Letter handwritten by Meir Dizengoff – Request for a Place of Refuge in the Galilee in the Wake of the Expulsion ...

Letter handwritten by Meir Dizengoff – Request for a Place of Refuge in the Galilee in the Wake of the Expulsion from Tel Aviv during World War I, April 1917
Letter handwritten and signed by Meir Dizengoff, head of the "Tel Aviv [City] Council" and head of the "Emigration Council," addressed to Haim Margalit Kalvarisky. Petah Tikvah, April 14, 1917.
This letter appears to have been hastily and urgently written. It was delivered eight days after the designated expulsion date for the residents of Tel Aviv, namely Passover Eve, April 6, 1917 – at a time when Dizengoff was staying in Petah Tikvah – and while, as appointed head of the "Emigration Council" of the residents of Tel Aviv, he was searching for solutions for the thousands of exiles expelled from Tel Aviv. Among other things, he ensured that volunteers from the Northern and Galilean colonies would arrive with their carts to pick up the exiled Tel Avivians.
This letter attests to Dizengoff's dedication to the tasks laid out by the Emigration Council and his intention "to stay till the last moment" in the Coastal Region: "Busy and very troubled [as I am] with the issues of emigration, I hereby come to you with a request: I must stay till the last moment, [and] I do not know when [that moment] will arrive. Please prepare for me a room or two with a kitchen in R.P. [Rosh Pinah] or in Safed so that I may settle there with my wife when the time comes. I need not elaborate and add how immensely grateful we shall be to you if you do your best to take us into your settlements and prepare for us a place of refuge."
The letter is addressed to the agronomist Haim Margalit Kalvarisky, who was the representative of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), responsible for Jewish settlement in the Galilee.
Half sheet, 21X13.5 cm. Good condition. Punch holes. Fold lines.