Letter by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel – Requesting Assistance for the Mir Yeshiva During the Holocaust

Interesting letter by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, head of Mir Yeshiva. [Lithuania], Iyar 1940. Sent to Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman who then served as Av Beit Din of Liverpool (England), with a request for help in saving and supporting the yeshiva during the difficult war years. Rabbi Finkel writes: "And now our hearts and souls are distressed at the terrible material state of the yeshiva. On the one hand, we see are yeshiva in all its holy glory, the wonderful diligence, from the joy of Torah growth, the countenances of the yeshiva students do not show the great upheavals they have experienced during the war and the suffering at present, but our hearts are full of fear for tomorrow…". With the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Chaim Ozer instructed all the yeshivot in Lithuania to come to Vilna which was at that time under the temporary government of independent Lithuania. In the autumn of 1939, at the eruption of World War II, the Mir Yeshiva fled to Vilna and following the Russian occupation in the spring of 1940, it relocated to Kėdainiai in Northern-Lithuania. It then branched into four surrounding villages: Krekenava, Šėta, Kriukai and Ramygala. With the advance of the German occupation, the yeshiva was miraculously saved in a journey on the trans-Siberia train and in dilapidated ships to Kobe, Japan and from there to Shanghai, China. The yeshiva stayed in Shanghai for six years led by the mashgiach Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein and the Rosh Metivta Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz while the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel reached Jerusalem and re-established the Mir Yeshiva without being able to bring his students with him to Jerusalem. Official stationery, 28 cm. Good condition. Light tears to margins and stains. Typewritten and signed by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel.