Letter handwritten and personally signed by Sigmund Freud, addressed to Yehuda Dvir, the earliest translator of his works into Hebrew. Vienna, December 15, 1930. German.
The letter is written on official stationery, indicating Sigmund Freud’s address in Vienna, Berggasse no. 19, where he resided for 47 years, from 1891 to 1938. It is addressed to the Jerusalemite educator and author Yehuda Dvir (Dvosis; 1896-1971), whose translations of Freud’s writings – the very first translations into Hebrew of Freud’s works – had just recently been published.
In his letter, Freud writes about the attitude toward Judaism and the Hebrew language that prevailed in his boyhood home thanks to the influence of his father, Jacob Freud, and how his identification with Judaism was later strengthened as he recalled the anti-Semitism he had experienced many years earlier in his student years at the University of Vienna, where he began his studies in the fall of 1873: "I derive great satisfaction and gratification from the publication of some of my works in Hebrew. My father’s fluency in the holy tongue was equal to, or possibly even greater than, his fluency in German. As for me, he allowed me to grow up without knowing anything about Judaism. Only once I reached maturity did I begin bearing a grudge against him for this. But even earlier, I felt myself a Jew, thanks to the pervasiveness of German anti-Semitism which reared its head over and over during my studies at the university."
Further on in the letter, Freud reveals his warm feelings toward Zionism and mentions his concerns regarding its fate – concerns which only intensified in the wake of the violent riots that broke out in Palestine in 1929, a year earlier: "I was inspired with a deep feeling of sympathy toward Zionism, and I remain loyal to it to this day. Right from the beginning, it appeared to me that it was linked to these exact concerns which, given the present circumstances, now seem entirely justified. I would love to be proven wrong. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the efforts you have invested, and I send you my heartfelt greetings. Yours, Sigmund Freud" (based on the Hebrew translation of the German, from: "Sigmund Freud, Letters, " translation by Eran Rolnik, Moshav Ben Shemen: Modan, 2019).

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founding father of the field of psychoanalysis, one of the greatest and most influential intellectual figures of the 20th century. Freud published a series of groundbreaking works in psychology, including "Totem and Taboo", "The Interpretation of Dreams", "Moses and Monotheism", and numerous other works whose impact on Western thought regarding the human psyche was nothing short of revolutionary. Sigmund Freud passed away following a prolonged battle with cancer in September 1939.

[1] leaf, official stationery, 28.5 cm. Good condition. Fold lines and creases. Minor stains and wear. Slight tears to edges.