inscriptions from the rabbis of Palestine receiving the letters, including Rabbi Ben Zion Chai Uziel, and others.
Among the writers:
• Rabbi Levi Ovchinsky, rabbi of Mittau (Jelgava; 1871-perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Chaim Dov Ber Ginzberg, rabbi of Dolhinov and Vancouver (d. 1963; son-in-law of Rebbe Chaim Yechiel Taub of Ożarów).
• Rabbi Yaakov Silberstein, rabbi of the Praga district in Warsaw and member of the rabbinical committee of the Warsaw community (d. 1941).
• Rabbi Yaakov Yechiel Rubinstein, dayan and posek in Warsaw.
• Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Mendelson, rabbi of Vishnitz and later dayan and posek in the Praga district of Warsaw.
• Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Rimalt, rabbi of Zhovkva (1875-1943, perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Baruch Laznowski, rabbi of Ujazd and Pabianice, author of "Shashu'ei Ra'ayonim" (1899-1943, perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Israel Meir Krinitzky, rabbi of Lentvaris (Landwarów; perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Yehoshua ben Yehuda Shraga Abelson, rabbi of Gomel and Vysotsky (1888-1942, perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Shmuel Rudnia, dayan and posek in Kovno, and Rabbi Gershon Leib Gutmann, dayan and posek in Kovno.
• Rabbi Israel Shlomo Rosensohn, dayan and posek in Kovno (1888-1940).
• Rabbi Yochanan Zupovitz (Zarchi), rabbi of Radviliškis, later of Tiberias (1874-1947).
• Rabbi David Avigdor, rabbi of Andrychów (1898-perished in the Holocaust).
• Rabbi Israel Heilpern, rabbi of Zelichov.
• Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Shazuri (Weber).
• Rabbi Binyamin Movshovitz, rabbi of Herzliya (1893-1953).
• And others.

22 letters and certificates. Size and condition vary.

PLEASE NOTE: Some lot descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to the Hebrew text.

Lengthy letter handwritten and signed by Rabbi Avraham Duber Kahane Shapiro, Rabbi of Kovno, author of Devar Avraham. Resort town next to Kovno, 20th Sivan 1932.
Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky in London, who was freed from Bolshevik Russia that year and appointed rabbi of the Machazikei HaDat community in London. The Devar Avraham writes of his joy to receive his letter and states that he recited the blessings Matir Asurim and Matziv Gevul ("Blessed is He Who releases prisoners" and "Blessed is He Who establishes the boundary"), adding that he had called for R. Abramsky to be appointed to the position, and expressing his satisfaction that his greatness was appreciated by the Jews of London. He continues with a blessing for him, his family and community.
The letter goes on to relate to various topics, regarding a Torah article published by R. Abramsky on public affairs (also mentioning "R. Ch[aim] O[zer]") and family issues.

R. Avraham Duber Kahana Shapiro (1871-1943, author of Devar Avraham, an eminent rabbi in his times, son of R. Zalman Sender Kahane Shapiro and son-in-law of the Gadol of Minsk, R. Yerucham Yehudah Leib Perlman. He studied in the Volozhin yeshiva and served as Rabbi in Smilavichy (where he was succeeded by R. Abramsky) and Kovno. His learned book Devar Avraham, the first part of which was first printed in 1906, made him famous, and the book was discussed widely even in his own generation. He was renowned as a prominent leader of Jewry and of the Agudat Rabbanim in Lithuania. When the Holocaust broke out, he was on a visit to Switzerland but returned to Kovno, saying that a captain does not abandon his ship during a storm. He died in the Kovno Ghetto and thousands of Jews attended his funeral.
R. Abramsky had escaped Russia in 1932 (after much persecution and imprisonment) and reached England, where he was appointed rabbi of the Machazikei HaDat community in London.

Official stationery, 29 cm. Written on both sides, 27 lines in handwriting. Good condition. Stains, creases and folding marks.

PLEASE NOTE: Some lot descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to the Hebrew text.