Letter handwritten and signed by R. "Naftali HaKohen Shakovitzky", Rabbi of Gateshead (England), Adar I 1948.

Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, head of the London national Beit Din, informing him of the engagement of his daughter with a young Torah scholar, Betzalel Rakov. R. Shakovitzky praises him, stating that all of his aspirations are for growth in Torah, and predicts that he is destined for great things. [R. Betzalel Rakov eventually succeeded his father-in-law as Rabbi of Gateshead, the Torah center of England].

R. Naftali HaKohen Shakovitzky (1898-1963), a leading English posek, disciple of the Chafetz Chaim and the Alter of Slabodka. At the recommendation of the Devar Avraham of Kovno, he was summoned to serve as rabbi of the Orthodox community of Gateshead in northeast England, where he initiated the establishment of educational institutions that became the foundation of the Torah world in England.

His son-in-law R. Betzalel Rakov (1927-2003), born in Frankfurt, fled to England on Kristallnacht where he learned in the yeshiva of R. Moshe Schneider in London, and studied together with fellow students R. Yitzchak Tuviah Weiss and R. Moshe Sternbuch. He also studied in the Gateshead kollel where he became close with his teacher R. Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler. In 1955 he was appointed dean of the Montreux yeshiva in Switzerland, and in 1963 he was summoned to assume his father-in-law's position as Rabbi of Gateshead, the Torah center of England, where he served for some forty years.

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Wear and folding marks.