Auction No. 102
Holy books, Chassidut, Manuscripts, Rabbinical & Admors' letters, Eretz Yisrael & Zionism, Americana, Judiaca & Prof. Albert Einstein
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Siddur Divrei Tzadikim, contains the order of prayers for the entire year according to the congregations of Germany and Poland ... proofread and copied to English by me ... Yitzchak son of Uri son of Eliezer [Leeser]. Philadelphia, 1848. Rare prayer book.
Specifications: 242, 243, [1] page. 22 cm. Rosenbach 636, Goldman 37.
Content: First prayer book according to the Ashkenazic custom printed in the continent of America. With an additional English title page: The Book of Daily Prayers ... edited by Isaac Leeser. The English translation is on facing pages with parallel pagination. The prayer book was edited by Isaac Leeser, one of the leaders of American Jewry.
Unique Features: Rare prayer book, complete with the introduction and indexes. Typical binding. Ownership inscription.
Condition: Minimal stains. Very fine condition.
Siddur Siftei Tzadikim, the order of prayers for the entire year according to the Sephardic custom. Philadelphia, 1878.
Specifications: [1], 7 pages, 277 leaves, 279-285 pages, approximately 18 cm. Goldman 65.
Content: With an additional English title page: The Form of Prayers ... new edition ... edited and revised by Abraham de Sola.
The English translation is on facing pages with corresponding pagination. The prayer book was printed by David de Sola and Isaac Leeser.
Unique Features: New edition with additions by Rabbi Binyamin Artum, rabbi of the Sephardic community in England, printed by Avraham son of David de Sola from Montreal, with an introduction by him. Machzorim were also printed together with the Siddur, and on the title page before us: Part One.
Condition: Fine-very fine. Aging stains. Original binding.
Torah, Prophets and Writings, Seu Biblia Hebraica, a Bible proofread according to Johann Leusden, August Hahn ... Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim and Isaac Leeser. Philadelphia, 1849. The first vowelized Jewish Bible printed in America.
Specifications: XX [1] 1416 pages, 21 cm. Goldman 9. With an introduction by August Hahn in his lifetime. With an introduction in Latin by Isaac Leeser. Short dictionary printed on the last leaves.
Unique Features: Extraordinarily rare. Not in the National Library and not listed in the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book.
Condition: Very fine. Old, worn, semi-leather binding.
Yearbook in honor of the grade finishing the Jewish high school in Chicago, Ill. Chicago, 1929.
Specifications: 63 pages, paper. 25 cm.
Unique Features: The original works of 24 graduates of the second year of the "Jewish Academy" in Chicago, providing a glimpse into the inner world of Jewish Zionist students in America in the late 1930's. The works contain articles [such as: Antisemitism in America, Dr. Theodore Herzl, the Hebrew language], "Stories, poems and descriptions" and "Parperaot." Pictures of the graduating class are on page 6, the names of the graduates and a short description of their characters are on page 56, and information on the school and its activities is on page 57. The booklet is decorated with many illustrations and several photographs.
Condition: Fine. Aging stains, detached binding cover with a slight tear.
Long letter regarding the kollels in Jerusalem, by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Charif, the Chief Rabbi of New York, to Rabbi Shmuel Salant. New York, 1891.
Specifications: [3] pages, paper. 12x20 cm. The entire letter is in the handwriting and with the signature of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef. In the letter, he mentions Rabbi Yerucham Kanterovitz who was the chairman of Eretz HaKodesh in New York.
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, who was known ever since his days as a student in Volozhin by the name Rabbi Yaakov Charif due to his great sharpness, was born in the village of Kražiai in Lithuania in 1841, studied in Volozhin, from where he moved to Kovno, to the study hall of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter who built a close relationship with him and formed his mussar personality. He served as rabbi of several villages: Vilon, Yurburg and Zhager, and in 1883 was appointed as Maggid and head adjudicator of Vilna, one of the most respected positions in the rabbinic world of the time. He was a talented public speaker and many people came to hear his sermons, in which he quoted the mussar teachings of his teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. He printed his well known book of sermons in Vilna, L'Beit Yaakov, in 1888, and in the same year was appointed as Chief Rabbi of New York. He found that much work was needed to raise the level of Jewish observance in New York, and he established a yeshiva, made many decrees in the fields of ritual slaughter and kashrut, and at the end of his life established America's well known "Union of Orthodox Rabbis." He passed away in 1902 and was greatly honored after his death (Tnuat HaMussar part two pages 295-310). He was the first and last Chief Rabbi of the state of New York and no subsequent rabbi bore this honorable title.
Condition: Very fine.
Volume One of the Protocols: The State of Israel - Moetzet Ha'Am. Meetings 1-4 ... The Provisional State Council. Meetings 1-21. Tel Aviv, 1948.
Specifications: 8, 26, [2], 23, [1], 20, 35, [1], 48, 46, [2], 30, 16, 18, [2], 15, [1], 15, [1], 23, [1], 40, 43, [1], 28, 23, [1], 29, [3], 48, 32, 43, [1], 43, [1], 32 pages. Paper. 23 cm.
Unique Features: Fascinating primary historical documentation of the discussions in the Moetzet Ha'Am and the Provisional State Council of the new State (May 4, 1948-September 27, 1948), during which the challenges of the time are discussed - declaration of the establishment of the State, the War of Independence, the state of emergency in the country, the "Altalena" case and more - and the frameworks and principles of the governmental bodies are established: elections for the president of the State, the Order of Government Ordinance, the Courts Ordinance, discussions about the flag and the symbol of the State, transferring responsibility for education to the government and more.
Includes minutes of the special meeting which was convened the day after the Altalena tragedy, a tempestuous meeting in which Ben Gurion argued with several ministers, and the proposal to establish an investigatory committee to discuss the matter was dismissed.
Condition: Moderate-fine. Aging stains. Loose binding without a spine.
Map from the game "Tiyul B'Aretz." Map to help acquire knowledge of the Land of Israel, with the game's instruction booklet. Published by "Sifrut," B. Berlau. Tel Aviv, 1946.
Specifications: [1] Map from a game, paper. 47x67 cm.
[1] Instruction booklet: [6] leaves, paper and cover. 15x25 cm.
[1] Lid of the game box, paper. 19x26 cm.
Unique Features: The game "Tiyul B'Aretz" has six tracks to deepen familiarity with the Land of Israel. The game map is designed as a map of the Land of Israel, from Rosh HaNikra until Metula in the north, the eastern side of the Jordan and until south of the Dead Sea in the east. The map shows roads on different levels, the Hejaz railway tracks, mountains, ruins and springs, as well as Hebrew and Arab cities and settlements, orchards and more. Settlements with historical-political-moral importance at the time were emphasized with illustrations next to the name.
Binyamin Berlau [1894-1964], Israeli publisher, native of Warsaw, published children's books and developed educational games which were meant to impart national Zionist values to Israeli children. He opened the store "Sifrut" to sell books and stationary, and the games factory on the level above.
Condition: Moderate. Tears along the fold marks. Tear with lack in the center. Some of the leaves in the instruction booklet are detached from the cover.
![Kol Yaakov [Our Right to the Western Wall] Speech by Rabbi Dr. Avraham Yaakov Merik. Czernowitz, 1928](https://winners-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/sale_102-public/22.jpg)
Kol Yaakov [Our Right to the Western Wall]: Unser Recht auf die Klagemauer, by Rabbi Dr. Avraham Y. Merik. Czernowitz, 1928.
Specifications: 14 pages, paper. 12x19 cm. German with expressions quoted in Hebrew. Title in Hebrew and German.
Unique Features: The booklet quotes the rabbi's words from his speech on October 31, 1928. The background to his words was the British and Arab harassment of Jews praying at the Western Wall in those years. About a month before the speech was delivered, the "Kotel Affair" broke out: On Yom Kippur 1928, armed British policemen entered the area of the Western Wall, destroyed the screen which served as a partition between men and women, and removed the benches on which the worshippers sat. The Mufti Haj Amin incited against the Jews and intensified the situation. As a result of protests from the Jews in Israel and worldwide regarding the harrassment and the insult to the worshippers, the British established the "commission to determine the rights and claims under dispute of the Muslims and the Jews at the Western Wall." The British authorities eventually determined that the Western Wall alleyway belongs to the Arabs but that the Jews have the right to pray there.
Background: Rabbi Dr. Avraham Yaakov Mark [1884-1941], studied Torah with his grandfather, Rabbi Ephraim of Jagielnica and with Rabbi Mordechai Pohorila. He was ordained by Rabbi Binyamin Weiss, and served as Av Beit Din of Ustrzyki when he was only 20 years old. Served as the Chief Rabbi of Czernowitz and the Jews of Bucovina from 1926 onward. Active in Austria and Romania and well known throughout the Jewish world. He was murdered by the Nazis in the massacre of the Jews of Czernowitz.
Condition: Fine-very fine, a few stains, fold mark.
![Haggadat HaAtzmaut. Tel Aviv, [1952]. Retracted Edition](https://winners-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/sale_102-public/23.jpg)
Hagaddat HaAtzmaut by [Aharon Megged]. Tel Aviv, General Staff/Israeli Manpower Directorate, Education Corps, IDF. 1952. Retracted edition.
Specifications: [20] leaves, 20 cm.
Unique Features: Description of the War of Independence and the establishment of the State of Israel in the style of the Passover Haggada, for Independence Day. Written in a poetic, literary style. Many black and white photographs from the beginning of the state. One page features all IDF emblems.
The text of the haggada was created especially for Yom Ha'azmaut. The similarities to the original 'Passover Haggada' – not just in format, but also including the consumption of four cups of wine – created a piercing controversy within the young State. The religious community demanded that the Haggada be destroyed, and this edition was eventually retracted. Rare.
Condition: Very fine. Bound in an original, colored jacket binding. Part of the map on the back binding leaf has a small stain.
'Imrei Shefer': Poetry and song, for morals and lessons ... as a memory for my estate ... Meir She'en. At the end of the manuscript: Rosh HaShana Eve, 1914.
Specifications: 336, XXIV leaves, paper. 14X22 cm.
Unique Features: In the introduction, the author praises creativity in the Hebrew language, and criticizes those who wrote in inferior Hebrew and write Hebrew literature "Full of delusions, works of wooers and matters of darkness," he tells of his history and distress which brought him, at the advice of his friends, to collect all his writings into this work, and explains the reason for the name of the book.
Meir She'en, son of Yaakov Simcha and Mrs. Raizel, son-in-law of Rabbi "Wonderous Torani and rabbinic ... Rabbi Moshe Ungar, ztz"l." As arises from the book, the author was exposed to learning the Hebrew language and began to write poems and letters in it under the influence of youths who learned with him in yeshiva. He was an author, cantor and slaughterer many years in the service of his community. In his later years, after he was fired due to false claims and found no source of livelihood, he came almost to the point of having only a loaf of bread. Also, he still had a daughter left and was without means to marry her off. A picture appears before the title page.
Condition: Detached title page. Very fine condition.
The shocking controversy that shook the State of Israel in the 1950s has never been answered. Was Dr. Rudolf Israel Kastner a heroic rescuer of the Jews during the Holocaust or a Nazi collaborator?
This giant archive contains about 170 letters, documents, certificates and protocols that were given to Holocaust researcher Dov Dinur by Kastner's family. The documents are printed in a large variety of languages, including German, Hungarian, English, Hebrew and Yiddish. They document Kastner's activities during the time that he was a member of the "Va'ad Ezra V'Hatzalah" [Aid and Rescue Committee], when he tried to formulate an agreement with the Nazis that would liberate hundreds of Hungarian Jews and the Nuremberg Trials, towards the end of the Second World War when Kastner wrote reports regarding the activities of Nazi officers during the Holocaust.
Unique features: This archive features an early draft prepared by Dr. Kastner for a special report regarding the activities of the "Vaad HaEzra V'Hatzalah" in 1946. This is important testimony since it is the only report that Kastner gave during his role as president of the committee. The draft in this archive is significantly different from what was eventually published. 55 pages, typewritten, includes erasures and many handwritten comments and corrections.
The archive provides a glimpse into the early stages of the negotiations. Six documents from August, 1944 feature an early text of what he planned on showing the Germans, alongside five printed notes and leaves which reveal the source of the funding of the "Vaad Ezra V'Hatzalah," the amounts that were raised and additional details regarding the negotiations.
The chief murderer Adolf Eichmann is mentioned in the archive. This includes five reports that were authored by Kastner during July-August 1944, following his meetings with Eichmann, Kurt Becher (who Kastner later defended), Hermann Krumey and other senior Nazi leaders. A fascinating document in this huge archive features a letter of appreciation from Kurt Becher expressing his thanks for the testimony that Kastner gave during his trial, which led to his acquittal. After the praise and thanks, Becher asks Kastner - because of the trust they had in each other - for a monetary loan. Kastner was denounced and ostracized for this testimony that protected Becher from punishment. However Kastner's defenders claim that Becher deserved this help, because he helped Kastner liberate complete camps with Jews.
As mentioned, this archive is rich with valuable material from that dark era.
Kastner was murdered in Tel Aviv in the wake of the libel trial brought against journalist Malchiel Gruenwald who accused Kastner of collaborating with the Nazis. The regional court acquitted Gruenwald of most of the claims and determined that Kastner "sold his soul to the devil." However, in an appeal by the State of Israel to the Supreme Court, Kastner's name was cleared.
Condition: Overall moderate-fine. The archive is beautifully organized in two thick binders.
Fascinating archive containing over one hundred documents connected to the Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden, Hillel Storch, and documentation of the missions, activities and meetings which he held with the Nazi leadership in order to save Jews from the extermination camps.
Background: Hillel Storch, a Jewish businessman, was born in Latvia in 1902. From an early age he was an enthusiastic Zionist activist and was involved in the promotion of Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. When Latvia was occupied by the Soviets, he moved with his family to Sweden, where he became one of the most influential Jews in Sweden and was even appointed as Chairman of the World Jewish Congress in Sweden. He tried to help Jews in the occupied territories in any possible manner.
He organized shipment of food parcels to Jews in concentration camps in Germany, used his good relationship with the royal family to save Jews from the Nazis and even received a promise from Himmler that the concentration camps and all their inmates would not been blown up as the allied forces approached.
In 1945, he met with Himmler in Berlin, this meeting was the first and only one between Himmler and a Jew representing Jewish organizations. As a result of this meeting, thousands of women were freed from the Ravensbrück extermination camp in northern Germany and transferred to Sweden and to Switzerland, at least two thousand of whom were Jewish.
The "White Buses" Operation, also known as the "Bernadotte Operation" after its mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, was an operation to rescue prisoners from German extermination camps and transport them to Sweden. The operation was held in the spring of 1945 and got its name from the vehicles – buses, ambulances and trucks, which were all painted white and marked with a red cross for identification. During this operation more than 15,000 prisoners were rescued from extermination camps, among them many Jews.
General Specifications:
* Transcript of a report from Raoul Wallenberg, October 22, 1944, about the state of Hungarian Jewry.
* Typewritten letter, written by Felix Kersten to Storch on April 4,1945, in which he reports that Himmler agreed to transfer 450 Danish and Norwegian Jews from Theresienstadt to Neuengamme and from there to Sweden. The initials F.K. appear on the upper part, with handwritten corrections. In addition – a document in Yiddish from March 1, 1945, which might have been written by Storch, titled "Kersten," with the main points from a meeting between them.
* Three original carbon copies of letters which Storch sent to Felix Kersten in March-April 1945, regarding the meeting with Himmler. Two copies of an affidavit/report about Kersten and his relationship with Himmler; an affidavit in Swedish "about my relationship with Felix Kersten;" a four-page long letter from Baron Van Nagell, the Dutch ambassador in Sweden in 1949; a 26-page document with English translations of documents related to Felix Kersten and his humanitarian work during the Nazi period. Typewritten, with minimal corrections in pen.
* Feststellungen, die im Zuge derBefreiungsaktionen von Schutzhäftlingen aus deutschen Konzentrationslagern getroffen wurden.
* Affidavit signed by Franz Goering – the SS officer who was appointed by Walter Schellenberg, Himmler’s assistant, as a liaison officer for the “White Buses” operation.
* Nine-page affidavit about the operation to transfer 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt to Switzerland. Each page is signed by Goering on the bottom in initials; the document is signed at the end by Goering with his complete signature. On page 2, three lines were added by Goering, by hand. The affidavit was signed in Storch's office. Enclosed is an additional copy, as well as an additional document titled “some comments about the people’s outrage regarding November 8, 1938 (Kristallnacht)” [Einige Notizen über die sogenannte volks empörung am 8. November 1938]. This document is not signed but Goering’s name is written at the end, in pencil.
* Letter handwritten by Norbert Masur to Hillel Storch; written on Masur’s official letterhead, dated 18.7 (no year).
* 67 negatives of photographs portraying the “White Buses” operation. Among the photographs – concentration camps survivors, rescue teams, ships that served to transfer survivors to Sweden.
* Carbon copy of a letter to Walter Schellenberg, Himmler's assistant, from June 1945 (one month after the German surrender), with a series of questions – about Eichmann, Rudolf Kastner, Bergen-Belsen's Jews, and more. In addition – transcript of a letter from Schellenberg to Storch, two copies of a 96-page report in German written by Schellenberg in which he outlines mainly the events of April-May 1945.
* Transcript of a telegram from Storch to the heads of the World Jewish Congress in New-York, in which he informs them that he confirmed with Kersten that he will come to Germany and meet with Himmler. March 31, 1945.
* Letter from the prime minister of Sweden, Tage Erlander, from 1951. Typewritten on official stationery of the prime minister, signed in pen.
* 18 original documents and some photocopies of documents, related to Storch's early years. An invitation to Storch's wedding, 1937; copy of a letter that Storch wrote to his wife in 1940.
* Approximately 80 interesting letters connected to Storch's life in Sweden and more.
Condition: Fine overall condition. In two binders.