Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – On the Brisker Rav and the Yeshivas Exiled to Vilna at the Beginning of the ...

Letter of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski – On the Brisker Rav and the Yeshivas Exiled to Vilna at the Beginning of the Holocaust – Vilna, 1939

Letter handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Vilna, 9th Tevet [December 21] 1939.

The beginning of the letter appears to be written in scribal writing, but the last five lines are handwritten and signed by R. Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.

Addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a rabbi in London and his close associate. The letter addresses the rescue of the yeshivas that were exiled to Vilna and Lithuania at the outbreak of World War II. R. Chaim Ozer tells him of the activities of Mr. A. M. Keiser of England, R. Abramsky's emissary to save the rabbis and yeshivas:

"Mr. Keiser visited me twice the day before yesterday, and he joined a meeting in my house with the leading yeshiva deans to confer about the situation. Almost all the yeshivas are here with their deans and directors; the number of students is about 1500. There is also a class of students who are great in Torah who organized themselves into a special kollel, and there are also several important rabbis, headed by R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the head rabbi of the Brisk Beit Din, and including the families, the total number is about 2000 people. Among the yeshivas, the Mir yeshiva received an authorization from the government to relocate to Kėdainiai. R. A. Kotler of Kletsk also received a permit to travel to Jonava, but they are still here. My brother-in-law R. E. Wasserman established his Torah yeshiva in Trakai, as the committee for support of refugees wishes to take as many refugees out of the city as possible. You will surely hear the details from Mr. Keiser".

R. Chaim Ozer recounts in detail what is going on with R. Yitzchak Ze'ev, the Brisker Rav – R. Abramsky's close friend. "The Rabbi of Brisk is faring well, and a special group was organized for him to lecture to". In the margins of the letter after the signature, R. Chaim Ozer goes on to clarify the use of the funds R. Abramsky had sent for the Brisker Rav: "The sum of 1250 from the list of Mr. Keiser is next to the Rabbi of Brisk. I am unsure whether it is for him or for the yeshiva, since the yeshiva students are very few, from a few individuals. Please inform me".

At the conclusion of the letter, R. Chaim Ozer tells of his personal health situation and intense occupation: "My health situation is, thank G-d, unchanged. The increasing concerns are certainly beyond my capacity; I was also sick for a few days with a light flu, and I hope to Him Who gives strength to the weary. I would very much like to know how you and your friends are doing. His friend, esteeming and respecting him, seeking the welfare of his Torah, 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 in the Diaspora for close to fifty years. He was involved in communal matters locally and in other countries.

At the beginning of the Holocaust, at R. Chaim Ozer's instruction, many yeshivas fled Poland, which had been conquered by the Germans and Russians, to Vilna and other cities in independent Lithuania. At the time R. Chaim Ozer assisted the leaders of the wandering yeshivas while taking care of their sustenance, doing everything to provide for their needs. The exiles to Vilna included R. Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav (mentioned in the present letter), who reached Vilna with some of his family members and students, who escaped and immigrated with him to Jerusalem in 1941.

The recipient of this 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 to rescue and provide for rabbis and yeshiva students in exile, who continued to study Torah even under those harsh conditions.

[1] leaf. Official stationery. 29 cm. Good condition. Light stains and folding marks.

A facsimile of the present letter is printed in Melech BeYofyo, p. 427, based on which it was printed in Igrot R. Chaim Ozer, III, pp. 168-169, letter 108.