Collection of Letters – Rabbi Yisrael Livertovsky, Av Beit Din of Mosyr

Large collection of letters, handwritten and signed by Rabbi Yisrael Livertovsky Av Beit Din of Mosyr, (today Belarus), 1930-1934. The letters were sent to his nephews who lived in Tel Aviv. In the letters, he describes the obliteration of religious life in his city and region under the pursuit of the Bolshevik rule. "…We have no way to preserve the holy practices, since most of the villages do not have mikvaot and kosher meat", and the difficulty of obtaining a position without Shabbat desecration. In most of the letters, he writes of permits to make Aliya to Eretz Israel. In one letter he relates that he merited engaging his daughter to "Mr. Avraham Yehoshua Heshel son of Rabbi Moshe'le of Zin'kiv. My mechutenet Rebbetzin Feiga'le is the daughter of R' Motteli of Krychaw son of Her Moshe of Krychaw …and son-in-law of …the Magid of Trisk". He tells of the banishment of his mechutenet the Rebbetzin from Zin'kiv by the government. Three letters from other writers: · Letter from their relative: R' "Avraham son of R' Mohari". Khmelnytskyi, (Proskurov) 1935. · Letter from their relative Rabbi Baruch Rokeach. Kiev, 1934. · Letter from residents of Mosyr in which they recount a libel by "the evil mosrim (informers)" who informed the government about Rabbi Livertovsky that the money he received from abroad is not for his own use but for supporting the community. Mosyr, October 1935. Rabbi Yisrael Livertovsky (1874-after 1936), was an Apta and Chernobyl Chassid. Grandson of Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Złoczew and of the great Rabbi Liber of Berdychiv. He studied at the Navahrudak, Volozhin and Slabodka Yeshivot and was ordained to the rabbinate by the author of Aruch HaShulchan and by Kovno and Slabodka rabbis. In 1908, he was appointed rabbi of Aleksnitz (Volyně), and in 1910 he moved to Mosyr (in the Minsk region) to serve as rabbi of the Chassidic community succeeding his father-in-law, Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchak Av Beit Din of Mosyr, (grandson of Rabbi Ya'akov Yitzchak, the Chozeh of Lublin). After the rise of the Communist rule, he suffered from pursuit by the government like other rabbis, yet these letters portray that in spite of their malice, he succeeded in fulfilling a full Jewish life: communal prayer, transport of etrogim, baking matzot, Jewish marriage, etc. 18 letters, size and condition vary, good to fair-poor. 15 were written by Rabbi Livertovsky.