Lengthy letter handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky. Vilna, fast of Gedaliah [3rd Tishrei] 1932.

Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabbi of London and a close associate of his. This letter is a continuation of the one appearing in the previous lot regarding the delivery of food packages to Jews behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. R. Chaim Ozer writes that he eventually sent the English activist R. A. M. Keiser the text for an announcement [discussed in the previous lot]: "…We composed it as a generic text, and I emphasized the actions of our brethren in England". R. Chaim Ozer goes on to tell him that R. Keiser received a second letter from him saying that R. Abramsky had told the answer to his question whether the request should be made throughout the Jewish world or only in England: "He answered that it should be only from England, and he asked me to immediately compose a text for them, but I answered that the generic text is enough and for specifics the agreement of the Chafetz Chaim should be sought…".

He goes on to write of the new proposal of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch to establish a global center for the Relief Committee and require rabbis and community leaders in every country to become involved: "The rabbi of Lubavitch approached me with a suggestion to establish a center in Poland such as in Warsaw, to address rabbis and rebbes worldwide with announcements to send funds specifically through the central body in order to deliver packages to rabbis and sacred objects in Russia, and to assemble all the addresses and to send first to whoever is chosen by lot". R. Chaim Ozer writes of this proposal: "I am in doubt regarding this, because I don't know who would take upon himself to be the agent in Warsaw… Additionally, it is hard to make cautionary rules, and it isn't proper to make people send only through the central body and not individually. This matter should be thought through; let me know your opinion on this" [in another letter dated Erev Rosh Hashanah 1932 published in Igrot R. Chaim Ozer (II, 709), R. Chaim Ozer writes to R. Yaakov Rosenheim of the Rebbe Rayatz's proposal: "The Rebbe of Lubavitch sent me letters with his proposal to establish a central body in Warsaw, Poland and to produce an announcement from rabbis and rebbes addressing rabbis and community leaders in every country outside of Russia requesting and levying an obligation for every rabbi of a city or Beit Midrash and every community leader to take responsibility to find means for at least one food package for the rabbis, shochatim and senior Torah scholars in Russia, and the distribution of packages to rabbis in Russia is to be done by lot performed by the central body, which will send the packages to whoever wins the lottery… The above rabbi asks me to sign and also to ask the holy elder, the Chafetz Chaim, to sign this. But I am in doubt about this for a few reasons, and I wish to hear your opinion on this…"].

In the years following his departure from Russia, the Rebbe Rayatz initiated a complex international operation to raise funds and attain permits to send packages of shmura flour and matzot to the Jews of Soviet Russia. He was assisted by several leaders of the generation, including the Chafetz Chaim and R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in Poland, R. Yechezkel Abramsky in England, R. Meir Hildesheimer in Berlin, R. Kook and R. Sonnenfeld in Eretz Israel, and others. Letters were dispatched to rabbis worldwide, and various announcements were made and fundraisers were held. The food packages were brought into Russia by calling for individuals worldwide to send flour and matzah packages addressed to their relatives and to particular addresses sent to them by the committee.

As mentioned in the previous lot, the present letters discuss the Chafetz Chaim's signing of another announcement levying an obligation on each individual to take part in the aid program [such as the Rebbe Rayatz's expansive program mentioned above to establish a "global center" for the Relief Committee and requiring rabbis and community leaders in every country to commit to participate].

At the end of the letter, R. Chaim Ozer writes of a letter he had received from R. Yisrael Soloveitchik [mentioned in the previous letter; see there], and encloses a reply to deliver to him in England.

R. Chaim Ozer begins the letter with Shanah Tovah blessings. He acknowledges receipt of R. Abramsky's letter, thanks him for his sincere blessings and responds in kind: "May you, your family and associates all be blessed with a Gmar Chatimah Tovah, and may all your sons be 'like olive shoots around your table' [referring to R. Abramsky's two eldest sons who were at the time still prevented by the authorities from leaving Russia to join their parents in England], and may you derive satisfaction from them physically and spiritually, and may they see G-d's salvation soon".

R. Chaim Ozer signs with a Gmar Chatimah Tovah blessing: "His friend who loves him, seeks his welfare and blesses him with a Gmar Chatimah Tovah, as is the desire of your dear soul and that of your faithful friend esteeming and honoring you and seeking your welfare, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski".

R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940) was a foremost rabbi of his generation and leader of European Jewry. He was the son of R. David Shlomo Grodzinski Rabbi of Iwye. He was renowned from his childhood for his exceptional brilliance. He entered the Volozhin yeshiva at the young age of 11, and became a disciple of R. Chaim of Brisk. At the age of 24, he was appointed rabbi and posek of Vilna, succeeding his father-in-law R. Eliyahu Eliezer Grodnansky, a posek in Vilna (son-in-law of R. Yisrael Salanter). He assumed the yoke of public leadership from a young age, and his opinion was conclusive on all public issues which arose throughout the Jewish world for close to fifty years.

The recipient of the letter, R. Yechezkel Abramsky (1886-1976), was a confidant and agent of R. Chaim Ozer of Vilna ever since developing close ties with him in his youth while studying under his influence in Vilna. In winter of 1806, the "prodigy of Masty" Yechezkel Abramsky was forced to leave the Telshe yeshiva and flee to Vilna [which was then under Polish control] to avoid conscription to the Russian army. In Vilna he was accepted into the Ramailes yeshiva and joined the elite class of students who listened to the advanced lectures of R. Chaim Ozer (based on Melech BeYofyo, pp. 29-33). While subsequently serving as Rabbi of Smilavichy and Slutsk, he served often as R. Chaim Ozer's agent in various communal affairs. R. Abramsky smuggled the manuscript of Part I of his Chazon Yechezkel from Slutsk to his teacher R. Chaim Ozer in Vilna, who was involved in its publication in Vilna, 1925, through his confidant R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky (R. Abramsky's wife's cousin). When R. Abramsky was arrested by the Soviets and sent to Siberia in 1930, R. Chaim Ozer made every possible effort to release him. After his release in 1931, R. Chaim Ozer and the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch joined with R. Abramsky to initiate the project of sending Pesach flour and food packages to Jews under the Bolshevik regime in Russia (see Lot 224). Likewise, R. Abramsky was active on missions for R. Chaim Ozer for yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania and for rabbis of Europe. They also cooperated on many public issues, including the struggles for Jewish marriage and against the anti-Semitic laws in Germany and Europe forbidding Jewish shechitah (requiring stunning animals before slaughtering, which renders the meat non-kosher), and on rescue activity for rabbis and yeshivas who fled as refugees to Vilna at the start of the Holocaust. The present letter reflects some of their cooperation on wide-ranging public activities.

On the margins of the letter are three lines with another letter to R. Abramsky from his relative R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky, signed with his initials. R. Aharon Dov Alter Voronovsky (perished in the Holocaust) was a secretary and confidant of R. Chaim Ozer, and served as a scribe for his many letters. In 1925 R. Alter published Part I of his cousin R. Abramsky's Chazon Yechezkel from a manuscript smuggled from Russia. His father was R. Yitzchak Yaakov Voronovsky, author of Chelkat Yaakov (d. 1904), who served as Rabbi of Mush (Novaya Mysh) for 25 years, succeeding his father-in-law R. Yaakov Moshe Direktor Rabbi of Mush (grandfather of R. Abramsky's wife).

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 26 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, wear and folding marks.