Kestenbaum to Auction Off Unique Letter from Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l

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rav-aharon-kotlerThe Kestenbaum & Company auction house in New York City will be having its next auction next Thursday and will be featuring many important items of Jewish and Torah historical content.

One of the items is a unique letter from Maran Rav Aharon Kotler, rosh yeshiva of Kletsk, Poland, and Bais Medrash Govoha of Lakewood. The typed letter, signed in English, was written to Rav Yosef Lipman Gurwitz of Melbourne, Australia on September 15,1944, and is estimated to be worth $1,000 – $1,500.

Rav Kotler was seeking to obtain Australian visas for talmidim of the Kletzker Yeshiva who were stranded in Siberia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other parts of Asiatic Russia.

Based upon diplomatic agreements between Russia and Poland, those Polish citizens in the Soviet Union, including those exiled to Siberia, would be allowed to leave the country upon presentation of visas issued by third countries. Rav Kotler, in the letter, requests Rav Gurwitz to “explain to the appropriate authorities of the liberal and humane Australian Government, the importance of these great scholars to Jewry in general and to Orthodox Jewry in particular, now that the great sites of Torah education are gone.”

Appended to the letter is a two page typed list with the names of forty-three yeshiva bochurim with their age, birth place and present address.

Although Australian visas were ultimately not procured, many of these talmidim did indeed survive the war and grew to become leading marbitzei Torah and askonim. They include Rav Leib Rodkin,Rav Yaakov Gruman, and Reb Nachum Zeldes.

{Casriel Bauman-Matzav.com Newscenter}


5 COMMENTS

  1. ????? ??? ???? ?????. ?????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ????”? – ?????? ??????? ????? – ???? ????? – ??????? ????? – ??? ??????? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ???, ????? ????? ???? ??????, ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ???????, ?????? ???? ??????, ???? ?????, ??????? ?????: “???? ??? ?? ????” ?????? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?????. ?????? ???? ???? ??????? ???????. ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????, ???? ??? ??? ???????? ?????

  2. Great idea #1! – It could also display siddurim, shtenders, tefillin and other inspiring “torah-phernalia” from gadolim. If you want to get it off the ground, count me in.

  3. O wonder what the Rosh HaYeshiva, Zecher Tzaddik V’kadosh L’bracha, would think about 1500 dollars being spent on a letter to keep as a trophy, and not to help Yidden in dire need.

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