Letter from Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar – Chanukah 1961

Letter from Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar – Chanukah 1961
Letter signed by Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum Rabbi of Satmar. [United States?], Chanukah 1961.
Typewritten letter, with the rebbe's signature.
Acknowledgment and blessings to the philanthropist R. Yehuda Aryeh Leib Rapaport, for his donation of the Beit Rapaport building for Satmar institutions in the Katamon neighborhood, Jerusalem.
Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1887-1979), a leader of his generation, president of the Eida HaChareidit and leader of American Orthodox Jewry, one of the founding pillars of Chassidic Jewry after the Holocaust. Born in Sighet, he was the son of Rebbe Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the Kedushat Yom Tov, and grandson of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda, the Yitav Lev, who both served as rabbis of Sighet (Sighetu Marmației) and were leaders of Chassidic Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was renowned from his youth as a leading Torah scholar, for his perspicacity and intellectual capacities, as well as for his holiness and outstanding purity. After his marriage to the daughter of Rebbe Avraham Chaim Horowitz of Polaniec, he settled in Satmar and taught Torah and Chassidut to an elite group of disciples and followers. He served as rabbi of Irshava, Karoly (Carei; from 1925), and Satmar (Satu Mare; from 1934), managing in each of these places a large yeshiva and Chassidic court. He stood at the helm of faithful, uncompromising Orthodox Jewry in the Maramureș region. During the Holocaust, he was rescued through the famous Kastner Train, and after a journey through Bergen-Belsen, Switzerland and Eretz Israel, he reached the United States, where he established the largest Chassidic group in the world – Satmar Chassidut, until today the dominant faction in American Orthodox Jewry. He served as president of the Eida HaChareidit in Jerusalem. A leading opponent of Zionism and of the founding of the State of Israel, he zealously led crucial battles for the preservation of the unique character of the Jewish people and its holiness, fearful for the honor of the Torah and the future of faithful Jewry. He was renowned as an exceptionally charitable person; his door was open to the poor and his ear attentive to the needy from every stream of the Jewish people. An outstanding Torah scholar, he responded to many halachic queries, and his writings were published in dozens of books: VaYoel Moshe, Responsa Divrei Yoel, Divrei Yoel on the Torah and more.
[1] leaf, official stationery. Approx. 21 cm. Fair condition. Large marginal open tears on all edges of leaf, slightly affecting text.