Eight letters handwritten and signed by rabbis and directors of the Beit Yosef yeshiva in Novardok during the Holocaust, addressed to R. Eliezer Bentzion Bruk, dean of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Jerusalem. Vilna, Biržai and Eretz Israel, ca. 1940-1941.
The letters were sent after the yeshiva fled the occupation and partition of Poland by Germany and Russia to Vilna and Biržai in Lithuania which remained free.
Includes letters by yeshiva dean R. Avraham Yoffen, R. Abba Yoffe (brother of R. Avraham Yoffen), R. Yehudah Leib Nekritz (son-in-law of R. Avraham Yoffen), R. Nisan Tzelniker of Babruysk (brother-in-law of R. Bentzion Bruk and a dean of the Novardok yeshiva in Bialystok), R. Nisan Potashinsky (Rozhanker; son-in-law of R. Refael Alter Shmuelevitz and a director of the Beit Yosef Novardok yeshiva in Bialystok), R. Aharon Agulnik (Kamayer; mashgiach of Novardok yeshiva in Ostrów Mazowiecka) and R. Yaakov Zeldin (Mozirer, mashgiach of Beit Yosef yeshiva in Lutsk).
See Hebrew description for a detailed listing of each letter.
Background
At the outbreak of World War I, when Russia annexed eastern Poland, including Bialystok where the Novardok yeshiva headed by R. Avraham Yoffen was located, the yeshiva students who refused to live under the Soviet regime fled to Vilna. When the Russians invaded Lithuania, the yeshiva students again fled to Biržai while attempting to attain visas to countries that were not occupied by the Germans or the Soviets. While R. Avraham Yoffen and a limited number of students managed to attain visas to the United States, the remaining students were offered Soviet citizenship; when they refused, they were deported to labor camps in Siberia (most of those students who were not deported were later murdered by the Nazis).
8 letters (six on postcards). Size and condition vary. Overall good condition. Last letter in fair-poor condition (written on thin paper, with open tears and damage, affecting text).
PLEASE NOTE: Some lot descriptions were shortened in translation. For further information, please refer to the Hebrew text.
