![Two letters from R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Adar II [March-April] 1940.
Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabb](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale105/129_1.jpg "Two Letters of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – During the Holocaust – Vi")
![Two letters from R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Adar II [March-April] 1940.
Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabb](https://files.kedem-auctions.com/files/Sale105/129_2.jpg "Two Letters of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – During the Holocaust – Vi")
Auction 105 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Esther Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Two Letters of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – During the Holocaust – Vilna, Adar II 1940
Opening: $1,000
Sold for: $2,250
Including buyer's premium
Two letters from R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Adar II [March-April] 1940.
Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabbi of London and one of his intimate associates. The letters deal with rescue and support for the yeshivas and rabbis that fled to Vilna and independent Lithuania at the outbreak of World War II. At R. Chaim Ozer's instruction, many yeshivas fled Poland, which had been conquered by Germany and Russia, to Vilna and other cities in independent Lithuania. At the time, R. Chaim Ozer was assisting the leaders of the wandering yeshivas while taking care of their sustenance, doing everything possible to provide for their needs. The exiles to Vilna included R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav (who reached Vilna with some of his family members and students, who escaped and immigrated with him to Jerusalem in 1941); the Kamenets yeshiva and R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz (d. in Vilna, 5th Kislev 1940; his family was rescued with some of his students and they later immigrated to the United States and Eretz Israel); the Mir yeshiva; the Radin yeshiva; the Baranovitch yeshiva and R. Elchanan Wasserman; the Kletsk yeshiva and R. Aharon Kotler; and others.
In the first letter, dated 12th Adar II, R. Chaim Ozer writes of the disorder in mail during the war, and that some letters did not reach their address. R. Chaim Ozer confirms receipt of money from R. A. M. Keiser for yeshivas and rabbis in exile, noting that the funds were transferred to the Vaad HaYeshivot, the Brisker Rav, the yeshivas of Mir and Kletsk and the family of R. Baruch Ber Leibowitz. On the verso of the letter is a note of a few lines handwritten and signed (with his initials) by his relative R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky – confidant, scribe and secretary of R. Chaim Ozer.
In the second letter, dated 22nd Adar II, R. Chaim Ozer mentions the need to vigilantly support the Torah institutions during the coming days, including the refugee rabbis in London. He mentions in particular his brother-in-law R. Binyamin Beinish Atlas of Glasgow and R. Unterman of Liverpool. He also encourages R. Abramsky to print his Chazon Yechezkel on Tosefta Tractate Zevachim.
Parts of the present letters appear to have been written by a scribe of R. Chaim Ozer (whose handwriting resembles that of R. Chaim Ozer), but the signature and conclusion are handwritten by R. Chaim Ozer.
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 (then under Polish occupation) 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, by 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 world-spanning efforts 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 to rescue rabbis and yeshivas fleeing World War II.
2 letters, on official stationery. 14.5X22 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and folding marks.
Letters
Letters