Important letter written and signed by Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, Jerusalem [1985].
The letter deals with a young woman who studied in an Ulpana in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem, who desired to convert. Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik testifies that he knows her from when she lived in Zurich, and the rabbis of Zurich attempted to influence her not to convert, as they were concerned she would not manage to withstand the demands of Judaism [as appears in halacha: when a convert comes to convert, he should be influenced to remain a gentile], however, the rabbi testifies as to her true intentions “and we all have the impression that she is strong-willed and she is not acquainted with any Jewish young man for whom she wishes to convert” and he ascribes the refusal of the Zurich rabbis to convert her to the fact that they do not deal with conversions at all; for if they dealt with them, this young woman would be fitting for conversion. His signature is in the margin of the letter.
Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Mordechai Soloveitchik [1915-1995]: Born to Rabbi Yisrael Gershon, firstborn son of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk. He learned with Rabbi Baruch Ber of Kaminetz in his youth, travelled to Switzerland in 1938 following his friend Rabbi Aharon Yehudah Leib Shteinman in order to avoid being drafted to the Polish army. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he remained in Switzerland and never returned to Brisk, where his family stayed and was annihilated in the Holocaust. During the war, he was imprisoned together with Rabbi Aharon Yehudah Leib Shteinman for a year in a quarantine camp established by the Swiss government for foreign citizens and refugees, and worked for a time in a labor camp. After the war, he traveled to the Land of Israel and studied in the Lomza yeshiva in Petach Tikvah. He was close with the Chazon Ish and had a warm relationship with his uncle, the Brisker Rav. Afterwards, he returned to Switzerland where he headed the yeshiva in Lugano. He was one of the great influences on Swiss Jewry and among the Chareidi leaders in all of Europe for inculcating original Jewish values. Some of the lectures he gave on Psalms were published posthumously in German. He toiled to resolve the critiques of the Chazon Ish on the novellae of his father, Rabbeinu Chaim HaLevi on the Rambam, and he did not leave any critique unresolved.
[1] lined leaf. 20×13 cm. Fine condition.