Letter (10 lines) handwritten and signed by Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar. [Jerusalem?, ca. 1945].
Addressed to the philanthropist R. Fishel Feldman, with a request to assist the rebbe's relative, the rabbi of Limanov, who would be approaching him in person for help.
The rebbe signs the letter with blessings: "…may G-d raise his glory and fortune higher and higher in all his affairs… Yoel Teitelbaum".
Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1887-1979), a leader of his generation, president of the Edah HaChareidit and leader of American Orthodox Jewry, one of the founding pillars of Chassidic Jewry after the Holocaust. Born in Sighet, he was the son of Rebbe Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the Kedushat Yom Tov, and grandson of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda, the Yitav Lev, who both served as rabbis of Sighet (Sighetu Marmației) and were leaders of Chassidic Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was renowned from his youth as a leading Torah scholar, for his perspicacity and intellectual capacities, as well as for his holiness and outstanding purity. After his marriage to the daughter of Rebbe Avraham Chaim Horowitz of Polaniec, he settled in Satmar and taught Torah and Chassidut to an elite group of disciples and followers. He served as rabbi of Irshava, Karoly (Carei; from 1925), and Satmar (Satu Mare; from 1934), managing in each of these places a large yeshiva and Chassidic court. He stood at the helm of faithful, uncompromising Orthodox Jewry in the Maramureș region. During the Holocaust, he was rescued through the famous Kastner Train, and after a journey through Bergen-Belsen, Switzerland and Eretz Israel, he reached the United States, where he established the largest Chassidic group in the world – Satmar Chassidut, until today the dominant faction in American Orthodox Jewry. He served as president of the Edah HaChareidit in Jerusalem. A leading opponent of Zionism and of the founding of the State of Israel, he zealously led crucial battles for the preservation of the unique character of the Jewish people and its holiness, fearful for the honor of the Torah and the future of faithful Jewry. He was renowned as an exceptionally charitable person; his door was open to the poor and his ear attentive to the needy from every stream of the Jewish people. An outstanding Torah scholar, he responded to many halachic queries, and his writings were published in dozens of books: VaYoel Moshe, Responsa Divrei Yoel, Divrei Yoel on the Torah and more.
The printed letterhead on the present leaf reads: "Rabbi of Satmar and the region – in Jerusalem – P.O.B. 5105". The letter was presumably written ca. 1945, when R. Yoel lived in Jerusalem (the ship with the survivors of the Kastner train reached Haifa a week before Rosh Hashanah 1945, while the rebbe already celebrated Rosh Hashanah 1946 in the United States).
The rabbi mentioned in the letter was presumably R. Yechezkel Shraga Teitelbaum-Halberstam Rabbi of Limanov (ca. 1900 – Tevet 1983), who lost his family in the Holocaust, and later reached the United States. He was a great-grandson of the Yitav Lev of Sighet, and the grandson of Rebbe Shlomo Halberstam of Bobov (the first). His father, R. Chaim Yaakov Teitelbaum Rabbi of Limanov (1878- Cheshvan 1933), was the son-in-law of Rebbe Shlomo of Bobov, and son of R. Moshe Yosef Teitelbaum Rabbi of Ujhel (uncle of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar). R. Yechezkel Shraga married the daughter of R. Menachem Unger of Dombrova in 1922, and his wedding in Dombrova was attended by his uncle the Kedushat Tzion of Bobov. He lived in Jerusalem at the end of his life, and was buried on Har HaZeitim (see enclosed material).
[1] leaf, official stationery. Approx. 22.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Wear. Folding marks. Reinforced with tape on verso. Filing holes.