Auction 43
Lot 129:
Typewritten letter on official letterhead of the Chabad Kollel, from 20th of Tammuz 1942. Addressed to Rabbi Yosef Shmotkin, in which he asks him to send forms of the “Mifal Sefer Torah for receiving the Pnei Mashiach” which were printed according to the instructions of the Rayatz… “with assurance that our friend shlita will answer our request, we hereby express our thanks in advance … with the writing of a sefer torah for receiving Pnei Mashiach by the Admor shlita of Lubavitch.” Signed by hand by Rabbi “Yitzhak Avigdor Orenstein.. 21.5×27.5cm, stains, folding creases, overall good condition.
Rabbi Yitzhak Avigdor Orenstein (1894-1948) was the son of Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib. He was the first Kotel rabbi, a defender of the Jewish Quarter and among those who died serving it. He was born in Jerusalem, a descendent of the Rivlin and Orenstein families, who were pillars of the Ashkenazi community in Israel at the beginning of the 19th century. He was close to the Rayatz. In the 1930s he began to help run the Chabad Kollel, the 5th generation of his family. In 1938 he was appointed by the Rayatz to run it alone. He cared for hundreds of poor Chabad families in Israel, he founded also Midrash Shmuel named after the Rashab, led by the Rayatz but which he managed as well, alongside Rabbi Alexander Yudaisin and Rabbi Yitzhak Na’eh, until it closed in 1948. He was active in supporting settlement, he edited the Dvir journal, and founded the World Psalms organization.
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