Letter signed by R. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. Jerusalem, Cheshvan 1926.
Recommendation to support a Jew from Jerusalem, travelling to Vienna to find a cure for his mute daughter. R. Yosef Chaim relates how tragically, this daughter is the only surviving one of this person's seven children. R. Yosef Chaim notes that the Jew is "a native of Jerusalem, and has never before travelled abroad, and he has no acquaintances or contacts there".
R. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1849-1932), spiritual leader of Orthodox Jewry in Eretz Israel. Outstanding Torah scholar, a wise and holy man. Disciple of the Ketav Sofer in the Pressburg yeshiva, and of R. Avraham Schag Rabbi of Kobersdorf. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1873 together with his teacher R. Avraham Schag, and was renowned as one of its leading Torah scholars. He was also reputed for his righteousness and holiness, and was zealously involved in communal and charity matters, operating with great wisdom. When R. Yehoshua Leib Diskin immigrated to Jerusalem in 1879, R. Yosef Chaim cleaved to him, becoming his close disciple and head of his Beit Din. He was the Maharil's right-hand man in the battle against the Christian mission and the Haskala movement, which threatened the old Yishuv in Jerusalem. In 1919-1921, the separate community of Eida HaChareidit of Ashkenazi communities was established, and R. Yosef Chaim was appointed the first rabbi of the Eida HaChareidit earning the title of Mara D'Ara DeYisrael.
[1] leaf, official stationery ("Rabbi of the Askenazi communities in Jerusalem"). 28.5 cm. Typewritten, with his handwritten signature. Good-fair condition. Large dampstains. Wear and folding marks. Minor tears to folds.