Letter from the Kollel Shomrei Chomot regarding the building of the “Ungarische Heiser” (Hungarian Homes in Jerusalem), signed by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld , Ga’avad and founder of the Eida Charedit, head of the Shomrei HaChomot Kollel.
In the letter addressed to the Av Beit Din of Freuenkirchen, who was also a member of the Kollel himself, the administration details the conditions for purchasing and dedicating a house in the Batei Ungarin neighborhood. As was the custom in all the kollels in Jerusalem, the purchase of the houses in the Ungarishe Heiser neighborhood was arranged in a unique way, in which for a certain number of years the apartment (or certain rights in the apartment) belonged to the donor of the house, and at the end of the agreed time the apartment would be transferred to the kollel authority in exchange for a list of rights that the donor would receive. “To give this, Meir, the right to reside in the home a talmid chacham, member of the Kollel, whoever the donor wishes during his lifetime, and after a long life the Kollel will own the property and can place a talmid chacham there based on a raffle.”
“After writing this letter, I thought to myself, that because the cost of the building increased and the cost of water and enjoyed it all”—late in the letter the Kollel suggests that, because it had been agreed that the donor would pay the building purchase agreement in instalments, while meanwhile, the price of building materials was steadily rising, the trustees thought that the benefactor might replace the house under construction and move into a house that has already been built and a donor has not yet been found for it "and this is something worth living because they have already been built and are ready for the apartment of the talmid chacham."
The letter is signed by: Maran Ga’avad Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, head of the Kollel; Rabbi Baruch Reuven HaLevi Jungreis—a founder of the Eida Charedit; Rabbi Yehiel David Deutsch—an administrator of the Kollel.
The letter’s recipient is Rabbi Moshe Shimon HaLevi, Av Beit Din of Freuenkirchen (1861-1940), a student of the Shevet Sofer of Pressburg. He married the daughter of Rabbi Issachar Beer Mentzer (Av Beit Din of Jaka), and upon his father-in-law’s death he was appointed Ga’avad there as his successor. A number of years later he was crowned in the community Freuenkirchen. As can be seen from this letter, he was one of the great supporters of the settlement of the Land of Israel, of the poor of the Land of Israel in general and Shomrei HaChomot Kollel in particular. At the end of his life he fulfilled his dream and moved to Israel, where he was buried soon after, in 1940. His divrei torah were printed in the series of books “Yismach Lev.”
Two leaves, official letterhead of the Shomrei HaChomot Kollel.
22.5×28.5cm. Creases, light defects in the margins, good condition.
