Auction 8 Eretz Israel, settlement, anti-Semitism, Holocaust and She'erit Ha-Pleita, postcards and photographs, letters by rabbis and rebbes, Chabad, Judaica, and more
By DYNASTY
Nov 4, 2020
1 Abraham Ferrera, Jerusalem, Israel
The auction will take place on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 at 18:00 (Israel time).
The auction has ended

LOT 328:

Telegram - Encrypted telegram sent from "Shmuelevich" - The Gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevich, Shanghai 1943

Sold for: $300
Start price:
$ 250
Buyer's Premium: 22%
VAT: 17% On commission only

Telegram - Encrypted telegram sent from "Shmuelevich" - The Gaon Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevich, Shanghai 1943


An encrypted telegram sent from Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevich one of the heads of the Mir exile Yeshiva in Shanghai to the heads of the Rescue Committee in the United States with an urgent request for assistance from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and the Admor from Amshinov. Shanghai, February 2, 1943. Extremely rare!


In the winter of 1941, yeshivot refugees and their rabbis from Lithuania arrived to Shanghai, which was then under Japanese control. The emissaries of the "Rescue Committee", headed by Rabbi Eliezer Silver and Rabbi Avraham Kalmanovich, were in contact with the exile Yeshiva and regularly provided economic assistance, and necessary information to Japan. But with the United States joining the war, in Kislev 1942, ties between the United States and Japan were completely severed, and apparently the Rescue Committee had no way of continuing to assist the remaining refugees. Their situation worsened and they reached the brink of starvation, when on both sides of the barricade - both - Rabbi Shmuelevich, who took on the great responsibility and concern for the disciples, and the great rabbis of United States - trying to find a solution to the impossible situation. In those days, the heads of the "Rescue Committee" and Rabbi Shmuelevich (who was in Japan) took the risk and transferred all the money and information through Uruguay, which was still a neutral country, and then through Argentina. This dangerous mission was supervised by Rabbi Aharon Milevsky (Rabbi Aharon Milevsky, a disciple of the "grandfather" from Salvodka, emigrated to Uruguay before the war by order of the Kovna Rabbi, in order to serve as rabbi of the Jewish community in Montevideo).


All the documents and telegrams sent to Rabbi Milevsky - from Shanghai and the United States - were written in code, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the American censor. Rabbi Milevsky served as an emissary and decoder of the ciphers, and followed the instructions of Gdoley Yisrael in the encrypted telegrams that reached him. Some of the telegrams sent were signed by 'Shmuelevich' [Maran Hagara"ch Shmuelevich], and by 'Wolba' [The Gra"sh Wolba, who was in Sweden and Switzerland during the war] and more. In fact, the rabbis had no early way of explaining the ciphers and coordinating the 'codes' they used, and they had no choice but to rely on Rebbe Milevsky's wisdom and ability to decipher them.


The rabbis used every encrypted form imaginable to convey the message: Talmudic concepts, Yiddish-English, English-language phrases, as well as word combinations, foreign letters, Lithuanian pronunciation, and the use of family names intended for people directed to actions. The telegrams began to pass very frequently between the address in Shanghai, Montevideo and New York, well encrypted, some looking innocent, and some seeming really strange, and in retrospect it turned out that these telegrams played a central part in rescuing the exiled yeshiva students.


The telegram before us, sent on February 2, 1943, from 'Shmuelevich' [Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevich - Rosh Yeshivat Mir in Lithuania and Shanghai] and written in "capital letters" hints at the urgent assistance requested for students of Yeshivat Mir [MIRERYESHIVA] from the Admor of Amshinov [AMSHINOVER] And a request of 1000 ($?) From Rabbi Chabad in the code implied: KARLINSKIS CHABADELEF SHNEERSONS, and also hints at a certain approval that would come from Rabbi Zalman SOROTZKIN [SOROTZKINEN NECESSARY CONFIRMATION].


[2] p. Very good condition.