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A letter by Kalonymus Ze'ev Wissotzky to the principal of the Hebrew school in Jaffa, Meir Angel. Written by a secretary on official stationery and hand-signed by Wissotzky. Odessa, September 1896.
The letter informs the principal of the Hebrew school in Jaffa of the decision of the Odessa Committee of Hovevei Zion to donate 25,000 franks to the purchase of land, on which a new building will be built for the school. In addition, Wissotzky mentions his intention to travel to Paris in the summer to meet with the Alliance Israélite Universelle vice-president Narcisse Leven and secretary Jacques Bigard to try and secure an additional donation of 50,000 franks for the establishment of the new building. Wissotzky offers several guidelines for the upcoming negotiations with the landowner and writes that although he intends to make up the difference if any amount is lacking, it should be conveyed "to the seller that you cannot pay any more" (Hebrew).
At the end of the letter, Wissotzky compliments the choice of Hebrew as the language of instruction and announces a further modest donation: 200 franks for the translation of textbooks into Hebrew and 100 franks to the "Sha'ar Zion" Hospital in Jaffa.
The letter is hand-signed by Wissotzky, with a postscript in his handwriting – "regards to Mr. Grazovsky" (lexicographer and writer Yehuda Gur, senior teacher at the Hebrew school in Jaffa).
The Hebrew school in Jaffa was established in 1892 at the initiative of a number of Jewish educators of the first Aliyah (Israel Belkind, Yehuda Gur, the principal Meir Angel and others). The institution, a pioneer of Hebrew-language schools in Palestine, was jointly managed by Hovevei Zion and Alliance Israélite Universelle. Due to disagreements regarding the language of instruction in 1902, Alliance Israélite Universelle became the exclusive manager of the school. In 1908, its new building was inaugurated in the Neveh Tzeddek neighborhood (today, the Suzanne Dellal Center).
Kalonymus (Kalman) Ze'ev Wissotzky (1824-1904), businessman, philanthropist and activist in the Hovevei Zion movement in Russia, founder of the Wissotzky Tea Company. In his youth, he studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva and was a disciple of Rabbi Israel of Salant. In 1849, he founded the Wissotzky Tea Company in Moscow, which controlled a third of the Russian tea market. He invested much of his time and fortune in supporting Jewish and Zionist institutions and in 1884, participated in the Katowice Conference. In 1885, he visited Palestine as an emissary of Hovevei Zion, mediated between the old and new Yishuv and established an office of the executive committee of the Odessa Committee in Jaffa. In his will, he bequeathed his share of the Wissotzky Tea Company, amounting to about one million rubles, to charity (part of this sum was used for the establishment of the Technion in Haifa).
[1] leaf folded in half – [2] written pages, 28 cm. Good condition. Fold lines. Minor creases. Filing holes and several small holes to margins. Closed tears and small open tears to margins.