Letter of Allepo Sages in Buenos Aires to Rabbi Hayim Ozer

Letter of Allepo Sages in Buenos Aires to Rabbi Hayim Ozer
Original copy of letter sent in 1928 from Rabbi Ya'akov Avraham Sitehon, of the Rabbis of the Allepo (Aram Tzova) congregation in Argentina to Rabbi Hayim Ozer Grodzansky in Vilna. In the letter the writers detail an argument between the congregation's rabbis regarding the children's education in Hevrat Talmud Torah "Yesodei Ha-Dat". They ask Rabbi Hayim Ozer to rule between them.
A very important document on the history of the Allepo community in Argentina and the history of Jewish education in Aram Tzova.
The argument is on whether to keep the old method which was used in Syria of studying the Torah and its cantillations in ways of repetition or use a new method of studying through understanding, and teaching Hebrew in Hebrew, as taught in the Sefaradi Talmud Torahs in Jerusalem, under Agudat Israel, and by the teachers sent from Jerusalem.
The senders also attached to their letter a copy of the poignant letter by Rabbi Shaul David Sitehon, Chief Rabbi of Buenos Aires, in which he states he disapproves of changing the teaching method.
4 leaves typewritten on carbon paper. 28.5 cm. Fair condition. Thin paper with moth damage, loss and tears to margins, professionally restored.
Rabbi Shaul David Sitehon, author of Responsa "Dvar Shaul" (Jerusalem, 1929). Born 1851 in Aram Tzova. Arrived in Argentina in 1912. Passed away 1930. His conservative attitudes and rulings forbidding conversion to Judaism in Argentina and avoiding accepting any converts to the community kept the Allepo congregation from the assimilation which affected all other Jewish communities in Argentina.
For more on this argument see additional materials.