Letter by the holy Admor Rabbi Meir Leifer of Cleveland, one of the first Admorim of the USA, addressed to Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Maimon – Brooklyn, 1937.
The letter discusses a book Rabbi Maimon was supposed to send to Rabbeinu. Rabbeinu ends his letter with a blessing for the New Year:
"יה"ר שתתחדש עלינו שנה טובה ומתוקה ובהרמת קרן ישראל ושנת גאולה וישועה ויאזין ה’ ויקשיב לקול תפלתנו ברחמים וברצון כנפשו היפה ונפש ידידו הדו"ש ושלום כל ב"ב היקרים"
21X28 8cm.
Fold lines. Good condition.
The Admor Rabbi Meir Leifer of Cleveland (1881-1941) son of Admor Rabbi Yissachar Ber of Satmar, son of the holy Admor Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna. Was named after his uncle Rabbi Meir of Premishlan. Married Esther Reizel, daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak of Olesk-Stanislav (the grandson of Rabbi Shalom of Belz), and after his marriage lived in Buchach.
During World War I, he moved to Budapest, where he opened a soup kitchen for the hundreds of Jewish refugees who stayed in the city. Since during the war he helped young Jewish men evade conscription and hid deserters in his home, the authorities put him on trial and he fled to America.
In 1922, he arrived in America and settled on the East Side, where he served as the Admor of Nadvorna. After a few months, the Jews of Cleveland – where there was a large concentration of Hungarian Jews – asked him to move to their city, and there they set up a Beit Midrash for him called Chevrat Shomrei Shabbat, and a residential home next to it. In Cleveland, Rabbi Meir was famed for his hospitality and used to host in his home Shadarim from Europe and Israel.
Rabbeinu was one of the first Admorim in the USA, when about two years after his arrival in the USA, his brother the Admor Rabbi Yosef Leifer of Pittsburgh also arrived.
