The British Are Fighting Against the Defenders of the Jewish Quarter - A Desperate Letter from the Rabbis of the ...

The British Are Fighting Against the Defenders of the Jewish Quarter - A Desperate Letter from the Rabbis of the Jewish Quarter with their Handwritten Signatures, to the Rishon L'Zion Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel - Adar 1948 - A Historical Letter
A letter from April 4 1948, in which the Rabbis of the Old City call on the Rishon L'Zion Rabbi Ben Zion Meir Chai Uziel to save the Jews of the Jewish Quarter. "The lives of the residents of the Old City are in real danger, in the last nights the British soldiers bombed the Jewish Quarter, and also damaged the synagogues". The Rabbis describe the panic and fear amongst the residents, and note that the last nights were "nightmares, we thought that we are all going to be murdered G-d forbid". This letter is additional historical proof of the self-sacrifice of those who chose to remain in the besieged city and to fight for it.
From the letter we learn a fact which is not well-known, that in addition to the fear from the Jordanians, the residents of the Jewish Quarter were afraid of the British, who ceaselessly bombed their houses, "with no concrete reason and justification", and the residents of the Jewish Quarter had no choice other than to abandon all of their possessions and to escape in order to save their lives. It is widely known that the British were at the head of the Arab Legion in the War of Independence, but from this letter we see that the British took an active role in the fighting in the Jewish Quarter, which caused its fall. Refer also to the next item regarding this topic.
However, until the very last minute the residents of the Jewish Quarter did not despair, and they tried various ways to reach a ceasefire - amongst others by approaching Rabbi Uziel in the letter before us. An additional area of their activity, which is also described in the letter, is a meeting which they held with the commander of the British army in the Old City, who gave a "festive promise" to restore calm to the area. However, the Rabbis write that they do not trust this promise, therefore they are asking Rabbi Uziel to help them.
Much has taken place since the British promised to establish a national home for the Jewish People in the Land of Israel…
The Rabbis who signed the letter are: Rabbi Yisrael Ze'ev Mintzberg, Rabbi Ben Zion Chazan (the founder of the "Porat Yosef" Yeshiva in the Old City), Rabbi Shalom Azulai (Dayan of the Western Community) and the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Yitzchak Avigdor Orenstein, the entire letter is in his handwriting.
Rabbi Orenstein, who was appointed as the Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall in 1930, insisted on returning to the Old City when the siege began, even though he was then in the New City, outside the walls and outside the siege. Due to special efforts of Yitzchak Ben Zvi and Rabbi Herzog, he was brought back inside the walls. When he was asked why he put himself in danger, he answered: "If it is decreed on someone to be offered up as a sacrifice for the holiness of the ancient city of Jerusalem and its holy sites, then I am obligated to do so more than anyone else". Rabbi Orenstein was killed together with his wife, Rebbetzin Mushka Liba, in a bombardment on May 23 1948, about a month after signing this letter, and was buried in the mass grave which he himself established within the borders of the Old City. Later, following the re-capture of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, the graves were transferred to the Mount of Olives.

Rabbi Yisrael Ze'ev (Velvel) Mintzberg was the Rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, until its fall in 1948. He served as the Av Beit Din of the Chassidim in Jerusalem. Author of the responsa "She'erit Yosef" on various matters, especially regarding the laws of the Land of Israel, and additional books. More of his writings were lost when the Old City was captured by the Jordanians.
(The Rabbis of the Old City wrote four identical letters which were sent to Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Herzog, to the Religious Council, the Jewish Agency, and the letter before us to Rabbi Uziel. One of the letters was published in the book "Gevilei Esh", published by the Ministry of Defense, 1952).
At the bottom of the letter Rabbi Uziel wrote the date the letter was received.

Condition: Very Good. Filing holes.