Auction 51
Lot 266:
Thank you letter on official letterhead, for the naggid Rabbi Avraham Mendelovitz, for his donation of $50 (a respectable sum at that time!) for wedding expenses, with no notice of date, signed by hand by the Admor of Papa, Rabbi Yosef Greenwald (author of the Vayechi Yosef), when he resided in New York.
He also blesses the recipient with shefa brachot and success.
[1] leaf, 21.5x28cm. Creases, overall good condition.
The donor, Rabbi Mendelovitz (? – 2005), was the son of Rabbi Mordechai, a student of Rabbi Wolff Kneller hy”d in Cluj, Belz chassidim in Munkatch, who stuck closely to the Admorim Rabbi Aharon of Belz and Rabbi Mordechai of Bielgoriya. Despite being destitute, he left in his will all of his possessions to the Belzer institutions under the influence of the Rahak of Bielgoriya, who guaranteed that much good would come of it. Miraculously, he passed away on the 26th of Cheshvan, the motzei yahrzeit of the Rahak of Bielgoriya—the Admor shlita of Belz went to his father’s grave just before sunset and then immediately went with the community to Rabbi Avraham Mendelovitz’s grave, adjacent, to pray kaddish and offer Psalms (told by Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach, Rabbi of Tiberias).
Admor Rabbi Yosef Greenwald of Papa (1903-1984) was the last rabbi of Papa, Hungary before the Shoah. He was the son of Rabbi Yaakov Yehezkiya Greenwald, son of Rabbi Moshe Greenwald the Arugas HaBosem. After his marriage he was appointed dayan in Satmar, where he served his uncle and rabbi, Rabbi Eliezer David Greenwald, the rabbi of the city. After his rabbi’s death he led the Keren L’David yeshiva there.
After his father’s death he succeeded him as rabbi of Papa, and after only 3 years he was exiled, while his wife and ten children were murdered in the Shoah, hy”d. After the war he rebuilt his community in the United States and today his son continues his legacy, having been born via his second marriage to the daughter of Rabbi Issachar Weber, the son-in-law of his uncle Rabbi David Avish of Paksh. He wrote the Vayechi Yosef, Vaya’an Yosef, and more.
Share this lot:
