Auction 80 Part 1 Jewish and Israeli History, Culture and Art
Jun 29, 2021
8 Ramban St, Jerusalem., Israel

The auction has ended

LOT 233:

Collection of Letters and Paper Items from the Estate of Dov Yosef – Letters from the Israeli War of Independence ...


Start price:
$ 1,500
Buyer's Premium: 25%
VAT: 17% On commission only
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Collection of Letters and Paper Items from the Estate of Dov Yosef – Letters from the Israeli War of Independence, Sent to His family Members when He was the Governor of Besieged Jerusalem, Letters Sent to His son in the Jewish Brigade, Drafts of Election Speeches and More
Approx. 170 letters, telegrams and paper items, mostly handwritten, and some printed, documenting the public activity and personal life of Dov Yosef – the governor of Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence and a minister in the first government of the State of Israel. Jerusalem and elsewhere, ca. 1910s to 1960s. Hebrew and English (a few items in Yiddish).
Including:
• Approx. 30 letters sent by Yosef to his wife and son, Goldy and Amiram, during the years 1947-1948. These letters, written during the War of Independence when Yosef served as the military governor of Jerusalem, provide a personal and extraordinary record of this historic period. Although his written Hebrew was faulty, Yosef was very strict about writing to his son only in Hebrew. In a letter from 4.1.1948, Yosef writes: "The Old City is almost cut off, no one comes in or out, since the Arabs put a barrier at the Jaffa gate and the [British] government is afraid to remove it […] what a low point has the government reached! It is hard to describe – it continues its policy of not touching the Arabs". Later in the same letter, Yosef refers to the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre, carried out by members of the Irgun: "The worst case was in the refineries thanks to the nastiness of the Irgun, who threw a bomb in a mixed workplace […] our men [members of the Haganah] do not kill Arabs for nothing". In a letter from February 1948, there is an interesting reference to Chaim Weizmann's political approach: "You complain about Dr. Weizmann's speech – certainly he should not have praised England just now, but he is an old man and it is hard for him to forget the love of his youth", and in another letter from the same month, Yosef sharply addresses the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin: "Bevin knows very well what he wants […] he would like the Arabs to destroy us, and that's not an exaggeration". One of the bluntest letters in the collection was written after the USA declared it was withdrawing its support of the UN partition Plan (March 1948): "Indeed another blow. Another betrayal […] England is the dog and the USA its tail…".
• Fourteen letters sent by Yosef to his son and a letter sent by his son during the years 1943-1945, when the son served as a soldier in the Jewish Brigade. In one of the letters, Yosef refers to Ben-Gurion's resignation as chairman of the Jewish Agency: "We are immersed these days in a domestic crisis related to the resignation of Ben Gurion, who announced he cannot be held responsible anymore for the political action… he insists on his resignation and does not want to retract it". In another letter, sent on Amiram's 21st birthday, Yosef writes: "I always imagined you at this age sitting in the university and acquiring knowledge… I have no other comfort but that this war is coming to its end… each time I see the actions of our youth, my deep faith in the future of our nation grows stronger".
• Approximately forty telegrams of condolence sent to Yosef after his daughter, Lila Naomi, was killed on 9.10.1948 during the battles of the War of Independence (Lila was a soldier of the third battalion of the Yiftach Brigade and was killed in an Egyptian air raid).
• Three notes presumably handwritten by Ben-Gurion, with personal messages to Yosef: a note urging him not to quit the government; a note requesting his help in the elections in Jerusalem; and a note with a short message – "May your hands be strong! Do and succeed".
• Approximately thirty-five notes handwritten by Yosef, some presumably written as speech drafts after the establishment of the State of Israel, addressing various issues (democratic elections, the achievements of the Mapai party) and some as various reminders.
• Eighteen letters and paper items from the 1910s and 1920s, documenting Yosef's early years (some of them written on official stationery of the Canadian Red Cross).
• Additional items.
Dov (Bernard) Yosef (1899-1980), an attorney and minister of the Israeli government, born in Montreal. During World War I, he played a part in organizing the Canadian volunteers to the Jewish Legion and in 1921 immigrated to Palestine. In Palestine, he joined the Mapai party, becoming the legal advisor to the Jewish Agency and representing it before the two British commissions of inquiry that dealt with Palestine – the Peel Commission and the Woodhead Commission. After the outbreak of World War II, Yosef was appointed head of the Center for the Enlistment of the Yishuv, coordinating matters related to Jewish volunteers in the British army. On August 2, 1948, in the midst of the War of Independence, Yosef was appointed to the most important position of his career – military governor of Jerusalem. The city was delivered into his hands in the midst of the siege, with its fate pending, and Yosef saw it his duty to support the residents and strengthen the status of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
After the war he was appointed Minister of Rationing and Supply and led the policy of austerity. In the following years he held a number of senior positions: Minister of Justice, Minister of Health, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Transportation and other positions.
Enclosed are three large photographs: two photographs of Yosef at the convention for bringing Jewish refugees to Israel (New York, 1949); photograph of Dov Yosef and Ben-Gurion (captioned on verso in handwriting: "Midreshet Sdeh Boker – 1969").
Size and condition vary.