Auction 101 Part 2 Chassidut and Kabbalah | Jerusalem Printings | Letters and Manuscripts | Objects
Collection of Letters and Manuscripts Regarding Holocaust Agunot – From Rabbi Shlomo David Kahana of Warsaw, "Father of the Agunot"
Opening: $300
Sold for: $750
Including buyer's premium
Collection of manuscripts and letters – halachic responsa on matters relating to agunot, by R. Shlomo David Kahana, a rabbi of Warsaw and the Old City of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, [ca. 1946].
Written on official stationeries of R. Kahana, some handwritten by him and some handwritten by a scribe, with R. Kahana's signatures. The letters mainly relate to permitting agunot and agunim who survived the Holocaust to remarry, including responsa on agunot and laws of Gittin and Chalitzah. Some letters relate to assistance to refugees in DP camps in Cyprus.
The collection includes many letters to Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik HaLevi Hertzog, R. Kosovsky of Johannesburg, R. Chaim Yaakov Rottenberg of Antwerp (and France), R. Yosef HaLevi of Tel Aviv, R. Yitzchak Yedidiah Frankel and others.
R. Shlomo David Kahana, "Father of the Agunot" (1869-1953), a rabbi of Warsaw, son-in-law and successor of R. Shmuel Zanvil Klepfish, one of the leading rabbis in Warsaw (see Lot 182) After World War I, he was appointed by the Chief Rabbinate of Warsaw to oversee the complex issue of agunot. In this capacity, he worked tirelessly to release from their agunah status tens of thousands of women whose husbands, as soldiers in the war, were reported as missing in action and whose fates remained unknown. At the outbreak of World War II and the many casualties in Polish cities from enemy air raids (even before the mass extermination by the Nazis), R. Kahana foresaw what was coming and began preparing for the release of war agunot. He later managed to escape to Eretz Israel and was appointed Rabbi of the Old City of Jerusalem. During that period, he established the Office for Agunah Affairs in Jerusalem on behalf of the Union of Rabbis from Poland in Eretz Israel. Some of his many responsa were recently published in his book "Nechemat Shlomo" (published by Machon Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, 2022).
About 20 letters. 28 leaves. Most on official stationery. Size and condition varies. Overall good to good-fair condition.
Enclosed: Responsa Nechemat Shlomo, Machon Yerushalayim, 2022.