Two Letters from Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky – On the Rift Between the Israeli and American Branches of Peilim – ...

Two Letters from Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky – On the Rift Between the Israeli and American Branches of Peilim – Netanya and Brooklyn, 1963

Two letters handwritten and signed by R. Yaakov Kamenetsky, a dean of the Torah Vodaath yeshiva and a leader of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah in the United States. Netanya, Tamuz 1963 / Brooklyn, Erev Rosh Hashanah 1963.

The letters are addressed to R. Yechezkel Abramsky, a leader of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah in Eretz Israel, and relate to the rift between the Israeli branch of Peilim and the committee of its American branch (which later established a separate American Peilim organization).

In the first letter, written during R. Yaakov Kamenetsky's visit to Eretz Israel, he discusses the coordination of a meeting with agents of the Israeli branch of Peilim and with R. Abramsky and R. Sarna, together with R. Kamenetsky, R. Alpert and R. Plato. In the letter, R. Kamenetsky writes of his plans to travel the next week to Safed and Tiberias, to heal in the "hot springs of Tiberias".

In the second letter, written after R. Yaakov Kamenetsky's return to the United States, he begins and ends with blessings for a Shanah Tovah and lengthy life. Towards the end of the letter, for the upcoming high holidays, he requests of R. Abramsky to pray for him "that G-d assist me to attain merit and bring merit to the public, for the yeshiva work is too hard for me, and that G-d help me to find a worthy person to whom I can transfer the administration of this lofty and holy institution".

Regarding the Peilim organizations, R. Kamenetsky writes: "…I now come to what relates to the dirty business, that of the Peilim. Apparently the agreement has had no effect, since the main funds held by the Peilim here are those given to them for the purpose of building, while they for their part, so long as the yeshivas have not been legally transferred to the deans, are afraid to transmit the money to the Peilim in Eretz Israel out of concern that they might expend it on other things. And it appears from the letter that reached here that some changes have been made to the agreement itself, and the check to the committee of yeshiva deans has been changed…". He goes on to write of a telegram he received from R. Yechezkel Sarna on the matter, and he writes that "R. Yechezkel Sarna sent us a new text version and he requests of R. Moshe Feinstein, me and the agents of Peilim in the United States to sign it, and I don't know if the version is his or if it was made with your agreement as well… According to the Peilim here, they are ready to fulfill whatever has been written and signed in the agreement you wrote and signed by the Peilim both here and there, but I don't know what is holding back the two parties…".

R. Yaakov Kamenetsky (1891-1986), a head of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah in the United States, a leader of Orthodox Jewry and a founder of the Torah world in his generation. A leading disciple of the Alter of Slabodka. He served as rabbi in Lithuania, Canada and the United States. From 1945 he served as dean of the Torah Vodaath yeshiva in New York, and years later he moved to Monsey, where the Torah Vodaath administration established an advanced yeshiva for older students. Author of Emet LeYaakov on the Talmud, Torah and more.

2 letters. One on aerogram. Varying size. Overall good condition. Stains and folding marks.