Auction 050 Part 1 Satmar: Rebbes and Rabbis of Satmar-Sighet, Hungary and Transylvania
Letter of "Rabbeinu" Rabbi Gershon Liebman – Thanks for Donation of the Satmar Rebbe to the Or Yosef Institutions in France – "This Circulated in our Hearts a Spirit of Might and Dedication to God's War Against Zionism and its Associates, The Modern Idolatry, To Go in the Rebbe's Holy Way and Stand Strong…"
Letter of the Tzaddik R. Gershon Liebman, a leader of the Novhardok yeshiva movement. Paris, [25 Tishrei], 1962.
Typewritten on official stationery of "the holy Or Yosef yeshiva in France", and signed by the dean of the yeshiva, R. "Gershon Liebman."
The letter was sent to "the holy and pure Rebbe, man of God, unique in his generation, R. Yoel Teitelbaum". R. Gershon thanks the Rebbe for his permission to conduct a fundraising campaign in his Beit Midrash for the Or Yosef network of institutions, and for his personal donation of 300 dollars – "which is a clear sign of his esteem and admiration for us… and this circulated in our hearts a spirit of might and dedication to God's war against Zionism and its associates, the modern idolatry, to go in the Rebbe's holy way and stand strong…".
R. Gershon Liebman (1905-1997), founder and leader of the Or Yosef network of Novhardok yeshivas, and one of the leaders of the Novhardok Mussar movement. Born in Ostropoli (Staryi Ostropil), he studied in the Novhardok yeshivas in Gomel and Bialystok, and was heavily influenced by his teachers, students of the Alter of Novhardok. During the Holocaust, he led the Novhardok yeshiva movement in Vilna, and later in the ghettos and Nazi camps. The fire of Novhardok never ceased to burn in R. Gershon even there. He organized underground yeshivas with the same learning programs as usual, with schedules for Mussar and consultations on service of God. R. Gershon married in Vilna in 1940, but his wife and family were sent to their death in 1941. He himself hid in the ghetto of Vilna and was later sent to concentration camps in Estonia and Latvia. At the end of the Holocaust, he reached Bergen-Belsen, where he established the Novhardok yeshiva after the liberation of the camp. In 1948 the yeshiva moved to France and expanded to a network of over 40 Torah and educational institutions in France, which R. Liebman called Or Yosef. To this day R. Gershon is known as "Rabbeinu" in France due to the great admiration his disciples and acquaintances had for him.
[1] leaf, official stationery. Approx. 27 cm. Good condition. Folds. Stains and light wear.