Letter signed by R. Aharon Kotler, dean of the "Metivta Rabbata Etz Chaim of Slutsk, which relocated to Kletsk". Kletsk, Shevat 1939.
Letter written by a scribe, with the signature of R. "Aharon Kotler". Addressed to R. Efraim Epstein, a rabbi in Chicago, United States. R. Aharon thanks him and the other rabbis, members of the committee, for their great kindness on behalf of the Torah strongholds.
R. Aharon Kotler (1892-1962), disciple of the Alter of Slabodka, and a prominent, outstanding Torah scholar. (While he was still a young student, the Or Same'ach predicted that he would be the "R. Akiva Eger" of the next generation). He was the son-in-law of R. Isser Zalman Meltzer. He served as lecturer and dean of the Slutsk yeshiva, and during WWI, he fled with the yeshiva students to Poland, reestablishing the yeshiva in Kletsk. He was one of the yeshiva deans closely associated with R. Chaim Ozer and the Chafetz Chaim. A founder of Vaad HaYeshivot and member of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah in Lithuania. During the Holocaust, he escaped to the United States, and established the famous Lakewood yeshiva in New Jersey (a yeshiva which changed the face of the yeshiva world in the United States, by inculcating the passion and absolute devotion to Torah study, in the style of Lithuanian yeshivot). He was one of the heads of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah in the United States, and of Chinuch HaAtzma'i in Eretz Israel.
R. Efraim Epstein (1876-1960), the recipient of this letter, was a leading American rabbi. He was the younger brother of R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein, dean of the Slabodka and Hebron yeshivot. A disciple of R. Itzele Rabinowitz rabbi of Ponovezh. In 1900, he was appointed rabbi of his hometown, Bakshty, Lithuania, in place of his father R. Tzvi Chaim Epstein. In 1919, he immigrated to the United States, and served as rabbi of several communities in New York. From 1921, he served as rabbi of Chicago. He was a founder of the Beit Midrash LaTorah yeshiva in Chicago, and one of its lecturers; vice President of Agudat HaRabbanim of the United States and Canada, and one of the founders of the aid committees for the prominent yeshivot in Lithuania and Eretz Israel. During the war, he served as treasurer of Vaad HaHatzala for Holocaust refugees, and in 1948-1949, he headed delegations to Europe and Eretz Israel, for the benefit of refugees and Torah institutions.
[1] leaf, official stationery. 28.5 cm. Good condition. Folding marks.