Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Druskininkai, 20th Elul 1932 – On the Aid Packages to Russia and the ...

Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – Druskininkai, 20th Elul 1932 – On the Aid Packages to Russia and the Chafetz Chaim's Signing of a Relevant Announcement – With Shanah Tovah Blessings

Lengthy letter handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Druskininkai [a spa city near Vilna], 20th Elul 1932.

Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabbi in London and an intimate associate of his. Most of the letter relates to the initiative to send food packages to the Jews in the Soviet Union who were left behind the Iron Curtain.

R. Chaim Ozer writes of the request of the English activist R. A. M. Keiser "who asks me to send an announcement to our brethren in England to encourage them to send aid to our brethren in Russia through them". R. Chaim Ozer shares his ambivalence with R. Abramsky: "Since there is much surveillance I am conflicted about this; however, I promised to provide him with an announcement since before Passover… He also asks me to ask the Chafetz Chaim to sign it, but I am concerned that this letter not be used in other faraway countries. Please inform me of your opinion on this as soon as possible…".

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.

The present letter discusses the commission of the Jews of England to the project, and the signing of a special announcement for English Jews about the issue. It is unclear which activity attracted the surveillance R. Chaim Ozer mentions, and why he was concerned that the letter not be used in faraway countries. Notably, in the winter of that year an announcement dated 22nd Shevat 1932 was printed, calling for individuals to send flour to Russian Jews, signed by the Chafetz Chaim, R. Chaim Ozer and the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch (see: Yahadut HaDemamah, I, pp. 317-319). Moreover, two days before the date of the present letter, a call for help was already printed in Vilna, dated 18th Elul 1932 [Kedem catalogue, Auction 054, Lot 602], containing a letter of the Chafetz Chaim and R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna calling for all the Jews of England, Vienna and all the free countries to assist in sending food packages to the Jews of Russia: "…to send food to individuals… and for every individual to send to his relative or friend", especially on the eves of festivals when the need to send food and the merit of so doing is great, due to "the terrible condition of our poor brethren in Russia, whose basic finances are totally out of their hand, and hundreds of thousands of Jews, whoever are called Deklassierter [disenfranchised], are without bread and food, and especially the rabbis, the Torah scholars, who have no rights at all, and are suffering from literal famine…".

Apparently, the present letter, as well as the letter dated 3rd Tishrei 1933 (appearing in the next lot), relate to another initiative to have rabbis sign another announcement assigning each individual a duty to join the program for assistance [perhaps this was to be a wide-reaching program like the Global Central Relief Committee of the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch, requiring rabbis and community leaders in every country to commit to take action. See R. Chaim Ozer's letter to R. Abramsky in the next lot dated 3rd Tishrei 1933 (and his letter to R. Yaakov Rosenheim dated 29th Elul 1932 – printed in Igrot R. Chaim Ozer, II, letter 709), on the Rebbe Rayatz's initiative to establish and expand the fundraisers].

At the beginning of the letter R. Chaim Ozer writes that he agrees to R. Abramsky's suggestion to send R. Yisrael Soloveitchik to South Africa [R. Yisrael Soloveitchik, a rabbi of South Africa (d. 1951), son of R. Avraham Baruch Rabbi of Smolensk and cousin of R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav].

At the beginning of the letter R. Chaim Ozer concludes with a Shanah Tovah blessing: "Peace and blessing, may you and all your friends be blessed with a new year blessing of a Ketivah VaChatimah Tovah for a good, lengthy and fit life, as is the desire of your dear soul and that of your faithful friend seeking your welfare, Chaim Ozer Grodzinski".

On the margins of the letter, R. Chaim Ozer adds (as an update to his place of residence) his plan to return to Vilna from the spa town Druskininkai: "Tomorrow I will return with G-d's help to my home".

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 No. 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.

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