Letter signed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, Shevat 1940. Scribal writing, one line handwritten and signed by Rabbi Chaim Ozer. Sent to England to Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, who at that time served as Av Beit Din in Liverpool. The letter is about sending and distributing funds to support the many yeshivot that were stationed at that time in Vilna: Mir and Kleck Yeshivot and for Va'ad HaYeshivot. Funds “for distribution by the Gryz of Brisk”, and funds "for the family of Rabbi B.D. Leibowitz". Also mentioned is "Our friend Rabbi Y. Abramsky" who was the primary representative of Rabbi Chaim Ozer in England of fundraising for rescue work. At that time, thousands of yeshiva students and families of rabbis stayed in Vilna which had just become the capital of independent Lithuania. They arrived there following the instructions of Rabbi Chaim Ozer, rabbi and leader of the Torah Jewry in Lithuania and spearhead of the whole yeshiva world. He went to tremendous lengths to raise money from all over the world to provide for the yeshiva students and for the rabbis who escaped to Vilna but in the midst of the war, he died on the 5th of Av 1940. Official stationery, 29 cm. Good condition.

Letter (in Yiddish) handwritten and signed by Rebbetzin "Fruma Rappaport". Jambul, Kazakhstan, 1944. In this letter sent to Tel Aviv to Rabbi Yehuda Meir Avramowitz, she thanks for the packages of food and wheat sent to her with the name of her husband "Written Rabbi David HaCohen, author of Tzemach David and Mikdash David". At that time, more than two years had elapsed since the death of her husband in Tishrei 1941 at a faraway labor-camp, but from this letter it is clear that she still did not know of his demise because she was in a different region at the time. Evidently, the letter was written in Shevat 1944 – Monday of Parshat Mishpatim, and it only arrived in Tel Aviv in November 1944, Cheshvan-Kislev 1945. Rebbetzin Fruma Rappaport, the youngest daughter of Rabbi Chaim Ber Greengross of Kremenchuk [died in 1928, father-in-law of Rabbi Shlomo Harkabi, Rabbi Avraham Ya'akov Gordon, Rabbi Baruch Ya'akov Zemodzak and other leading mussar figures and heads of Lithuanian yeshivot], in 1931 married Rabbi David Rappaport, author of Mikdash David (1891-1942), a head of the Ohel Torah Yeshiva in Baranavichy, headed by Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman. With the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi David Rappaport together with his wife and the students of the Baranovichi Yeshiva fled to Lithuania. After the German and Russian invasion of Lithuania, Rabbi Rappaport stood at the helm of the yeshiva [Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman was trapped and killed in Kovno]. During the Red Army occupation of Lithuania in the summer of 1941, the Russians arrested him and sent him deep into Russian territory, to a labor camp near Petrozavodsk, which is one of the most bitterly cold areas in Russia. Rabbi David did not survive the extreme conditions of cold and hunger and perished after Teki’at Shofar of the second day of Rosh Hashanah 1941. At his death, he requested those who around him “Witness my death so that my wife will not remain an agunah, because this is the law”. His wife, Rebbetzin Fruma exiled to another end of Russia, and from this letter written from Kazakhstan, it is apparent that she did not know of her husband’s death two years later. We do not know what happened to the Rebbetzin. The recipient is Rabbi Yehuda Meir Avramovitz, one of the heads of Agudat Yisrael, involved in the campaign of sending food-packages to yeshiva refugees in Russia that were trapped during the war in Siberia and in other distant Russian places. The Krinik Rabbi Chizkiyahu Yosef Mishkovsky stood at the head of this campaign. Postcard, 14 cm. Good-fair condition, major wear. Various postmarks from Russia and from Tel Aviv.

Kuntress Mashmia Yeshua, "an [abridged] farewill sermon delivered…M. Mordechai Motli Rokeach Av Beit Din of Bilgoraj …with the approbation and sent by his brother, the greatest tsaddik of his generation…M. Aharon Rokeach the Belzer Rebbe… who delivered the sermon…in the great hall of the Yere'im congregation in Budapest…before they ascended to the Holy Land…", edited by Rabbi Natan Zvi Freidman. Budapest, 1944. This booklet contains the famous sermon of the Belzer Rebbe Before he fled to Eretz Israel, shortly before the Nazis invaded Hungary. The sermon was printed in the HaDerech booklet in three editions (see previous item), and in an abridged form in this booklet. This booklet also includes the calming words of the Rabbi of Bilgoraj, which were later censored from the later printings of the HaDerech booklet (see previous item): "Behold I have heard rumors that if the Belzer Rebbe deems it necessary to…uproot his residence to the Holy Land…he undoubtedly sees that the situation here is bad and G-d forbid…is hovering over those who dwell in this country…I reply to this: Nobody can read his pure thoughts and considerations like me…I hereby attest that my brother, the Belzer Rebbe has strong and solid confidence that no bad will befall our brothers in Hungary, on the contrary, more will be saved from all distress and trouble…". In his introduction to this booklet, the publisher describes the events at the time of the sermon - at the beginning the audience was in "tears and despair" at the time they heard of the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Jews murdered throughout Europe. "But a minute later, joy befell the listeners hearing the preacher [the Rabbi of Bilgoraj] announce in a strong voice in the name of his brother, the tsaddik of his times, who was the halachic authority in his Beit Midrash that he promises and guarantees that the ‘Angel of Destruction’ will no longer rule in our country…”. 10 pages. 22.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains and wear. Tears to several leaves. On the last leaf is minor damage to the text.

Collection of postcards sent on behalf of Agudat Yisrael in Vienna. Vienna, Dec. 26, 1946. The postcards were sent to various people, containing invitations to come with personal documents on Dec. 29 to rejoin Agudat Yisrael (after the Holocaust). Eighteen postcards. Good condition.