Important letter written and signed by Rabbi Avraham Dov Kahana Shapira, Kovno, 1936, regarding the establishment of an international rabbinical council.
The letter was sent to the “Temporary Committee for Arranging an International Rabbinical Council,” which began operating in Tel Aviv. After apologizing for the late reply, ‘I was sick and laid up in bed, and I have not yet fully recovered,’ Rabbi Shapira writes: “In general, my opinion is known, and it would seem that I was the first to raise this, and as for the details, I cannot write at length right now …” He referred to his initial support for the establishment of an international rabbinical council.
At the time, attempts were being made to establish such an international body. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher was one of the leaders of the initiatives, and this letter seems to indicate that the author of Dvar Avraham supported its establishment. For various reasons, the council was never created.
Rabbi Avraham Dovber Kahana Shapira [1870-1943] was the rabbi of Kovno and author of Shu”t Dvar Avraham . He was among the most prominent rabbis in his time. He studied in the Volozhin yeshivah and was known as the “Prodigy of Kobryn.” He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Yeruchem Yehudah Leib Perlman – the “Gadol of Minsk.” In 1896, he was appointed rabbi of Smolavitch, where he authored both sections of his Dvar Avraham . The work was widely popular in the yeshivah worlds in Lithuania and Poland and, within a short time, its author was recognized as one of the leaders of all of European Jewry. In [1913], at the age of 43, he was appointed rabbi of Kovno, capital of Lithuania. For about thirty years, he was tirelessly involved in the communal needs of Lithuanian Jewry. Amongst other accomplishments, he was the founder of the Agudat HaRabbanim in Lithuania and its honorary president. He passed away in the Kovno ghetto in 1943, after a long, difficult illness.
[1] postcard. 10×14 cm. Fine condition. Fold mark along the length of the postcard. Light stains.