Letter on Behalf of the Zionist Organization to Philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg – Purchase of the Gray Hill ...

Letter on Behalf of the Zionist Organization to Philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg – Purchase of the Gray Hill Estate on Mount Scopus, for the Establishment of the Hebrew University – London, 1918 – Signed by Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow
A letter on behalf of the Zionist Organization, addressed to Zionist philanthropist Isaac Leib Goldberg (c/o his son-in-law Samuel Tolkowski). Printed on the official stationery of the London office of the Zionist Organization and hand-signed by Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow. London, February 1918. English.
"On behalf of the Zionist Organization we acknowledge to have received from Mr. S.[Samuel] Tolkowski on your behalf the sum of £2,100 […] as part of the purchase money of the property belonging to Sir Norman Hill […] We on behalf of the Zionist Organization […] waive any claims, personal or otherwise in respect of the property […] It is agreed that should you desire to sell the property you will give the Zionist Organization or their nominees the opportunity of purchasing the property".
Isaac Leib Goldberg (1860-1935) was a Zionist activist and philanthropist, delegate to the first Zionist Congress. He donated generously to the purchase of lands in Palestine, including large plots of land in Hadera, Sharona and Mount Scopus, where the future Hebrew University complex was to be built, and was the first publisher of the newspaper "HaAretz".
The contract concerning the sale of the estate of Lord Gray Hill, a British advocate from Liverpool and a supporter of Zionism, was signed in 1914; however, the outbreak of World War I interrupted the transaction. The purchase was completed only in 1918, after Jerusalem was conquered by the British. In July 1918, the cornerstone of the building of the Hebrew University was laid. In his speech at the opening ceremony of the University, in April 1925, Chaim Weizmann noted that the institution was established "on the land we received from the Russian Zionist Isaac Goldberg".
[1] leaf, 29.5 cm. Good condition. Fold lines. Creases and small tears to edges. Open tear to upper right corner (not affecting text).