“… drafting girls for national service is against our holy Torah …” Historic letter from all the rabbinic leaders against drafting girls, typewritten. Rabbi Steinman signed this letter. According to Rabbi Steinman’s sons, this is his first public signature! Important, rare historic (and current) document. This rare historic document was written at the height of the battle against “drafting girls” in 1953, when Rabbi Steinman was still a young avreich, under 40 years old. It constitutes evidence that already then, while he was yet young, Rabbi Steinman was already involved in the most important public affairs – or more precisely, the most important issue of all, both then and today, that of drafting girls. The following rabbinical leaders signed (in type) on the letter: Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer; Rabbi Eliezer Yehudah Finkel, rosh yeshivah of Mir; Rabbi Aryeh Levin; Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach; Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin; the “Da’at Sofer” of Pressburg; Rabbi Mendelson, rabbi of Komemiyut; Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank, rabbi of Jerusalem, and more. Elder Admo”rs who signed as well: (the Beit Yisrael of) Gur; Slonim; Spinka, and more. The letter was written while Rabbi Steinman held the position of Rosh Yeshivah of Chafetz Chaim in Kfar Saba, and the rest of the handwritten signatures are from rabbis of his yeshivah, and the rabbi of Warsaw. The gaon Rabbi Aharon Yehudah Lein Steinman [1914-2017] was one of the leaders of Chareidi Jewry and president of the Degel HaTorah movement’s Council of Torah Sages. He was the rosh yeshivah of Chafetz Chaim of Kfar Saba, rosh yeshivah of the junior branch of the Ponovezh yeshivah and leader of the Ponovezh kollel. After Rabbi Shach passed away in 2002, Rabbi Steinman was recognized as his heir and successor as leader of the Lithuanian (yeshivah) community alongside the adjudicator of the generation, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Jerusalem. Despite millions of dollars that passed through his hands, when he was – towards the end of his life – the patron of many Torah institutions, he himself lived in extreme modesty and asceticism in a small unpainted apartment with a Jewish Agency issue bed and unupholstered chairs. On the eve of Chanukah 2017, when he was 103 years old, he passed on to the next world. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral. 21×17 cm. Thin paper. Fine condition. Fold marks. Filing perforations.